Values before mission?
Mohammad Khalil El Hajj, PhD, founder and CEO of molecular farming company Bright Biotech, was exposed to entrepreneurship early, growing up watching his father launch and grow a business in Lebanon. This formative experience fueled his desire to challenge himself and make a positive impact on the world. 🌍
As part of my weekly interview series, I had the opportunity to sit down with Mohammad to learn more about his journey as a founder and the challenges he has faced along the way. 🚀
Mohammad’s academic journey began with a Bachelor's in Biology at the American University of Beirut. In 2011, he moved to the UK to further his studies, particularly in the use of plants as vehicles for protein expression. Coming from a country with limited access to advanced therapeutics, he was inspired by the potential of molecular farming to address the scalability and cost limitations of traditional recombinant protein technologies.
His passion for molecular farming led him to Dr. Anil Day’s lab at The University of Manchester where he completed a Master’s and PhD in Biotechnology and Enterprise. 🧬 Anil, a leading researcher in chloroplast molecular biology, was exploring chloroplasts as platforms for molecular farming. Together they focused on developing chloroplast vector systems for recombinant protein production in marker-free plants. 🌿
After completing his PhD, Mohammad continued his research as a postdoc at The University of Manchester. During his postdoc he also completed a secondment at Protein Technologies Limited, a Manchester-based biotech company specializing in recombinant protein production and purification. As his work increasingly aligned with commercial applications, Mohammad made the pivotal decision to start his own company. đź’ˇ
"I wanted to make medicine accessible to everyone." đź’Š
In October 2019, Mohammad founded Bright Biotech with co-founders Anil and Dr Farid Khan (from Protein Technologies), leveraging their combined academic and industrial expertise to create a company dedicated to producing recombinant proteins in plants using chloroplasts. They selected growth factors as their initial product as they are needed in large quantities at highly competitive prices to enable cellular agriculture and advanced therapeutics in regenerative medicine. 🏥
During the early stages of founding Bright Biotech, Mohammad crossed paths with Rania Deranieh, PhD, Fulbright Alumna, a fellow postdoc at The University of Manchester with a strong background in cell biology. 🔬 Their discussions were always engaging, with Rania's expertise complementing Mohammad’s vision for using molecular farming to produce recombinant proteins for cellular agriculture and regenerative medicine. In November 2021, Rania officially joined the co-founding team.
"Chloroplasts have an amazing capacity for protein production." 🌾
Mohammad was particularly excited to discuss the science behind Bright Biotech’s work. Chloroplasts, he explained, offer several key advantages for recombinant protein production:
High Protein Yields: Chloroplasts contain up to 10,000 copies of DNA per cell, enabling extremely high protein yields (2-5g/kg of plant leaves).
Cost-Effectiveness: The method eliminates the need for costly bioreactors, using scalable farming techniques instead. The 10,000X amplification through seeds offers unparalleled scalability.
Safety: By harvesting leaves before flowering, seed dispersal is prevented. Additionally, products originate from modified chloroplasts, not spread by pollen. Products derived from chloroplasts are free from harmful microbial toxins and animal pathogens.
Sustainability: Utilizing light, water, salts, and CO2, this technology provides a sustainable alternative to traditional fermentation.
Since its inception, Bright Biotech has focused on developing two key products: TGFb3 and FGF2. Along the way, they’ve created a plug-and-play system called Green2Screen, which has accelerated product development and improved efficiency. ⚡️
Looking ahead, the company is actively expanding its product portfolio for cellular agriculture and regenerative medicine, while continually exploring new avenues to harness their cutting-edge technology for broader applications.
"Values before mission." 🏆
As a self-described introvert who loved spending time in the lab, Mohammad initially found the transition to leadership challenging—but it was a challenge he embraced. He and his co-founders invested significant time early on in building the cultural foundations of Bright Biotech.
"Starting with values before mission gave us a clear sense of what we believed in and aligned on. It created a strong sense of belonging for our team and helped shape the culture for all our future hires." 🤝
I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Mohammad. He was warm and candid throughout, and I’m excited to see what the next 12 months hold for Bright Biotech. 🔥
As I do at the end of every interview, I asked Mohammad if he had an 'ask' for the community. His response? He’s keen to connect with people who have regulatory experience in the food industry 🍽️, as well as those working on innovative scale-up approaches for molecular farming, 🚜 and downstream processing.
