About us

Phenotypeca was founded in 2018 using technology from Chris Finnis and Professor Ed Louis to enable the manufacture of a new generation of recombinant protein therapeutics based on their industry-acknowledged leadership in rational yeast strain engineering and genomics.

The company’s groundbreaking QTL technology now makes it possible to customise a new generation of premium biosimilars in a way that exactly matches the commercial requirements of the marketplace, heralding a transformation of drug development and manufacturing.

In recognition of Phenotypeca’s innovations and practical achievements, which include enabling increased access to vaccines for low and middle income countries, the team has secured numerous contracts from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as well as several grants from Innovate UK and Vax-Hub. Meanwhile Phenotypeca’s list of commercial contracts continues to grow as the industry wakes up to the enormous potential and benefits of optimised recombinant protein manufacturing.

To meet that demand, the Phenotypeca team has expanded to over 20 staff, with a growing library of patented recombinant proteins that are available for licensing. We are also looking for new investors who share our vision, and new partners whose commercial ambitions match QTL technology’s proven and transformative potential.

Team

Board Of Directors

Patrick Florent

Chairman (Non-Executive)

Patrick is a seasoned Senior Executive with a broad and diverse experience in Industrial Operation, Enterprise Integration and Global Alliances at GSK Vaccines. Most recently, as Head of Global Strategic Partnership, Patrick was in charge of several strategic alliances in Japan, China, Singapore and Brazil and is a Board member of three joint ventures; the Japan Vaccines Company, Qualivax and Tian Yuan.

Simon Chalk

Non-Executive Director

Simon has over 20 years industry experience working with some of the world's biggest biopharmaceutical manufacturers. After obtaining an engineering degree, Simon became a management consultant in the biopharmaceutical manufacturing supply chain area. In 2002, Simon founded Biopharmaceutical Consulting, advising on facility startup projects. In 2009 he was a founder of BioPhorum, a leading industry collaboration group that he turned into a highly successful business, culminating in a private equity deal in 2018.

David Grinham

Non-Executive Director

David is a Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors and the RSA. He has held several executive and non-executive positions for international organisations, primarily in the Learning and Development, Higher Education and Assessment sectors. He is currently Chair of the Learning and Performance Institute International.

Leadership

Johnny Cordiner

CEO

Over 20 years of C-suite life sciences leadership. Johnny was formerly CEO and CFO of Lamellar Biomedical and also led the spin-out e-Therapeutics plc from Newcastle University and thereafter the raising of over $50 million of investment across 5 investment rounds including taking the company public. He is a chemistry and physics graduate, a chartered accountant with previous experience in IPO, M&A, product development, research projects, product commercialisation as well as patent strategy.

Dr Chris Finnis

Intellectual Property Director

PhD in Microbial Genetics from the University of Nottingham, MSc in Biochemical Engineering (UCL), Biotechnology BSc (Hons) from University of Leeds. 30-years industrial experience in yeast strain development for recombinant protein production. Royal Society Entrepreneur-in-Residence and inventor on multiple patents with a passion for bringing new products to the market.

Professor Ed Louis

Research and Development Director

Ed has a PhD in Genetics from The University of California at Berkeley, and a BSc in Biology and Mathematics from Clarkson University. He is experienced in yeast genetics, genomics, and evolution; was a key part of the yeast genome sequencing project; and is now developing tools for exploiting its natural genetic/phenotypic variation.

Ranjit Bhabra

Finance Director

Ranjit joins Phenotypeca as Finance Director with 36 years’ experience in financial, commercial and operational leadership with large multi-nationals and SMEs, across the globe. He is very experienced in scaling businesses within the engineering, software, project and services markets. He has driven a start-up business in the UK from circa £0.5m to over £50m over a 7-year period and has many years of experience in dealing with acquisitions, disposals and raising investment / finance.

Shahan Khan

CIO – Chief Information Officer

Shahan has over 15 years of industrial experience of building scalable cross-functional teams, developing and architecting high performance computing systems, Shahan joins Phenotypeca as a CIO. His interests include bioinformatics and industry 4.0. Shahan holds a M.Sc. in Software Engineering with special emphasis on Enterprise Software Architecture.

Commercial

Dawn Long

HR & Finance Manager

Dawn joins Phenotypeca as HR & Finance Manager. She has worked in several different industries holding various roles. Dawn brings a wealth of experience in Accounts, HR, Office Management and PA work. She thrives on helping and supporting people and is currently studying for her CIPD L5 in People Management.

Tom Rock

Business Development Analyst & Project Manager

Tom has a BSc in Business Management from the University of Lincoln and spent a year on an industrial placement at Phenotypeca in between his studies. Returning to Phenotypeca after the conclusion of his studies, Tom now supports and manages Phenotypeca’s Business Development activities alongside managing Phenotypeca’s internal and external customer projects.

