Jobs

'Very, very luckily for me, this project is going well'

Five questions with glycobiologist Vijayakanth Pagadala
Laurel Oldach
Aug. 13, 2021

Vijayakanth Pagadala was a postdoc in Jian Liu’s lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when he got an exciting opportunity: running the science at Liu’s startup, Glycan Therapeutics. He’s been there for five and a half years, working on in vitro production of a glycan drug that currently comes from animal sources. This interview has been condensed and edited.

Pagadala-Vijayakanth-445x477.jpg

Name: Vijayakanth Pagadala

Current position: Principal scientist, Glycan Therapeutics

Career path: Ph.D.: Rosalind Franklin University, 2009
Postdoctoral research: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 2009-2013; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2013-2015

Favorite molecule: Adenosine triphosphate synthase. “It is the most fascinating molecule.”

Glycan makes synthetic oligosaccharides. What are they useful for?

We’re trying to produce synthetic heparin. Heparin is the oldest and best known anticoagulant, a blood-thinner injectable that is purified from animal gut. It is made from cheap, easily available raw material, manufactured on a scale of tons. But there have been instances where contaminated heparin killed people. Also, 80% of global heparin comes from pigs, and swine flu is decimating the pig population, which risks the supply chain. Pharmacologically, the synthetic drug we are making is a single-molecule entity, whereas heparin is a mixture of approximately 30 different oligosaccharides.

Do you spend most of your time engineering heparin and heparin-producing enzymes?

I want to spend more time on engineering, but there are some financial and deliverable constraints that won’t let me. I am working on optimizing production: how to grow cells, how much protein we get out of each batch, how much starting material we can convert into product, how many rounds of synthesis we can do in a year and so on. I do some process engineering, some enzyme engineering and strain screening. In the near future, I hope that we’ll tie up with some bioprocessing giant where enzyme engineering and production is a push of a button.

What made you want to work at a startup?

A confluence of factors and being in the right place at the right time. I’m happy I made the choice to join a startup. Very, very luckily for me, this project is going well. Unfortunately, only one in 10 postdocs get a chance for an equitable share of the academic research pie. I think I will continue to be in entrepreneurship, because you can come out with real, life-changing products.

You’re the PI on a couple of Small Business Innovation Research grants. How do they compare to academic funding?

In a way, there is a simpler scientific goal in the SBIRs. But reproducibility, scalability and execution have to be 100% or else the product will fail. The emphasis is on execution and commercialization rather than proof of concept.

What skills have you needed to develop on the job?

People skills. You can work in relative isolation in a big lab. But in a small startup where you build everything from scratch, everybody in the team has to work with each other and wear multiple hats. Academics do wear a lot of hats, but, generally, people skills are less important in an academic lab. Also, a deep-seated can-fix-anything mentality is critical for navigating the demands of a job in a startup.

(Would you like to suggest an ASBMB member who works in industry for a Five Questions interview? Send an email to ASBMB Today.)

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition monthly and the digital edition weekly.

Learn more
Laurel Oldach

Laurel Oldach is a former science writer for the ASBMB.

Featured jobs

from the ASBMB career center

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in Industry

Industry highlights or most popular articles

FDA approves CRISPR–Cas9 therapy for sickle cell disease
News

FDA approves CRISPR–Cas9 therapy for sickle cell disease

Dec. 8, 2023

The gene editing treatment from Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics is the first of its kind

Funding opportunities to explore
Funding

Funding opportunities to explore

Nov. 28, 2023

Beyond the National Institutes of Health, a number of U.S. government agencies provided funding for basic scientific research.

Combining project management and people management in industry
Jobs

Combining project management and people management in industry

Sept. 1, 2023

Our industry careers columnist talked to Isha Dey, a cell biologist at Thermo Fisher Scientific, about her role as a scientist in industry.

Exploring careers in microscopy
Jobs

Exploring careers in microscopy

Aug. 22, 2023

During a mini-internships, Laura McCormick learned about working at a core facility and for a manufacturer.

Industry predoc offers space to ponder the next step
Essay

Industry predoc offers space to ponder the next step

Aug. 18, 2023

“I knew I needed time to decompress after my busy college life and before starting an even more demanding schedule in grad school," Anna Crysler writes.

Demystifying the gap
Essay

Demystifying the gap

Aug. 9, 2023

“The two sectors do not always connect or understand each other, resulting in fewer opportunities and resources for aspiring professionals,” Tian Yu writes.