Key Personnel

David Demirjian, Ph.D.
President, Director

Dr. Demirjian was previously Founder and President of ThermoGen, Inc., a Chicago-based bioprocess company which was a pioneer of esterase biocatalysis technology for pharmaceutical applications. He is a previous winner of the Research Director's Association of Chicago "Entrepreneur of the Year Award" (1997) and recipient of the U.S. SBA "Tibbets Award" for successful commercialization of technology developed under the Federal SBIR grant program. He was subsequently Vice President of Technology Strategy for MediChem Life Sciences after MediChem's merger with ThermoGen in May 2000, where he oversaw the strategic development of MediChem's R&D technology platform, including the integration of its drug discovery and chemical process technologies. He was one of the leaders of MediChem's IPO, in which the company raised over $52 MM in October 2000. He also served as a Director of the company until its acquisition in May 2002 to deCode Genetics. He holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from The University of Chicago and B.S.A. in Molecular Biology from The University of Michigan.


Rajni Aneja
Vice President, Corporate Development

Ms. Aneja was most recently Vice President, Corporate Development, MediChem Life Sciences, and had an instrumental role in the recent merger between MediChem and ThermoGen, in addition to having negotiated MediChem's strategic alliance with the global fine chemicals manufacturer, Degussa AG. She has more than twenty years of experience in commercializing of early stage life sciences products and has previously held positions with Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Laboratories and ARCH Development Corporation, the technology transfer affiliate of The University of Chicago. She is a recipient of I-Street's 2003 "Women in Black" award which recognizes outstanding contribution to the Chicago entrepreneurial community. She holds a M.B.A. in Business Economics and Finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.


Michael Racine, Ph. D.
Director of Fermentation Technology

Dr. Racine is an expert in fermentation optimization and scale-up and process engineering with over 20 years of industrial experience. He brings to zuChem an understanding of fermentation optimization and how a final production process will need to be developed in order to successfully implement it at commercial scale. From 1982- 1989 Dr. Racine worked at Enzyme Technologies Corporation where he directed programs for improving bacterial and fungal strains for production of commercially important enzymes for starch processing. From 1989 - 2002 he managed process optimization activities at Genencor International, including fermentation technology development and strain development. Dr. Racine received his Ph.D. in Microbiology in 1974 from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville and his B.S. in Biology in 1969 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia.


Ryan Woodyer, Ph. D.
Senior Scientist, Molecular Biology

Dr. Woodyer attended Illinois State University in Bloomington and graduated with his Bachelors degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2001. Dr. Woodyer then went on to receive his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 2005 and continued on there as a postdoctoral research assistant until being hired at zuChem in early 2006. While at the University of Illinois, Dr. Woodyer trained under direction of Dr. Huimin Zhao and Dr. Wilfred van der Donk, two leaders in the area of enzyme and bioprocess engineering, where he worked on the production of several high-value products including xylitol.
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