Combining synthetic biology with AI to create a revolution in sensing
Scentian Bio:
Our Story
Unravelling the mystery of how insects smell led to a ground-breaking discovery - a panel of synthesized insect odorant receptors could be used to create highly senstive biosensors, measuring the concentration of thousands or more compounds,
Dr Andrew Kralicek spent 19 years at Plant & Food Research understanding how odorant receptors work in insects. This led to two key breakthroughs - the ability to synthetically produce these proteins at scale and the ability to connect them with a transducer to create a biosensor.
Scentian Bio was established as a spin out from Plant & Food Research and holds key patents around this technology. We have assembled an amazing multidisciplinary team to unlock the power of a digital sense of smell and taste.
Meet our team
Chief Executive Officer
Jonathan Good is the CEO of Scentian Bio. He has a successful background as an entrepreneur in New Zealand and the USA and has held senior leadership roles in global food businesses.
Jonathan Good
Chief Technology Officer
Dr Andrew Králíček is the Founder and CTO of Scentian Bio,
and previously led the Molecular Sensing Team at Plant &
Food Research. He has spent two decades working out how
to harness the powerful sense of smell that insects have, to enable the biosensing of volatiles. Andrew was awarded the BNZ Supreme Award at the 2018 KiwiNet Research Commercialisation awards.
Andrew Králíček
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr Colm Carraher is a Molecular Biologist who leads assay development at Scentian Bio. He has spent 15 years working on structural and functional aspects of insect olfaction.
His expertise lies in the production of odorant receptors
and their integration into novel biosensor formats. He is a Rutherford Postdoctoral Fellow.
Colm Carraher
Chief Financial Officer
As a Chartered Accountant with over 10 years’ experience working within commercial and private practice, Nikki brings a strong focus on operational and technology improvements to enhance business efficiency. Nikki's experience in the tech sector allows her to effectively bridge the gap between financial management and technological innovation.
Wendy Huo
Structure Biologist
Wendy Huo is a Structural Biologist with an MSc from the University of Auckland. She is an expert on protein production, characterization and structure determination. She also has extensive experience in analytical chemistry and environmental science. At Scentian Bio Wendy is assisting with the production of insect odorant receptors and the novel biosensor development.
Nikki Lorigan
Protein Biochemist
Dr. Brady Owen is a Protein Biochemist with a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Monash University. Her thesis explored how protein complexes regulate gene activity. With extensive experience in protein design, production and functional analysis, Brady will contribute to advancing insect odorant receptor biosensor development.
Brady Owen
Senior Machine Learing Scientist
Dr Anup Vanarse has a PhD in neuromorphic engineering, focused on using AI to differentiate malt quality using olfactory sensors. He has spent the last 3 years working for BrainChip, including developing diagnostic models using deep learning.
Anup Vanarse
Data Scientist
Leroy is a Data Scientist and has a Computer Science and Mathematics background and spent four years in atmospheric research, focusing on the application of Machine Learning to weather and climate modelling. More recently, he worked in the food industry, applying AI and deep learning to computer vision problems. He is a passionate about applying data driven methods to solve difficult scientific problems.
Leroy Bird
Research Scientist
Alaigne is a Research Scientist and has an MSc in Chemistry focused on the comparison of novel biosensor concepts. She has experience in both biomedical science and physical chemistry and is highly passionate about how biosensing can shape the future.
Alaigne Mare
Parco Jiang
Global Business Development Manager
Parco is the Global Business Development Manager with a MBA degree, who is a well-seasoned global business development professional who has held senior roles within leading global food & beverage businesses in both the US and Asia-Pacific.
Machine Learning Engineer
Jung Shin is a ML Engineer who has a master’s degree in computer science and computer graphics, focused on problem solving using machine learning and deep learning techniques. He has extensive experience with leading New Zealand tech start-ups.
Jung Shin
