The Team

Founder and Managing Director

Maciej is an Associate Professor in Applied BioSciences at Macquarie University with over a decade of experience pushing the boundaries of animal synthetic biology.

Maciej received his PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from Oregon State University in 2011 which focused on the development of antiviral therapeutics. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota he started working on novel methods for transgene biocontainment and genetic biocontrol of insect pests. He co-founded NovoClade Inc. in 2018 which is using his patented synthetic speciation technology as a pest control platform. Maciej then launched his independent research group in Australia in 2019 to pursue his vision of animal synthetic biology technologies that improve human and environmental health.

Maciej’s research has demonstrated that animals can be equipped with an array of capabilities to enable bioremediation, sustainable waste management, biomanufacturing, and conservation applications. His work has been published in leading journals and resulted in multiple patents. 

Founder and Chairman 

Evan is a highly accomplished Executive and Non-Executive Director with over 20 years of leadership experience across Australia and internationally. He has served in board roles across public, private, ASX, LSE, NFP, and charitable organisations, with more than 15 years of non-executive director experience.

Evan is currently the ANZ Managing Director of Factors Group, Canada’s largest natural health company, and has held senior R&D, commercial, and strategic roles with leading health organisations including Blackmores, BioCeuticals, Beckman Coulter, and Olympus Diagnostica.

Having worked extensively across Europe, the USA, and Australia, Evan brings deep operational insight and regulatory knowledge, including strong expertise in both FDA and TGA frameworks. His qualifications in Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Six Sigma, auditing, and business management underpin his deep technical capability and commercial acumen.

Evan is a respected scientist and strategic thinker, specialising in both natural and biotech medicines. He has a proven track record in building, scaling, and leading start-ups and fast-moving organisations, with strengths in strategy, global expansion, business development, risk, and compliance. He is passionate about natural products and clinical research and has led and published studies in areas such as synthetic biology, immunoassay development, probiotic functionality, and vitamin D insufficiency.

Founder and Head of R&D

Dr Chandran Pfitzner is a synthetic and molecular biologist with nearly a decade of hands‑on experience developing and applying cutting‑edge genetic engineering methods. Holding a PhD in Molecular Biology, Dr Pfitzner has extensive experience over the last 9 years in the genetic modification of a wide range of organisms, including mice, fish, insects, and a number of different cell lines.

An active contributor to the scientific community, Dr Pfitzner has published tools and technologies that streamline gene‑editing workflows and bridge the gap between bench innovation and real‑world application. Over the past several years he has concentrated on black soldier fly genetic engineering, systematically refining and improving the BSF engineering toolkit and thereby placing EntoZyme’s capabilities at the forefront of this rapidly evolving field.

Founder & Scientific Advisor

Dr Kate Tepper co-founded EntoZyme and is an advisor to the company. Her pioneering research demonstrated proof of concept that insects can be genetically engineered to process more types of organic waste and biomanufacture a larger variety of high-value products.

Dr Tepper is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Maselko Lab in Applied BioSciences at Macquarie University. Her research role involves developing cutting edge academic research for black soldier fly waste management and biomanufacturing.

Senior Scientific Advisor

Dr Edwards has had over 26 years of tenure at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), where he held senior positions in a number of key Scientific roles within the organisation.   

After receiving his PhD in Entomology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1994, Dr Edwards has been studying the population genetics and genomics of mass- or factory-reared insects before and after release into the environment initially for classical biological control, then eventually for genetic pest control. Dr Edwards was an early global leader in insect genomics, co-leading several aphid genome projects and contributing to dozens of others.

 In 2016 he was appointed to lead the Environment and Biological Control Domain of CSIRO’s Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform, the first international SynBio initiative that includes a focus on environmental technologies. This platform included his own world-leading SynBio projects improving heat tolerance in corals and developing gene drives to control insect and mammalian pests. Dr Edwards initiated an ‘Insects as Engineers’ group at CSIRO in 2022 that included innovative research on the black soldier fly.

Senior Scientist

Dr. Binh Nguyen is a research scientist with expertise in insect synthetic biology and transgenesis. She earned her PhD from Macquarie University and has over 8 years of hands-on experience in wet lab and PC2 lab environments with excellent skills in molecular biology and microinjection techniques.

Currently a senior scientist at EntoZyme, Dr. Nguyen is dedicated to advancing synthetic biology methods for insect genome engineering, with a focus on promoting sustainable waste management through innovative insect biomanufacturing.

Senior Scientist

Sam Beach is a researcher with over 5 years of experience designing and building genetic circuits for insect transgenesis. He started his synthetic biology journey in 2019 as a member of the Macquarie University undergraduate iGEM team, where they were awarded a gold medal for their hydrogen gas biosensor. His doctoral research (thesis under review) was conducted in the Maselko Lab at Macquarie University and explored developing innovative genetic technologies for rapidly controlling mosquitoes and other insect pest populations.

Research Scientist 

Lauren is an entomologist at heart with expertise in molecular biology and insect transgenesis. She completed a Master of BioSciences at The University of Melbourne where she heterologously expressed insect genes in fruit flies to study their function and evolution.

Lauren continued this research professionally before joining EntoZyme in 2024 where she now helps develop and validate transgenic Black Soldier fly strains.