FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Leila Strickland, PhD, 108Labs, LLC
Email: leila@108labs.io
Date: October 27, 2025
108Labs announces dismissal of its organizer and plans to dissolve
Hillsborough, NC - 108Labs LLC has terminated its association with former officer and entity organizer, Shayne Guiliano, and now plans to dissolve by the end of the year. These moves are necessary since it recently came to light that Guiliano has acted outside of his authority since 2022, when he began a devastating campaign of litigation on the entity’s behalf, targeting his former spouse, Dr Leila Strickland. In the law suits, Guiliano alleges that Strickland had an obligation to assign intellectual property rights to 108Labs when she instead assigned them to another startup, BIOMILQ, which she co-founded in 2020. BIOMILQ filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in January after repeated attempts to resolve the dispute. Dr Strickland was recently made aware that according to the legal structure of 108Labs, Guiliano is not, and has never been, a legally recognized member of the organization and that he did not have the authority to take these actions. The stunning revelation now empowers and obligates Strickland to exercise her authority as the sole member of the member-managed LLC. She is working quickly to wrap up the entity’s affairs and dissolve the organization.
Dr Strickland is a cell biologist by training, and she formed 108Labs with Guiliano’s assistance in 2013 to explore opportunities in synthetic biology. From 2014 to 2016, she performed preliminary R&D in the self-funded lab. That work, as well as a project that she directed through a CDMO in 2019, lead to a provisional patent application related to mammary cell culture for milk production in January 2020, which named both Strickland and Guiliano as inventors.
Dr Strickland assigned her inventor’s rights in the provisional application to a new entity, BIOMILQ, which she co-founded with Michelle Egger in 2020 and subsequently raised a total of $24.5 million in venture capital investments to develop the technology. At that time, Dr Strickland separated from Guiliano amid conflict related to the disposition of the intellectual property. Guiliano later assigned his inventor’s rights in the provisional application to 108Labs, which he continued to operate as a pass-through for multiple other enterprises whose operations and funding status remain unclear.
With BIOMILQ funded, Dr. Strickland began growing her team, which reached a peak of 35 people and included a deep bench of expertise in cell line development and bioengineering. Dr. Strickland has no knowledge of Guiliano’s activity during this time beyond his public representation of 108Labs through a website and several press releases, which prompted cease and desist letters from BIOMILQ that were ignored by Guiliano.
In 2022, BIOMILQ filed claims against Guiliano in North Carolina Business Court alleging trade secrets violations when he entered Strickland’s home without her knowledge or permission and was witnessed by a family member unlawfully photographing a BIOMILQ notebook.
In vindictive retaliation for that lawsuit and the end of the couple’s marriage, Guiliano launched a firestorm of litigation both in his individual capacity and on behalf of 108Labs. The lawsuits falsely assert that Strickland had an obligation to assign her inventor’s rights to 108Labs and that her refusal to do so constituted a fiduciary violation that rendered Guiliano, a software developer with no relevant credentials, unable to raise capital for 108Labs. However, it is now clear that 108Labs was never Guiliano’s to make these claims.
BIOMILQ had offered 108Labs a percentage of its 2020 seed funding along with a license to develop the technology for the fields of use that Guiliano wanted to pursue in exchange for assignment of his inventor’s right in the provisional patent to BIOMILQ. “108Labs was unable to generate investment in its 7 years of existence. The first offer of external funding for 108Labs came from BIOMILQ. I believe that BIOMILQ made a fair offer that was in the best interest of everyone, but Guiliano rejected it,” says Strickland.
Dr. Strickland served as Chief Science Officer of BIOMILQ until 2023, when she assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer. As CEO, she sought again to bring the conflict with Guiliano to an end. Despite multiple attempts at mediation, no resolution was ever reached. BIOMILQ’s continued existence and growth was dependent on its ability to raise investment to capitalize its operation, and the liability created by the dispute with Guiliano prevented further investment. Unable to raise funding, Dr. Strickland had no choice but to bring BIOMILQ’s development to a halt, dismiss her team, and file for bankruptcy in January 2025. BIOMILQ’s assets, which include novel intellectual property and cell lines related to the biomanufacturing of human milk, are currently being liquidated.
In a dramatic development, Dr. Strickland learned last week that according to filings with the North Carolina Secretary of State she is the sole member of 108Labs and has exclusive legal authority to manage the entity’s affairs. It was Guiliano himself who set up the LLC as a member-managed organization in 2013, identifying Strickland as the member and himself as organizer. No amendment has ever been made to remove Strickland or appoint Guiliano as a member. The legal structure of the organization remains as it was at the time of formation.
“My ex husband has used the organization that we created together to shield himself from liability in his personal dispute with me, and he spent years attempting to extract exorbitant settlements that exceeded the total funding raised by BIOMILQ, making resolution impossible. This has been a hellish nightmare for me personally, and it has impacted many others. His actions cost me and my team our livelihoods and the groundbreaking science that we developed together since 2020, and he cost our investors almost $25 million. Since it was brought to my attention last week that I can stop the abuse by taking control of the organization, I am acting swiftly to resolve the mess created by Guiliano, who falsely represented his role and authority at 108Labs to me and many others.”
Dr. Strickland and 108Labs are now jointly represented by the civil litigation attorney Jamie Paulen, who says “It is my privilege to represent the brilliant Dr. Strickland in her pursuit to reclaim what is rightfully hers and ensure justice is served.”
Images permitted for use
Dr Leila Strickland, 2025
Dr Leila Strickland, 2023, presenting BIOMILQ’s work at Collision
Bovine mammary cells cultured by Dr Strickland at 108Labs in 2014
Drawing from Dr Strickland’s 2020 patent describing the production of milk from cultured mammary cells
Human mammary cells cultured in a hollow fiber bioreactor at BIOMILQ in 2022