Ghent Metropolitan Area
I am passionate about Biotechnology and the production of next-gen therapeutics. I am currently engaged as a Principal Scientist CMC Host Creation and Upstream processing. In addition to managing day to day CMC activities within these skill teams, I am also involved in managing the CMC Nanobody development activities and tech transfer. From my academic experience, I have a strong background in Recombinant protein production (strain-engineering, expression optimization, protein purification and characterization), Molecular Biology and Glycobiology. I am a research professional with a strong drive to learn and integrate new technologies, always eager to take on new challenges.
Our team is focussed on engineering Pichia pastoris to develop new tools that allow the production of high value biomolecules. My personal project aims for maturing the N-glycosylation engineering technology in Pichia and move this towards therapeutic applications. In parallel, we are also developing the GlycoDelete-technology to generate novel glycoproteins. In addition, we engage projects in collaboration with academic partners and we perform research in collaboration with industry. Areas of expertise: Protein engineering Yeast Biotechnology Recombinant protein production Downstream processing N-glycosylation engineering (GlycoSwitch, GlycoDelete) Mammalian Cell culture In vivo work
My project encompasses N-glycosylation engineering of Pichia pastoris for the production of recombinant proteins with human-like N-glycans (i.e the Glycoswitch platform and beyond). We also develop new tools to obtain highly pure glycoforms of the respective recombinant molecules. The combination of both technologies allows to produce specific N-glycoforms of biomedically relevant cytokines.These are studied for their therapeutic potential in order to find new innovative approaches in the treatment of disease. In parallel to my doctoral work, I have successfully engaged several projects in collaboration with different partners in academia and industry, performing both consulting and contract research.