Global Impact: Z Biotech Advances Glycoscience Research
By: Colorado BioScience Association Date: 11/20/2020
Z Biotech is a leading biotech company providing the most advanced microarray products and quality services for glycomics research. The company contributes leading carbohydrate products and services to biotech and pharmaceutical companies and research institutes worldwide.
Through integrity of research, team self-awareness and community support, Z Biotech has made strides in 2020. CBSA President & CEO, Jennifer Jones Paton, asked Jian Zhang, Ph.D., Z Biotech’s Founder and CEO, CBSA’s Key Questions for Life Sciences Innovators.
Q: Tell us about your company or organization.
A: Z Biotech is significantly impacting glycobiology and glycomics markets by providing its leading carbohydrate products and services to biotech and pharmaceutical companies and leading research institutions.
To solve the issue of low efficiency and high cost of current ELISA microplatebased analysis, we offer diverse costeffective microarray-based solutions.
Z Biotech’s advantage lies in increasing the accuracy and efficiency for analysis of carbohydrates (or glycans) and their binding partners in therapeutic biologics, medicines and biosimilars, as well as producing glycosylation profiling for biological samples and therapeutic biologics.
Q: Describe your team culture. How does your culture shape what your company or organization produces or offers?
A: Our team functions through a core set of values: open communication, integrity of research, reliability, flexibility, self-awareness, and innovation. Our continuous research is possible through the cohesive collaboration of our team and interactions with clients and partners.
Integrity of research means our team admits mistakes and holds ourselves accountable. We rely on maintaining high standards.
Z Biotech focuses on where each individual excels and where they can contribute. Our honesty about strengths and weaknesses drive our innovation continuously. The team doesn’t dismiss ideas as impossible without trying them.
Q: What are you working on right now?
A: Currently, we are focused on product sales, customer projects, and NIH supported research projects.
Q: How will your work save or change lives?
A: Following the explosive impact from the genomics and proteomics era, glycomics is a new and vital field for studying carbohydrate modification of proteins and protein-glycan interactions.
Our products and services have been provided to numerous research groups in pharmaceutical companies and universities. The results from some of them have been transited to effective diagnostics and therapeutics.
Q: How has COVID-19 impacted your company or organization?
A: During the pandemic, we helped our customers investigate the relationship of glycans with COVID-19 infections. COVID-19 brings us long-term opportunities to grow Z Biotech through research and scientific innovation. Our sales revenue has increased with the amount of partnerships and effort towards research at this time.
Z Biotech shut down for five weeks in March and April 2020 but since has found ways to continue to collaborate and research during the health crisis.
Q: CBSA champions a collaborative life sciences ecosystem because we are #stongertogether. How has being an active participant in our life sciences community supported your success?
A: Attending events is one of the ways Z Biotech stayed actively involved in the Colorado BioScience Association ecosystem and the Fitzsimons Innovation Community. The exchange of ideas with other CBSA members bring us new ideas and innovation to develop our technology, products and services.
Being located on the Fitzsimons Innovation Community has established our own life sciences ecosystem at our doorstep. We look forward to more collaborations in 2021 and beyond!
Thank you to our sponsor: