Pawan Bhatt
Parsippany
Summary
Dynamic leader with extensive experience in plasmid, protein and antibody purification. And at ProBio, successfully establishing a new team and reducing non GMP manufacturing costs by over 50%. Skilled in AEX, AC, SEC and HIC chromatography. I excel in staff training and project planning, driving efficiency and innovation in downstream processes while fostering collaboration across departments.
Overview
25
25
years of professional experience
Work History
Manager DownStream PD Plasmid Purification
ProBio
12.2023 - Current
- Established & created new PD downstream plasmid purification team at ProBio US in 2023.
- Work with HR to screen candidates, conduct hiring interviews & formulate offer letters to candidates.
- Managing team of Sr. Scientist, Scientist & Assoc. Scientist in downstream PD plasmid team.
- Able to bring new product and technology to ProBio such as final filter (Cytiva), Semi Single Use Evolve D columns, use of glass bottles and XDM mixtures for alkyine lysis, Use of 2-step plasmid purification process to improving final purification recovery for low and high titer plasmid.
- Use of Repligen System to show recovery/loss of plasmids at different concentrations.
- Improved team's efficiency by introducing use of automation and remote access preventing employee burnout.
- Introduced new semi single use column technology at ProBio enabling significant cost savings in GMP.
- Trained downstream team in successful manual column packing technique thus reducing any supply chain delays in vendor supplied prepack columns.
- Able to reduce non GMP plasmid manufacturing cost by more than 50% using company resources more efficiently & wisely.
- Successfully lead downstream team to establish two BSL-1 labs at Hopewell site.
- Lead downstream team to successfully launch preCMC & INDPRO service offerings at ProBio US.
- Work with cross functional departments like QA, facilities, procurement and others to increase downstream purification capacity by 50%.
- Successfully introduce new alternate vendor at hopewell site to reduce equipment PM and repairs cost like AKTA's by 50%.
- Provide necessary support to MKT & BD team by participating in webinars for marketing & client facing BD meetings.
- Present posters at ASGCT 2025 showing capabilities of ProBio in plasmid purification.
- Provide update on lab capacity utilization,cost analysis & equipment usage to finance team.
- Perform yearly employee evaluation of downstream purification team.
- Establish vendor collaboration and MTA agreements to explore new available technologies in plasmid purification.
Senior Scientist
PTC Therapeutics
01.2001 - 12.2023
- Developed purification process using thiophillic aromatic absorption chromatography and AEX chromatography to purify super coiled form of plasmid and separate out impurities like protein, host cell RNA, open circular , linear and Genomic forms of DNA.
- Performing TFF using cassettes and small scale hollow fiber for protein removal and buffer exchange.
- Used different AKTA instruments like AKTA Ready, AKTA Ready Flux, AKTA Avant, AKTA pilot to develop process for super coiled plasmid purification from small scale to large scale.
- Performed different QC assay like Measuring endotoxin using LAL assay, purity using A280, A260 ratio and using Q-bit to measure hcRNA into purified pDNA.
- Performed Agarose Gel Electophoresis (AGE) and analyzing it using densitometry software to determine purity of purified plasmid.
- Use Repligen Conduit and KR2i to do small scale TFF of lysate & purified pDNA using repligen cassettes & small scale meissner hollow fiber.
- Successfully able to develop and write downstream plasmid purification SOPs and batch records.
- Mentor Associate scientist to purify pDNA.
- Participate in panel interviews to hire different team members in plasmid PD.
Senior R&D Specialist / Research Associate IV
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc
12.2018 - 03.2021
- Purifying GPCRs and membrane proteins using Nanodisc & SMALPs. Purifying different membrane proteins in detergent free environment.
- Working on vector designing for e-coli expression, mammalian expression.
- Purifying recombinant proteins expressed in e-coli.
- Biotinylating proteins using BirA enzymatic reaction.
- Performing bacterial transformation and preparing glycerol stocks.
- Performing beads based filtration assay of radio ligand binding for purified GPCRs & membrane proteins Nanodisc.
- Performing FACs based antibody binding assay for purified GPCRs & membrane proteins.
Research Associate-III / R&D Specialist-I
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc
04.2016 - 12.2018
- Purifying GPCRs and membrane proteins using Nanodisc & SMALPs.
- Purifying different membrane proteins in detergent free environment.
- Performing GPCRs and membrane purification using detergent & different affinity tags.
- Purifying proteins expressed in e-coli.
- Performing bacterial transformation and preparing glycerol stocks.
- Performing FACs based antibody binding assay for purified GPCRs & membrane proteins.
- Performing protein quantification using BCA & modified bio rad Bradford assay
Associate Research Scientist - II
Bristol Myers Squibb
08.2013 - 02.2016
- Purifying different mammalian expressed proteins using different affinity tags.
- Measuring endotoxin in purified protein using Charles River Endosafe MCS system & LAL endotoxin measuring assay.
- Purifying antibodies in gram levels using Protein A purification.
- Purifying nanobodies expressed in e-Coli using His tag.
- Generating Fab, (Fab')2, Fab' using Papain, Pepsin and Ficin enzyme digestion for protein crystallization studies.
- Purifying different antibodies using protein maker.
- Packing different size columns using ProteinA & Protein G and Poros resin.
