Peak Proteins Welcomes Dr Mark Elvin
Peak Proteins welcomes Dr Mark Elvin who joins the team as a Cell Culture Principal Scientist.
Mark studied for a BSc in Microbial Sciences at the University of Huddersfield, UK, before going on to complete his PhD at the same University. His thesis title was “Production and Structure of Exopolysaccharides from Thermophilic Lactic Acid Bacteria”. Mark’s PhD was a multi-partner EU project that led to production development changes for industrial partners.
Mark stayed at the University of Huddersfield as a part-time lecturer teaching undergraduate modules on the pathways of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Microbiology and then as a Postdoctoral Associate before joining the University of Manchester. For the past 18 years, Mark has worked at this University as a Postdoctoral Associate and a Senior Postdoctoral Associate on a wide variety of projects, initially using C. elegans as a model system to study the effects of genetic variation on cancer signalling pathways.
Mark worked on several BBSRC projects including “Metabolomics profiling of CHO cells to increase recombinant protein production”, “The structure-function relationships of prFMN enzymes in E. coli” and investigating the role of VVD in light and clock signal transduction pathways with the aim of furthering the knowledge of the circadian clock of Neurospora crassa, and applying it to circadian systems of higher organisms. Latterly he worked on two INNOVATE UK research projects “Validation of a novel preclinical development platform to enable high value therapeutic co-formulations” and “Novel screening approach for developing new stable biotherapeutic formulations”.
Mark also worked on a Life Sciences Innovation Fund project (in collaboration with Absynth Biologics) “Bioinformatics approach to identify optimised genetic constructs of difficult-to-express, essential bacterial proteins” and an ERA-IB research grant “Investigating Novel Valuable Biotherapeutics and Expression systems”.
Mark lives in Huddersfield and has been married to his wife Nicola for over 15 years. Two boys, aged 11 and 9, keep him busy with time spent taking them to various activities such as rugby union/rugby league, swimming, or cubs/scouts. Over the past few years Mark has become a keen swimmer. Every day before work he can be found in the local pool swimming up and down. If he has any free time left on the weekend, he can usually be found on his mountain bike roaming the hills of Huddersfield (and for anyone who doesn’t know Huddersfield – it is very hilly)!!
Mark commented, “I am looking forward to joining the well-respected and established team of cell and protein scientists at Peak Proteins and look forward to the challenge of working in an expanding, dynamic contract research organisation. Joining Peak Proteins at this stage in my career gives me a great opportunity to showcase my skills and experience to help drive the vision of the company forward”.
Mark Abbott, Founder and Chief Executive Officer added, “It is great to have Mark join us. He is an excellent addition to the company and will be managing the growing team of cell scientists. Having the same name as me makes for an interesting challenge. The team is enjoying coming up with differentiating identifiers for the two of us!”.
