Bloom Science, Inc., a California-based clinical-stage, central nervous system (CNS) company focused on discovering and developing breakthrough therapeutics that target the Gut-Brain Axis, announced on Wednesday that it has named Dr Grace E Colon as the new chair of its board of directors, effectively immediately.

The company said that Dr Colón will lend her business, scientific, clinical and operational expertise towards helping Bloom Science in a stage of research and development of new diagnostics and transformative medicines for patients with complex neurological disorders.

Dr Colon has more than 25 years of experience in biopharma, genomics, diagnostics, healthcare, industrial microbiology/biotechnology, synthetic biology, venture capital, management consulting, and entrepreneurship. She has served as CEO and president of InCarda Therapeutics and serves on the boards of CareDx, Voyager Therapeutics, the MIT Corporation (MIT's Board of Trustees) and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO). She is also executive chair (formerly CEO) of ProterixBio and has held senior executive roles at Intrexon Corporation, Gilead Sciences, and Affymetrix. She has worked as a partner at New Science Ventures and served on the boards of Paradigm Diagnostics, PerceptiMed and Cocoon Biotech and on the advisory board of the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University. She has also worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and as an engineer at Merck.