- Performing lysine based protein conjugation using florescent dyes, biotinylation of antibodies & proteins
Temp. Research Associate
Bristol Myers Squibb
11.2012 - 08.2013
- Purifying different mammalian expressed proteins using different affinity tags.
- Measuring endotoxin in purified protein using Charles River Endosafe MCS system & LAL endotoxin measuring assay.
Senior Research Associate
Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals
03.2011 - 05.2012
- Working in Cell Biology Department and responsible for identifying cell surface antibody target for cancer therapy.
- Primary duties includes culturing various mammalian cancer cell lines and quantify no. of cell surface receptors.
- Perform western blot to identify receptor expression in various clinical patient samples and different cell lines.
- Use guava for identifying binding of antibody to cell surface receptor.
- Label various antibodies with florescent dyes for detection using FACs and Guava.
- Perform IHC for different tissue blocks and cell blocks (cell pellet FFPE), Perform tissue embedding, sectioning and staining.
- Perform Immuno Precipitation experiments to understand cell based signaling of cell surface receptor.
- Develop Elisa for antibody screening and binding affinity.
- Develop antibody drug conjugate cell viability assays.
- Identify different biomarkers from patient derived TMA by IHC staining.
- Perform DNA isolation using Qiagen maxi, mini & midi preps, using Giga preps from Sigma & Thermo Fisher
Contract Research Associate
Johnson & Johnson Beta-Logics
02.2009 - 11.2010
- Worked in a venture for stem cell research in diabetes.
- Worked with various stem cell lines in both MEF-conditioned feeder free and synthetic media.
- Successfully optimized media for stem cell culturing.
- Successfully able to develop immunostaining panel for various pancreatic stem cell markers.
- Successfully demonstrated growth and differentiation of stem cells in small benchtop bioreactor and on biodegradable micro carriers.
Research Assistant
FELS Cancer Research Institute
01.2007 - 12.2008
- Completed Masters Thesis under mentorship of Dr. Scott Shore.
- Performed ectopic expression of protein and identified its biological binding partners in cancer. Able to identify its biological role and response in invitro cellular environment.
- Have demonstrated expertise in GST binding assay along with Immuno precipitation, Co-imuno precipitation, cellular transfection and viral ectopic expression.
- Successfully able to culture various mammalian cell lines such MFC-7, HT-29.
- Successfully able to culture various mouse fibroblast cell lines such as 3T3.
Downstream Process Scientist
Centocor Ortho Biotech, Inc, Johnson & Johnson
02.2006 - 09.2006
- Worked as process scientist and executed process validation and showed improvement in column flow rate.
- Successfully able to demonstrate DNA clearance by Anion exchange chromatography.
- Able to work extensively with AKTA explorer, FPLC and AKTA pilot.
- Worked as a certified Unicorn software operator who can write and edit methods for execution.
- Write and revise different process SOPs and process batch records.
Education
Master of Science - Biochemistry
Temple School Of Medicine
Philadelphia, PA12-2028
Bachelor of Science - Biochemistry
Cook College Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ05-2005
Skills
- Staff Training and Development
- Project Planning
- Performance Management
- Budget Control
- Data Analysis
- AEX, HIC, AC and SEC Column Chromatography
- Unicorn Method Writing
- AKTA Skids and TFF Skids Operations
- Protein/Antibody/Plasmid Purification
- Protein/Antibody Conjugation
- Antibody Fragment Creation and Purification
Accomplishments
- Collaborated with team of different departments in successful launch of pre-CMC and INDPro plasmid production.
- Supervised team of three downstream PD staff members.
- Achieved more than 50% reduction in INDPro non GMP operational cost through effectively helping with using available inventory of non expired consumables.
Timeline
Manager DownStream PD Plasmid Purification
ProBio
12.2023 - Current
Senior R&D Specialist / Research Associate IV
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc
12.2018 - 03.2021
Research Associate-III / R&D Specialist-I
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc
04.2016 - 12.2018
Associate Research Scientist - II
Bristol Myers Squibb
08.2013 - 02.2016
Temp. Research Associate
Bristol Myers Squibb
11.2012 - 08.2013
Senior Research Associate
Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals
03.2011 - 05.2012
Contract Research Associate
Johnson & Johnson Beta-Logics
02.2009 - 11.2010
Research Assistant
FELS Cancer Research Institute
01.2007 - 12.2008
Downstream Process Scientist
Centocor Ortho Biotech, Inc, Johnson & Johnson
02.2006 - 09.2006
Senior Scientist
PTC Therapeutics
01.2001 - 12.2023
Master of Science - Biochemistry
Temple School Of Medicine
Bachelor of Science - Biochemistry
Cook College Rutgers University
ProBio Manager Of Excellence
- Established two different BSL-1 downstream plasmid purification and increasing capacity by 50%.
- Successfully able to launch pre-CMC and INDPro grade plasmid production lines in time specific manner.
- Able to reduce cost of non-GMP manufacturing by 50% by efficiently using non expired consumable inventory.
- Successfully able to train and lead different team members to deliver 100% Right First Time and on time pre-CMC and INDPro plasmids for two consecutive years.
- Successfully able to train team to perform production in GMP suite following cGMP guidelines for plasmid production.
- Successfully able to create robust training program for downstream plasmid purification at Hopewell Site.