SynGenSys, a biotechnology company that designs synthetic gene promoter systems to address critical biopharmaceutical production bottlenecks and enhance cell and gene therapy development, today announced the expansion of its senior commercial and scientific teams with the appointments of several department heads. These roles have been created as part of the Company’s continued growth, to support commercial scale and strengthen alignment between customer needs, product development, scientific positioning and external engagement.
Appointments include:
Dr Thilo Pohle, Head of Commercial Department
Thilo will lead SynGenSys’ commercial team, driving the commercialization and industry adoption of the Company’s synthetic promoter and signal peptide technologies. He will play a central role in external engagement, customer relations and product licensing. Thilo has extensive expertise in recombinant AAV and protein construction and promoter engineering. He is a named author on several related publications and has been named in several international patent applications. After completing his PhD at the University of Sheffield, he joined SynGenSys as a DNA Engineer and has since expanded his remit to play an increasingly important role in shaping the company’s commercial activities, partnerships and market positioning.
Dr. Molly Smith, Head of CHO Expression Technologies
Molly will lead the development and expansion of the Company’s CHO.SET® synthetic promoter offering, based on its expertise in mammalian expression systems, cell line engineering and synthetic promoter design. He holds a PhD in Biological Engineering from the University of Sheffield, focusing on vector engineering strategies to improve transient CHO expression systems.
Dr. Abayomi Johnson, Head of Cell and Gene Therapy Expression Technologies
Abayomi will lead the development of commercially viable expression technologies for cell and gene therapy applications. He has over a decade of experience in biopharmaceuticals, cell and gene therapy and biotechnology, and completed his MSc and PhD at the University of Sheffield, where he also spent three years as a postdoctoral research fellow developing synthetic mammalian promoters for gene therapy applications.
Dr. Cristina Alexandru-Crivac, Head of Bioinformatics and Data Science
Cristina will lead the development and expansion of SynGenSys’ computational platform and bioinformatics capabilities, driving the delivery of specific applications in silicon solutions to support technology development and customer programs. With a degree in Genetics and Microbiology, a PhD in Chemistry and years of postdoctoral research experience in Bioinformatics, he brings extensive expertise in computational genomics and cross-functional project delivery in the biopharmaceutical and cell and gene therapy fields.
These appointments come at a pivotal point for the Company and I am delighted to announce these new roles as we continue to grow and improve our offering. Our library with the CHO.SET promoter® is ready for market, while our cell and gene therapy pipeline, including tissue and cell type specific promoters and signal peptide opportunities for CAR-based approaches, continues to mature. Strengthening our commercial and technical teams ensures that these capabilities are effectively matched with the right customers and partners. At SynGenSys, we actively support growth within the team by offering genuine career development opportunities. Congratulations to Thilo, Yomi, Cristina and Molly on the dates they deserved.”
Dr Andrew Racher, Co-CEO, SynGenSys
