Helping the World with Biotechnology

Aaron Love (MBP ’13) had a passion for biology and improving human health when he arrived at Northwestern Engineering's Master of Biotechnology Program (MBP). Today he's pursuing those passions as a senior scientist at Manus Bio.

Aaron Love (MBP '13)Aaron Love (MBP '13) grew up around science. His parents both worked in healthcare and he learned a lot about biology and physiology from them. 

He majored in microbiology as an undergraduate but knew he didn't want to be a physician. His passion for the biological sciences and developing technologies to improve human health and the environment led him to Northwestern Engineering's Master of Biotechnology Program (MBP).

Love is a senior scientist at Manus Bio, where he's worked since graduating from Northwestern. Love began as a research associate in a research-heavy bench role, but now his day-to-day work is split between bench science and project management. He recently spoke about his work at Manus Bio, his time in MBP, and how his experiences at Northwestern prepared him for where he is now.

Manus Bio's vision is "Making nature accessible, affordable and protected for a growing society." What does that statement mean to you?

It means fundamentally rethinking the way we source natural products, and useful chemicals in general. We are still a very agrarian world when it comes to procuring the basic building blocks for everything we use, from fuels, plastics and rubbers, to flavors, fragrances, and pharmaceuticals. This means much of our land use goes to the production of chemicals to service these various markets rather than providing food, areas to live and recreate, or more importantly natural environments to protect biodiversity and provide the ecological systems that make life possible on this planet.   

We are building a platform technology that can provide access to the chemicals that feed into the various industries I mentioned, which are often difficult and less efficient to produce through traditional farming or organic synthesis. Fundamentally, we are isolating the processes in nature we are interested in, and recreating them through microbial fermentation to make them more efficient and less destructive.

How do you divide your time at work?

About half of my time is managing my team and staying ahead of them in terms of lining up work and keeping research activities high impact and aimed at project goals, as well as new ideation. The other 50% is a mix of pursuing a part-time PhD at Tufts University, running my own experiments and analyzing data, and then putting out various fires that come up.  

What are the biggest challenges you face in your work?

Proof of concept science is the fun part, but then engineering a biological system through scale up to make a profitable process can be herculean. My biggest challenge is using limited resources to most efficiently engineer our strains towards our commercial goals.

How did MBP prepare you for where you are today?

I had a reasonably strong background in biological sciences and basic laboratory research from undergrad, but MBP gave me the opportunity to learn how to think about biotechnology as an industry from an engineering perspective. The emphasis on research experience led me to an amazing opportunity with great mentors at Aurasense Therapeutics (now Exicure), where I honed my bench skills and learned how to drive research forward.  

In what ways do you incorporate lessons learned from MBP into your day-to-day work?

The core curriculum gave me a lot of the hard engineering tools and background I needed to work in the biotech industry. Mapping out biological systems, and understanding enzymes and kinetics are all tools I use regularly.  The research opportunity also helped me grow into an effective bench scientist. 

What do you think is the biggest misconception about biotech?

That it's all about making monoclonal antibodies or pharmaceuticals in general, when there are many other types of research opportunities out there, such as the work we are doing at Manus Bio.

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