Evozyne Hires Chief Operating Officer to Scale Scientific Operations for Growth

Zach Serber, PhD, joins the Chicago-based biology engineering company to advance scientific and technical operations

CHICAGO, Oct. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Evozyne named Zach Serber as its chief operating officer, a newly created position charged with directing scientific operations for the fast-growing biology engineering company.

Evozyne was founded in 2020 by Paragon Biosciences to develop novel proteins for critical applications in therapeutics and sustainability. It is creating technology platforms for gene optimization, antibody discovery, gene editing, carbon capture and battery technology. In its first 18 months, Evozyne engineered proteins that significantly outperformed design specifications for customers including Takeda, with which it entered into a $400 million license agreement earlier this year.

Serber will focus on optimizing operations and infrastructure, which will expand Evozyne's capacity to accelerate product development and commercialization. He brings a deep understanding of Evozyne's core technology and a track record of success turning cutting-edge science into highly scalable workflows, said Evozyne CEO Jeff Aronin.

"With 20 years of experience as a leader in biotechnology, Zach is uniquely suited to this role. He has built world-class technology and gathered a variety of experiences that will help inform Evozyne's development as it begins to commercialize some of the most promising technology in this space," Aronin said.

Formerly the chief scientific officer and co-founder of Zymergen and director of biology at Amyris, Serber has extensive experience in industrial biotechnology. He holds numerous patents in biomolecular and microbial engineering. Serber received a PhD in biophysics from the University of California, San Francisco, an MSc in neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh, and earned his undergraduate degree in biophysics at Columbia University.

"Having devoted my career to advancing the bioeconomy, I believe that Evozyne's technology is a dramatic leap forward and will enable us to design biological systems as never before," Serber said. "What we're doing requires complex coordination of several deep, technical disciplines. Every prior experience prepared me for this challenge and I look forward to helping Evozyne materially improve life for millions of people and the planet."

Evozyne applies boundary-breaking biology that combines engineering and AI to develop transformative solutions in biotechnology and sustainability. Built by Paragon Biosciences, Evozyne created one of the most promising technologies to improve human life. By amplifying a protein's function based on the rules of nature, Evozyne addresses complex, high-impact problems. For more information, visit https://www.evozyne.com/.

Paragon Biosciences is a global life science leader that creates and builds innovative biology-based companies in three key areas: cell and gene therapy, adaptive biology and advanced biotechnology. Our portfolio companies use biology to accelerate scientific breakthroughs that solve some of society's most challenging problems. Learn more at https://www.paragonbiosci.com.

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SOURCE Evozyne, Inc.