Dr. Neal Connors is an industrial microbiologist with four decades of experience in the fields of bioprocess development and precision fermentation. His expertise reflects involvement with a diverse portfolio of projects during his career: proteins and enzymes produced by microbial expression systems, bioactive natural products, renewable chemicals, therapeutic proteins, whole cell biocatalysts, and vaccines.
Neal started Phoenix BioConsulting, LLC initially to complement synthetic biology start-up's strain engineering capability with precision fermentation and bioprocess development expertise. This has evolved to include companies in the aquaculture, agriculture, and food spaces. Since 2009, he has served as an independent consultant and advisor for dozens of small- and mid-sized companies commercializing bioprocess-based technologies.
Neal started his career at Merck & Co where he spent 17 years in the Bioprocess R&D department and rose to the level of Sr. Investigator. During this time he was involved in a diverse portfolio of projects including bioprocess development and commercialization of CANCIDAS®, a first-in-class natural product antifungal antibiotic.
In addition, Neal was a Founder and CTO of Kalion, Inc., an industrial biotech start-up commmercializing high-purity glucaric acid produced by fermentaion, and winner of the 2019 EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Award (small business). More recently, Neal was Head of Bioprocess Development for Curie Co where he developed, implemented, and scaled-up the company's current platform bioprocesses supporting the launch of Curamina, and enzyme used in the personal care space.
Neal has been a leader in the biotech field for over 30 years, and a contributing author on numerous peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, patents, and conference abstracts. Neal has been an active member of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology for several years serving as President, Director, and program chair for the Society’s Annual Meeting and Fermentation Technology Meeting. He also serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology and Enzyme and Microbial Technology and is a regular reviewer for a number of MDPI journals.
Neal received his BS in Biology from Norwich University and his PhD in Microbiology from The Ohio State University.