Eniyan K

Result-driven and highly accomplished Biotechnology R&D Professional and industrial R&D Team Lead with over 5 years of post-PhD leadership experience spanning industrial biotech, pharma R&D, and premium academic settings. Proven track record leading 8-member cross-functional scientific teams across 6 concurrent project pipelines, driving proposal and grant writing, ensuring data integrity and regulatory/GxP compliance, overseeing full-scale laboratory operations and vendor/budget management, and executing complex projects within strict timelines and budgets. Deep technical expertise in recombinant DNA technology, protein expression, and chromatographic purification techniques, combined with excellent stakeholder and client management capabilities.

Team Lead at Rhogenites Biotech India Private Limited (2021-01 – Present)

• Directly lead, mentor, and manage an 8-member cross-functional scientific R&D team across 6 concurrent project pipelines. Drive daily operations, enhance experimental and soft skills of team members through structured training and performance coaching, and chair weekly lab meetings (48+ sessions/year) to review project data, KPIs, and strategy.
• Enforce top-tier compliance by training all 8 team members on strict data integrity protocols and contemporaneous LNB recording, developing and standardizing 20+ SOPs to streamline documentation across the team.
• Established a state-of-the-art laboratory facility from scratch within the first 6 months, including full vendor negotiation, procurement, and setup of core instrumentation (CAPEX) for Molecular Cloning & Expression, Cell Culture, and Bioinformatics. Oversee daily laboratory operations, including equipment/chemical inventory management and resource allocation across 3+ concurrent projects.
• Drive 3+ therapeutic pipelines forward by monitoring timelines, tracking budgets, and managing accounts. Independently authored and submitted multiple competitive grant proposals, securing continuous funding for the R&D program across 5+ years.
• Provide advanced scientific inputs, root-cause analysis, and cross-project troubleshooting support across all 3 concurrent pipelines and 8 team members, consistently ensuring deliverables are met within project timelines and quality standards.

Senior Postdoctoral Fellow at International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) (2021-01-08 – 2021-08-10)

Mentor: Dr. Navin Khanna

• Successfully cloned and expressed Dengue virus antigen proteins utilizing Pichia pastoris expression systems via pAO815 and pPICZα vectors.
• Generated and screened multi-copy integration clones to optimize recombinant protein yield.
• Assisted in high-resolution downstream purification workflows utilizing ÄKTA chromatography systems (Affinity/Ion-Exchange/Gel Filtration).

National Postdoctoral Fellow at Antibiotic Resistance and Phage Therapy Laboratory, VIT (2018-04-26 – 2020-10-25)

Mentor: Dr. N. Ramesh

• Independently conceptualized, wrote, and secured a prestigious project proposal approved and funded by DST-SERB with a total budget of ₹23 Lakhs.
• Successfully deployed CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) genetic editing frameworks to systematically knockdown, identify, and validate the division cell wall (dcw) operon as a viable novel drug target in Mycobacteria.
• Evaluated essential genes within the mycobacterial cell wall synthesis pathways to discover potential vulnerabilities for new antimicrobial intervention.
• Formally co-guided and mentored Ph.D. scholars, as well as M.Sc. students, managing their laboratory training, project design, and thesis execution for internships and academic dissertations.

TATA CSIR OSDD Project Fellow / Project Assistant at Acharya Narendra Dev College (2010-01 – 2015-12)

• Contributed to crowd-sourcing repositories for drug targets of tuberculosis.

Ph.D. in Biomedical Science – University of Delhi (2011-01 – 2017-12)

Master of Science in Advanced Biochemistry – University of Madras (2007-01 – 2009-12)

Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry – Thiruvalluvar University (2004-01 – 2007-12)