Dr. Shane Wesener

With over 15 years of experience across industrial microbiology, natural products discovery, and leading-edge strain engineering initiatives, Dr. Shane Wesener now lends his valuable expertise as Director of Research and Development at Bio-Technical Resources.

Since beginning his work at Bio-Technical Resources in the fall of 2019, Shane has helped drive sustainable solutions for agriculture, environmental remediation, and therapeutic development along with mentoring future scientists.   

From Family Farm Curiosities to Pioneering Researcher

Shane’s passion for studying unseen microbiological mechanisms traces back to growing up on a family dairy farm in Cleveland, Wisconsin. During his youth, he was actively involved in 4H and FFA programs focused on dairy judging and showing, which eventually led to an interest in genetic mapping. 

“I enjoyed growing things and seeing what they could produce,” Shane shares when recalling his farming roots. “Digging deeper into the genetics of quantifiable dairy traits made me want to dig deeper at the microbiology level as well.”

These early inspirations on his family’s dairy farm combined with curiosities uncovered during his later graduate research days continue fueling Shane’s passion for revealing nature’s hidden bioactive compounds and mechanisms. “I like solving puzzles and working in a field where you’re dealing with things the naked eye can’t perceive. You’re constantly discovering things that are hidden from plain sight.”

Pioneering Client Impacts Through Custom Microbial Solutions

Upon screening and selecting from thousands of novel microbial strains over the past 15 years, some of Shane’s most gratifying innovations have involved improving BTR’s expression and secretion systems.

“It has been very rewarding to work on developing new Bacillus strains that have been optimized for expressing and secreting a wide range of peptides and proteins from 4 kDa to 100 kDa with over a 20-fold production increase over previous strains. Currently, we are developing new Pichia, Saccharomyces, and Trichoderma strains to improve protein expression and secretion, and also a rapid screen for positive constructs. We are very excited to continue the evolution of the strain to produce natural products, biopolymers, and pharmaceutical proteins and enzymes.” 

He also recalls a project where he worked on developing secreted enzymes advancing to production scale. After engineering elevated secretory enzyme expression in multiple Bacillus strains for a partner, Shane’s team produced 3 key industrial enzymes achieving client production quantity, quality, and cost goals. “Seeing our strain improvements progress to scaled manufacturing was really rewarding,” Shane adds.

Shane also leverages decades of hands-on experience screening Pichia pastoris strains to expedite client innovations. As he notes, “We find it useful to test multiple promoters to correctly match expression levels of the protein of interest in Pichia. We apply that same strategy to optimize secretions, screening various signal peptides to elucidate the optimal pathway for secretion in this yeast.”

He continues, “There are two main secretory routes that can be utilized in Pichia pastoris. Determining which pathway is best suited for efficient production of the client’s unique protein provides key insights to guide further optimizations.” Shane’s trusted guidance elucidating ideal strain constructions provides a valuable foundation driving elevated outputs.

Trusted Counsel Applying Decades of Hands-On Mastery

Dr. Shane Wesener continues to contribute valued perspectives on strain selections, media optimizations, DO + pH level guidance, and data-backed troubleshooting insights at Bio-Technical Resources. His expertise helps clients expedite strain engineering and scale-up goals. 

As Shane notes, “Understanding each microbe’s unique metabolism and environmental adaptations is key for efficient therapeutic outputs and robust processes. And it keeps me excited on a daily basis.”

A sentiment that excites and motivates Shane involves how “Nature always finds a way – it finds solutions that are all around us and relevant to so many environments,” he explains. “You just have to uncover the light – dig in the dirt to discover the microbial adaptations driving remediation, production, and resilience.” 

Shane is passionate about elucidating the bioactive compounds, growth promoters, antimicrobials, and metabolic processes microbes have evolved to solve pressing problems. “What can you do with these chemicals and microbial abilities to benefit mankind?” he asks.

Shane’s innovations engineering custom biofertilizers, biopesticides, therapeutic scaffolds, and robust fermentation isolates aim to harness obscured natural mechanisms to drive sustainable agriculture, health, and industrial solutions.

Esteemed Academic Foundation Focused on Microbiology

Shane’s career is driven by curiosity and built upon his love of learning. He received his undergraduate degree — a BS in Biology/Biological Sciences from St. Norbert College, and his Master’s degree and PhD in Microbiology and Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

His graduate research included engineering microbial processes for the development of new anticancer therapies. He subsequently earned roles both instructing microbiology coursework for multiple universities as well as leading key research initiatives like studying inter-microbial secondary metabolites influencing insect virulence and symbiosis. 

Before beginning his research work at BTR, Shane was a Professor and Research Specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for over 10 years.

His work has been featured in a number of publications, including:

• ngrA-dependent natural products are required for interspecies competition and virulence in the insect pathogenic bacterium Xenorhabdus szentirmaii

• Engineered Production of Tryprostatins in E. coli through Reconstitution of a Partial ftm Biosynthetic Gene Cluster from Aspergillus sp

• New insights into the genetic organization of the FK228 biosynthetic gene cluster in Chromobacterium violaceum No. 968

• Reconstitution of FK228 biosynthetic gene cluster reveals cross talk between modular polyketide and fatty acid biosynthesis

• An FAD-dependent pyridine nucleotide-disulfide oxidoreductase is involved in disulfide bond formation in FK228 anticancer depsipeptide

• Vinyl ketone reduction by three distinct Gluconobacter oxydans 621H enzymes

In addition to his education and research work, Shane was also named “Instructor of the Year” during his teaching career at Herzing University as a Professor of Biological Sciences, a position he held for 9 years. 

He was also a winner in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s “Smart Cities-Smart Futures” competition sponsored by Foxconn, where he and his research partner formulated a safer way to construct and position streetlights for a future “smart city”.

When not elucidating new microbial insights, you can find Dr. Shane Wesener volunteering on community building projects, discovering scenic parks across Wisconsin, and playing volleyball.