Mizzou Magazine: Origin Story

January, 2024

A biotech company founded by three MU alumni is dedicated to helping kill cancer cells through phage research. Without phages — viruses that infect bacteria — there would be no Cell Origins, a biotech LLC housed in the MU Life Science Business Incubator in Columbia. And without George Smith, who conducted the pioneering work on phages, earning the MU distinguished professor emeritus of biological science the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, phages would be little known, less understood and certainly not useful to humanity. It’s no coincidence that the company is based on the MU campus, the epicenter of phage research. All three of the founders of this women-owned company — CEO Leann Kuhlmann-Qi, MBA ’16; COO Jessica Newton-Northup, BS Ag ’00 and Chief Scientific Officer Mette Soendergaard, PhD ’14 — are Mizzou alumni.

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