Zak

Senior Scientist and Strain Engineer with over 13 years of expertise in Molecular Microbiology and a proven track record in bridging high-level R&D with commercial intellectual property strategy. Expert in microbial host engineering, metabolic pathway optimisation, and the expression and optimisation of therapeutic peptides and proteins. Experienced in aligning research roadmaps with corporate IP objectives, managing relationships with external patent lawyers, and providing technical counsel to Executive Leadership.

Senior Scientist / IP Manager at CHAIN Biotechnology (2017-09 – 2026-04)

• Strategic IP Management: Counselled on the alignment of technical and research activities with IP objectives; provided Executive Leadership with actionable insights regarding portfolio health, risk mitigation, and early-stage Freedom to Operate (FTO) screenings.
• Technical IP Liaison: Served as the primary technical expert for external patent counsel; drafted technical input for robust patent filings and managed complex responses to regional patent office actions.
• Strain Engineering & Synthetic Biology: Expanded the genetic toolkit for host organisms, including the development and optimisation of promoters, secretion tags, and reporters.
• Peptide Expression & Optimisation: Engineered diverse peptide and protein targets, utilising sequence analysis and codon optimisation to ensure stable, high-level expression and efficient secretion within Clostridium hosts.
• Metabolic Engineering & Analysis: Executed complex metabolic engineering projects and subsequent chromatography-based analysis of product profiles using Chromeleon; conducted anaerobic fermentations to validate strains.
• Supervision & Project Delivery: Served as technical lead for key research projects and acted as a supervisor to undergraduate placement students and PhD students on industrial placement, ensuring technical excellence and data integrity within eLABNext.

Post-Doctoral Researcher at University of Nottingham (2016-11 – 2017-08)

• Micro-fermenter Development: Led the development of a micro-fermenter system to analyse growth and metabolic characteristics across an extensive Clostridium culture collection, significantly improving data throughput.
• Genetic Tool Development: Contributed towards the development of new genetic tools to expand the range of genetically manipulatable Clostridium species.

PhD in Molecular Microbiology – University of Nottingham (2012-10 – 2016-10)

BSc (Hons) in Microbiology – University of Surrey (2009-09 – 2012-07)