Sheffield-based biotechnology company SynGenSys has appointed four heads of department to its commercial and scientific teams, as the firm moves to scale up commercial delivery of its synthetic gene promoter technologies.

The company, which designs synthetic gene promoter systems aimed at addressing manufacturing bottlenecks in biopharma­ceutical production and supporting cell and gene therapy development, confirmed the appointments on 22 July 2026. The new roles span commercial strategy, mammalian expression technology, cell and gene therapy applications, and bioinformatics.

Commercial leadership

Dr Thilo Pohle has been appointed Head of Commercial, taking responsibility for the commercialisation and industry adoption of SynGenSys’ synthetic promoter and signal peptide technologies. His remit includes external engagement, customer relatioships and product licensing. Dr Pohle’s background spans recombinant AAV and protein manufacturing and promoter engineering; he is a named author on several related publications and features on multiple international patent applications. He completed his PhD at the University of Sheffield before joining SynGenSys as a DNA engineer, subsequently taking on broader commercial and market-positioning responsibilities.

Expression technology focus

Dr Molly Smith joins as Head of CHO Expression Technologies, with responsibility for the Company’s CHO.SET® synthetic promoter offering. Dr Smith holds a PhD in Biological Engineering from the University of Sheffield, where her research examined vector engineering strategies for improving transient CHO expression systems, building on prior expertise in mammalian expression systems, cell line engineering and synthetic promoter design.

Dr Abayomi Johnson has been named Head of Cell and Gene Therapy Expression Technologies, overseeing development of expression technologies for cell and gene therapy applications. Dr Johnson brings over a decade of experience across bio-pharmaceuticals, cell and gene therapy, and biotechnology more broadly. He completed both his MSc and PhD at the University of Sheffield, followed by a three-year postdoctoral post developing synthetic mammalian promoters for gene therapy use.

Bioinformatics capability

Dr Cristina Alexandru-Crivac takes up the role of Head of Bioinformatics and Data Science, leading expansion of the Company’s computational platform and delivery of application-specific in silico solutions for technology development and customer programmes. She holds a BSc in Genetics and Microbiology and a PhD in Chemistry, together with postdoctoral research experience in bioinformatics, and has worked extensively in computational genomics across the biopharma and cell and gene therapy sectors.

Commenting on the appointments, Dr Andrew Racher, Co-CEO of SynGenSys, said the moves came “at a pivotal point for the Company” as it continues to refine its offering. He noted that the Company’s CHO.SET Promoter Library® is “market-ready”, while its cell and gene therapy pipeline, encompassing tissue- and cell-type-specific promoters and signal-peptide options for CAR-based approaches, “continues to mature”. He added that strengthening the commercial and technical teams would help ensure these capabilities are “effectively matched with the right customers and partners”, and said the Company aims to support career progression from within its existing workforce.

Dr Abayomi Johnson
has been appointed Head of Cell and Gene Therapy Expression Technologies, SynGenSys

Cristina Alexandru-Crivac
takes up the role of Head of Bioinformatics and Data Science, SynGenSys

Dr Molly Smith
joins as Head of CHO Expression Technologies, SynGenSys

Dr Thilo Pohle
has been appointed Head of Commercial, SynGenSys