MitoStem expands exec staff with new, veteran CEO

MitoStem is growing its executive ranks in an effort to grow the startup overall.

The TechTown-based firm, which is working on technology that turns regular cells into stem cells, recently hired a new CEO. Audrey Hutter formerly worked as a vice president at Aastrom Biosciences in Ann Arbor during the early 2000s. She will help MitoStem's team of three employees and four interns raise $1 million in angel investor funding this year.

"We need further investment to move onto the next step, which would include getting our products to market," says Jim Eliason, president & chief scientist for MitoStem.

MitoStem was spun out of Wayne State University in 2009. Its developing technology specializes in turning human adult cells into "pluripotent" cells that can be used to replace damaged tissue cells in that same individual. The startup won a $100,000 top prize at last year's Great Lakes Entrepreneurs Quest competition that money and the seed round it is raising will help the startup commercialize its technology over the next year.

"I would like to see us come out with a kit for this technology that can be sold globally," Eliason says.

Source: Jim Eliason, president & chief scientist for MitoStem
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.