Welcome to Synthistat Ltd

Arfan Afzal our Chairman brings strategic oversight and cross-sector leadership to the company’s mission of advancing synthetic HDAC inhibitor therapeutics and engineered producer cell lines.

With decades of experience in international investment, regulatory governance, and board-level advisory, he supports Synthistat’s executive team in shaping IP strategy, commercialisation pathways, and global partnerships.

His guidance plays a key role in aligning the company’s scientific innovation with scalable, real-world applications across the CDMO, academic, and pharmaceutical sectors.

Email: arfan@synthistat.com

Zakeria Abdi is an experienced innovator in the CDMO and drug discovery space, with specialist expertise in HDAC inhibitor pharmacology and lentiviral vector (LVV) production enhancement.

He holds an MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Distinction) from Aston University, where he developed a strong foundation in medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and translational drug development.

During his tenure at Virocell Biologics, Zakeria led pioneering work investigating the usage of clinically approved HDACi for improved viral vector yield. Most notably, he discovered and published that the synthetic HDAC inhibitor Panobinostat significantly outperforms sodium butyrate for lentiviral vector production (Abdi et al., 2025). These findings were presented at the ISCT Annual Meeting 2025, highlighting a scalable and translatable strategy for LVV yield enhancement.

Building on a structure-based understanding of HDAC inhibition and LVV induction biology, Zakeria at Synthistat identified opportunities to design proprietary next-generation HDAC inhibitors with superior vector induction capacity and improved pharmacological properties.

Beyond small-molecule innovation, he is also leading the company to advance gene-modified producer cell lines, designed to enhance viral vector yield and consistency through rational engineering of epigenetic and innate immune pathways. 

Email: zak@synthistat.com

After attending Harrow School, from the early 1990s, Zak Mir was a derivatives broker at various companies such as Sucden, Union Cal (later part of Man Group) and Berkeley Futures. 

In 2000 the opportunities afforded by the internet and the growth of Technical Analysis in the UK led to Zak being Shares Magazine’s first Technical Editor. 

Since then in 2016 he founded Miriad, a financial PR company and then Lift Global Ventures, an Aquis listed fintech investment company of which he was CEO for 4 years. He is now Head of Investor Relations at Synthistat. 

Email: info@synthistat.com

Dr Mushtaq Ali

AI Researcher ·  Cheminformatics · Automate ESG Reporting. Governance: EU AI Act. 

Founder Deepsolv

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) 

Detailed bio coming soon

Email: info@synthistat.com