Shaun Cahill

Business Research Analyst

Shaun joins Phenotypeca as a Business Research Analyst with a BSc in Neuroscience from the University of Nottingham. Having developed a keen interest for commercialisation in the life sciences, he is now using his biomedical background to strengthen the Business Analysis team in its more technical-oriented tasks. Shaun is also undergoing training in the field of IP to help safeguard Phenotypeca's technology and ensure its freedom to operate, with a long-term goal of expanding his capabilities in this domain.

Technical

Dr Diane Wilkinson

Fermentation Manager

Diane qualified with BSc (Hons) Microbiology (Leeds University), MPhil and Diploma Biochemical Engineering (UCL) and PhD Biochemical Engineering (UCL) Diane has over 25 years industrial fermentation experience within the biotechnology, biopharmaceutical and agricultural industries. She has a track record of delivering new product discovery, fermentation process improvements, scale-up/down and successful technology transfers, meeting client expectations globally.

Neil Dodsworth

Bioanalysis Science Manager

Neil joins Phenotypeca as a Bioanalysis Science Manager with over 30 years of industrial experience in the characterisation and quantitation of recombinant proteins using a variety of analytical techniques, supporting R&D through to technology transfer, manufacturing and commercial at Delta Biotechnology, Novozymes and Albumedix. He is experienced in cGMP, validation and customer support and has also worked within a CRO applying these techniques in the DMPK environment.

Dr Sarah Hewitt

Yeast Development Lead

Sarah joins Phenotypeca with expertise in yeast hybrid vigour and phenotypic diversity. She has a PhD in Genetics from The University of Manchester and a BSc in Cell and Molecular Biology with industrial training from Aston University. Sarah has previously worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Professor Simon Avery’s lab at the University of Nottingham and brings experience as a writer in the medical communications industry.

Dr Emanuele Kendrick

Senior Upstream Development Scientist

Emanuele holds a PhD in Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Bath and a BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Edinburgh. Emanuele has over 6 years of professional experience in yeast engineering and bioprocess development, including a postdoctoral project in recombinant protein production and second generation biofuel generation. His main role within the Strain Development team is to screen Phenotypeca’s diverse libraries for high production strains, and develop high-throughput assays for new target molecules.

Chris Anelli

Senior Fermentation Scientist

Chris joins as a senior research scientist with expertise in industrial fermentation. His experience of delivering production targets on tight timelines is one of the key strengths he brings to Phenotypeca. He has previously worked in pharmaceutical manufacture using E.coli and yeast at Cobra Biologics and Novozymes Biopharma UK, as well as supervising at Source Bioscience's covid testing laboratory during the pandemic.

Jack Davis

Senior Downstream Process Development Scientist

Jack joins Phenotypeca as a Research Scientist specialising in Downstream Process Development. With an MSc in Biotechnology and BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Lincoln, his work has focused on the purification and analysis of recombinant proteins. Jack has experience in the mechanics of molecular motors and the development of cancer diagnostic tests. He now focuses on developing purification workflows and expanding Phenotypeca's portfolio of analytical methods.

Dr Andrei Parker

Senior R&D Scientist

Andrei is a research scientist at Phenotypeca and has recently achieved a PhD in Genetics from the University of Leicester. Andrei's expertise is primarily in yeast genetics and synthetic biology which he utilises to design and construct novel strains and genetic constructs for Phenotypeca.

Dr Christian Gude

IP Analyst

Christian received his MSc. biochemistry degree from the Technical University of Munich. In 2021, he gained his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham for his research in synthetic biology. Christian is pursuing his goals of developing and protecting Phenotypeca’s innovative technologies in his role as IP Analyst, supporting both the R&D and business analysis teams in a multidisciplinary role.

Dr Charlotte Smith

Synthetic Biology Research Scientist

Charlotte joins Phenotypeca from the spider silk research group of Professor Sara Goodacre at the University of Nottingham. She recently completed her Industrial Biotechnology PhD after graduating with a first-class honours degree in Biology from the University of York. Her work at Dstl Porton Down and UCB Slough included VHH antibody research. Charlotte is trained in project management (PRINCE2 Agile).

Dr Yue Hu

KTP Associate – Computational Biologist

Dr. Yue Hu is a bioinformatician and data scientist. Yue has a degree in Mathematics and was awarded PhD in Genetics from the University of Leicester in the role of developing pipelines for high-throughput NGS studies and statistical modelling in quantitative genetics. Yue was Research Fellow in Bioinformatics at the University of Nottingham. Yue has expertise in quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis to dissect complex traits of yeast, working with Professor Ed Louis.

Keiran Gough

Laboratory Technician

Keiran joins Phenotypeca as the Laboratory Technician after studying Human Physiology at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has recently gained experience in coding and programming; he looks to further his career by looking into helping with lab automation and the challenges that come with it.

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