David Keating | Source | Senior Director Open Innovation Partnerships at Synata Bio

David Keating is Senior Director Open Innovation Partnerships for Synata Bio, which helps organizations unlock value in carbon emissions and fuel the transition to circular products. An exceptional leader with over 20 years of experience in commercially producing bio-based fuels and chemicals, Keating has a demonstrated talent for developing skilled employees and assembling highly productive research teams. He is an experienced communicator adept at describing complex concepts to diverse audiences.

Keating has a deep knowledge of microbial strain development, including bacterial and fungal physiology, metabolic engineering and the use of these methods to facilitate industrial strain and process improvement. He is experienced in all aspects of fermentation and downstream processing. Keating is an expert in biotechnology intellectual property protection in the United States, India, Southeast Asia and China. He is also skilled in technology transfer between R&D and production facilities.

Keating was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, and graduated with a Ph.D in Microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and post-doctoral research at Stanford University. After leaving Stanford, he spent 6 years in academia as an Assistant Professor at Loyola University Chicago before leaving for more applied research in the area of synthetic biology. Keating worked at Dupont-Genencor in California on engineering the production of isoprene, and then moved to a scientist position at the Department of Energy-funded Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, where he worked on the conversion of lignocellulose (biomass) to biofuels. After 5 years, he left that position for a Senior Scientist job at Coskata, which has since transitioned to Synata Bio.