Combining insect biology with nanotechnology to create a revolution in sensing.
Scentian Bio - our story
Unravelling the mystery of how insects smell led to a ground-breaking discovery - a panel of synthesized insect odorant receptors could be used to make a device to smell and taste chemical compounds. Scentian Bio was formed to create a novel technology for commercial use in medical, food and industrial settings.
Dr Andrew Kralicek and his team, spent the past 19 years at Plant & Food Research determining how odorant receptors work in insects. These receptors are the result of 400 million years of evolution and enable insects to easily find food, mates, and where to lay eggs, as well as avoid predators. The team investigated whether insect odorant receptors could be combined with electronics to create an “insect nose/tongue”. A novel technology developed from this research is the basis of the start-up we now know as Scentian Bio.
With nature’s receptors we can visualise the world objectively, through the senses of smell and taste, for intelligent decision making and problem solving.
The Team
Anup Vanarse
Dr Anup Vanarse has a PhD in neuromorphic engineering, focused on using AI to differentiate malt quality using olfactory sensors. He has spent the last 3 years working for BrainChip, including developing diagnostic models using deep learning.
Chief Executive Officer
Jonathan Good is the CEO of Scentian Bio. He has a successful background as an entrepreneur in New Zealand and the USA and has held senior leadership roles in global food businesses.
Jonathan Good
Chief Technology Officer
Dr Andrew Králíček is the Founder and CTO of Scentian Bio, and previously led the Molecular Sensing Team at Plant & Food Research. He has spent two decades working out how to harness the powerful sense of smell that insects have, to enable the biosensing of volatiles. Andrew was awarded the BNZ Supreme Award at the 2018 KiwiNet Research Commercialisation awards.
Andrew Králíček
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr Colm Carraher is a Molecular Biologist who leads assay development at Scentian Bio. He has spent 15 years working on structural and functional aspects of insect olfaction. His expertise lies in the production of odorant receptors and their integration into novel biosensor formats. He is a Rutherford Postdoctoral Fellow.
Colm Carraher
Di Brewster is a Biosensor Technologist with an MSc in Nanotechnology. She provides key capability in the production of insect odorant receptors for biosensor development and brings over 30 years of experience in a wide range of scientific disciplines and lab management.
Di Brewster
Wendy Huo is a Structural Biologist with an MSc from the University of Auckland. She is an expert on protein production, characterization and structure determination. She also has extensive experience in analytical chemistry and environmental science. At Scentian Bio Wendy is assisting with the production of insect odorant receptors and the novel biosensor development.
Wenjuan (Wendy) Huo
Mark Agasid
Dr Mark Agasid is an Electrophysiologist, who brings a wealth of experience from his PhD on ligand-gated ion channels, his post-doc at Oxford and his fellowship at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Jabob Cheatley is a Data Scientist focused on practical applications of AI, and a generalist interested in productionising machine learning. Jacob has a background in software engineering, data science and product development - working on end-to-end integration of IoT, cloud solutions and bespoke predictive models.
Jacob Cheatley
Our Board
Jonathan Good
Jonathan Good is the CEO of Scentian Bio. He has a successful background as an entrepreneur in New Zealand and the USA and has held senior leadership roles in global food businesses.
Peter Cook
Peter Cook is General Manager of Business Development at Plant & Food Research, the research organisation that developed Scentian Bio’s core intellectual property. Peter is an experienced commercialisation professional focused on delivering innovative technologies to market. He has broad experience across a range of technologies from novel biological control agents through to food ingredients and supplements.
