Following a lifelong curiosity in how to build nutritious and healthy food from (molecular) scratch, Patricia uses her skills as a scientist and engineer to help create a sustainable and nutritious global food system. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of Orbillion Bio, a cultivated meat startup based in Berkeley, CA. Patricia is also serving as an expert on the Protein Directory and on the Advisory Board of a plant-based food startup. Prior to Orbillion Bio, Patricia was consulting with several startups and helping them with Analytical and Process Development, worked as a Senior Scientist with Boehringer Ingelheim and did a postdoc in second generation biofuels research at the Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley. During her postdoc, she also co-founded an agriculture and food systems project (themilletproject.org). The Millet Project aimed at diversifying agriculture and our diet by cultivation and consumption of lesser-known grains such as millets.
Patricia holds an MSc in Technical Chemistry and a PhD in Biotechnology from the Graz University of Technology, Austria. During her career, Patricia has given several international talks, published 11 papers that have been cited over 400 times and was awarded several prizes, grants and scholarships. She has a track record in public speaking and scientific writing as well as organizing and hosting public outreach events.