Shiru is excited to announce that Randall de Groot has joined the Shiru team as Senior Research Associate in Fermentation.
In this role, Randy will be developing and scaling up novel proteins through precision fermentation.
“Randy and I worked together at Lygos, and I am thrilled to work with him again,” said David Melis, Shiru’s Director of Fermentation. “He is an excellent worker with a keen eye towards building better, more robust systems.”
Randall holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara, where he worked in a bioengineering laboratory. His experience there inspired him to pursue synthetic biology, and he started his professional career at Zymergen in a DNA and Strain Engineering lab. He found he had a passion for fermentation and began to focus on growing his fermentation skillset. After three years at Zymergen, Randall joined Lygos, a smaller company where he had the opportunity to wear many hats. Most recently, Randall served as a Senior Research Associate at Pow Bio.
In his time in industry, Randall has come to appreciate companies that have a focus — not only on the end product itself, but on how best to get to that end product. Randall was drawn to Shiru by its emphasis on sustainability and focus on technology development.
“I feel really fortunate to be a part of this team and to help Shiru build its fermentation capabilities,” said Randall. “I appreciate how positive and encouraging the team is.”
Outside of work, Randall loves to be outdoors, whether it’s playing sports or picnicking at the park. He also loves playing board games with friends and family. Another favorite pastime: binging the latest Netflix shows. Recent favorites include The Midnight Gospel (“a really quirky show about personal growth and mindfulness”) and Stranger Things (“my latest comfort show”).