Rate My Professor Sebastien Farnaud

Sebastien Farnaud is Professor of Enterprise and Innovation in Healthcare Technology in the Institute of Health and Well-being at Coventry University, affiliated with the Centre for Discoveries in Life Sciences. He provides strategic direction, leadership, and management of Enterprise and Innovation across the Centres for Sport, Exercise and Life Sciences and Clinical Innovation and Health. Farnaud earned his Doctorate in Molecular Biology from King's College London in 2000, investigating the evolution of the aliphatic amidase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa at the Randall Centre for Cell and Molecular Biophysics. He also holds an MSc in Genetics (1990) and an MSc in Biochemistry (1988) from Paul Sabatier University, France, alongside a BSc, PGCert, and fellowships including fHEA, FRSB, and FIBMS. Arriving in the UK in 1990 as an Erasmus student, his career includes academic appointments at Imperial College London, University of Westminster, and University of Bedfordshire, as well as serving as Science Director of a medical research charity.

Farnaud's research specializations include applications of biotechnology in sustainable closed-loop systems, bioremediation, and bioleaching—for which he created the Bioleaching Research Group at Coventry University to promote microbial extraction of metals from electronic waste. He also explores biomedical aspects of iron metabolism, particularly in Parkinson's disease, and antimicrobial peptides. He has led Innovate UK-funded Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, including collaborations with N2S Ltd on bioleaching precious metals from e-waste, development of animal-free cell culture media as alternatives to animal-containing media, and studies on vitamin D supplementation's influence on immune function in healthy older populations. His achievements include the Times Higher Education Award 2023, Innovate UK KTP Awards 2022, and National Recycling Award 2022. Key publications encompass the highly cited "Lactoferrin - A multifunctional protein with antimicrobial properties" (2003); recent works such as "Enhanced gold recovery from e-waste by biological thiosulfate leaching and trace gold extraction with UiO-66-NH2" (2026), "Recovery of platinum from spent reforming catalysts by coupled leaching and solvent extraction using deep eutectic solvents" (2026), "Computational analysis reveals temperature-induced stabilization of FAST-PETase" (2025), and "Optimised Reductive Bioleaching Strategies for Sustainable Critical Metal Recovery from a Mixed Black Mass" (2025). Farnaud's contributions advance sustainable recycling technologies and biomedical innovation.