Andrew Gaynor

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ANDREW GAYNOR

Currently I am a Senior Scientist Cell Therapy with the oncology group at AstraZeneca. Before that, I am a PhD graduate from the Wilfred Chen Lab in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at the University of Delaware. Leveraging our lab’s expertise in molecular biology, protein engineering, and synthetic biology, I have developed novel techniques for regulating intracellular protein levels via engineered controlled protein degradation. We are optimistic that our pioneering work has laid the groundwork for executing Boolean logic at the post-transcriptional level. Our engineered proteins have demonstrated a remarkable ability to distinguish autonomously between cell types based on protein markers, blazing the trail for a new avenue of next-generation protein therapies.I have built an expansive synthetic biology toolkit including aseptic technique, mammalian cell culture, flow cytometry, microscopy, protein analysis, molecular cloning, and protein engineering. I have also built the knowledgebase in molecular and cell biology necessary to achieve my research projects’ aims.Beyond the bench aspect of laboratory, I am passionate about mentorship and teaching. I have trained several rotation students in the Chen Lab as part of the NIH-funding Chemistry-Biology Interface program at the University of Delaware, of which I myself am a fellow. I have also mentored an undergraduate student from the department. My classroom teaching has been recognized by both the Robert L. Pigford Teaching Assistant Award and the Fraser and Shirley Russell Teaching Fellowship, in which I was a co-instructor in undergraduate Heat and Mass Transfer under the guidance of department faculty.I am excited by the idea of a career on the cutting edge of science, and I am inspired by the prospect of improving the lives of many patients with AstraZeneca.