A principle investigator since April 2000, his protein engineering research has a distinctly bioprocess flavour which aims to address key challenges in rapid industrial process development using a combination of novel automated microscale and microfluidic methods, as well as employing directed evolution and bioinformatics to improve biocatalytic enzymes under biotransformation process conditions.
He graduated with a Natural Sciences degree from the University of Cambridge and received his PhD in 1998, also from the University of Cambridge, for work on protein engineering and protein folding under the guidance of Sir Prof Alan Fersht. He then undertook a Postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in the laboratory of Prof William DeGrado in collaboration with Ron Hoess at DuPont (Wilmington, Del.), to engineer WW domain proteins using phage display techniques.
Since July 2008 Paul has been Chair of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Biotechnology Subject Group which aims to engage academia, industry and the public in debate and scientific discussion on advances in Biotechnology. He recently received the Evonik European Science-to-Business Award in November 2008 for his work on engineering enzyme routes for the production of chiral intermediates.