HydRegen appoint Rhiannon Evans as Head of Enzyme Production and Molecular Biology
HydRegen, the revolutionary bioscience company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Rhiannon Evans as Head of Enzyme Production and Molecular Biology, leading its enzyme production, optimisation and efficiency development projects. Rhiannon brings extensive experience of enzyme purification, handling and reaction mechanisms from over 15 years of research exploring enzyme optimisation in different environments.
“There’s a multitude of innovative solutions being developed to drive greener industrial practices but no one solution is going to fix every challenge, if we are to get anything done there needs to be more collaboration.”
Having started in biomedical science with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree from the University of Wales, Rhiannon pivoted her studies into biochemistry for her PhD Thesis and never looked back. Having explored how very similar enzymes are optimised to the different conditions they are found in, Rhiannon continued her enzyme research at the University of Oxford where she spent 10 years exploring how to exploit their differences, dissecting and understanding the environments, organisms and reactions that lead to natural differences in their structure and function. In 2019, Rhiannon joined the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory research team under Prof K.A. Vincent, contributing to the development and structural understanding of redox proteins under electrochemical control, and continues to support them after more than 3 years.
HydRegen is providing bio-based manufacturing technologies that are cleaner, safer and more efficient than current chemical manufacturing processes. Since spinning out from the University of Oxford in 2021, HydRegen has focused on implementation of its new strategies to reduce the environmental impact of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing. With a focus on the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical sectors, its vision is to replace finite resources for hydrogenation reactions, such as metals, with environmentally and economically friendly alternatives, addressing the unmet needs of the chemical sector by enabling more sustainable chemical manufacturing.
Dr Holly Reeve, CEO at HydRegen said: “We are really excited to have Rhiannon join us at HydRegen. Her knowledge and experience of highly specialist enzyme optimisation is invaluable as we advance towards commercialisation of our first product. Having also worked alongside Prof Vincent at the University of Oxford, Rhiannon has been a supportive aide to HydRegen’s development for several years already and we are proud to have her as an official part of the team. Her ambition and ability to understand and communicate the intricate reactions of specialist hydrogenase enzymes will help drive a much-needed transformation of chemical manufacturing and enable the transition to a low-carbon economy.”
Rhiannon Evans, Head of Enzyme Production and Molecular Biology at HydRegen comments: “I’ve spent most of my career developing and publishing scientific research on enzyme function, and I remain fascinated by their adaptation to the environment. At HydRegen, I am looking forward to actually applying this knowledge and experience with the team to help accelerate the production of highly specialist catalyst systems and to optimise their use for maximum efficiency. I believe there is still a long way to go to educate the industry and the public on green chemistry and sustainability. There’s a multitude of innovative solutions being developed to drive greener industrial practices but no one solution is going to fix every challenge, if we are to get anything done there needs to be more collaboration. This is something HydRegen is also passionate about, working in collaboration with industry leading companies to implement greener and less wasteful manufacturing processes.”
ENDS
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Notes to editors:
HydRegen Ltd is pioneering a novel biotechnology that enables more sustainable chemical manufacture. At HydRegen, we are passionate about reducing the environmental impact of chemical manufacturing and committed to enabling companies across the chemicals sector to improve their energy and resource efficiency whilst moving towards continuous manufacturing processes.