About Kedar
About Kedar
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I am a seasoned biotechnology leader and scientist with over 20 years of experience in synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and microbial strain development. My expertise spans the full R&D lifecycle—from lab bench to executive leadership—and includes the creation of high-throughput DNA assembly workflows, strain improvement platforms, and the commercialization of novel bio-based products.
I’ve held key leadership and scientific roles at companies such as NovoNutrients (SVP), Zymergen (Sr. Director), ATUM (Senior Scientist), Amyris (Scientist), and Kosan Biosciences (Senior Research Associate). Over the years, I’ve built and led cross-functional teams of 60+ scientists, guided technology and IP strategy, and helped scale innovations from concept to product launch across Nutrition, Bio-industrials, Ag Bio, and Pharma sectors.
With a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and over 20 issued patents and peer-reviewed publications, I specialize in enabling biomanufacturing success through optimized workflows, engineered microbes, and end-to-end project execution.
Professional Summary
Key Accomplishments
SVP of Biology at NovoNutrients (2021–2025)
Established molecular biology and strain engineering infrastructure for customizing hydrogen oxidizing bacteria.
Developed production-ready strains and managed IP portfolio to support novel food and feed ingredient development.
Played a core executive role in fundraising, strategic partnerships, and execution of key collaborations and internal programs, leading to a successful $18M Series A round.
Senior Director, Genome Engineering at Zymergen (2015–2021)
Built and led a cross-functional Genome Engineering team of over 60 R&D scientists and operations staff.
Developed proprietary best-in-class DNA assembly and microbe engineering platforms for a large variety of industrially relevant microbes (bacteria, yeasts, filamentous fungi), resulting in significant IP generation.
Delivered external partnership programs and internal strain development projects for material innovation and fermentation products.
Senior Scientist, Biology at Atum (2013-2015)
Developed and launched new DNA assembly workflows, microbe engineering services and tools for genome editing in bacteria, yeasts and CHO cells.
Translated R&D to commercial offerings, working with ops, sales, and marketing teams.
Enabled several project successes for biotech, pharma, and academic customers.
Scientist, Biology at Amyris (2010-2013)
Pioneered a high-throughput automated DNA assembly and yeast strain engineering pipeline, significantly accelerating design-build-test-learn cycles to enable rapid product innovation and commercial launches for several core products.
PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, Advisor: James Swartz (2005-2010)
Simplified, streamlined and scaled up E. coli based cell free protein synthesis for various biotherapeutic applications
Developed non-natural amino acid incorporation and click chemistry bioconjugation methodologies to produce virus-like-particle vaccines
Evaluated antibody idiotype based fusion protein and bioconjugate lymphoma vaccines
This work led to 6 publications in peer reviewed journals, several patent filings, and the subsequent founding of Bullet Bio to further develop VLP based tumor idiotype vaccines for B cell lymphoma.
Senior Research Associate, New Technologies at Kosan Biosciences (2002–2005)
Developed a novel automated PCR-based de novo gene synthesis approach for 30+ kb PKS gene clusters.
Engineered E. coli and Streptomyces bacteria to produce modified polyketide drug candidates.
Work contributed to Kosan's acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Over 20 patents and publications in peer reviewed journals (click link or scroll down for complete list).
📧 Contact: kedar@patellicasolutions.com
Kedar's CV
KPatel CV Feb 2025.pdfKedar's Publications and Patents
KPatel Publications and Patents 2024.pdfPage updated
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