Amine Zorgani: Purpose-driven professional passionate with microbiome research

A passionate microbiome researcher, Amine Zorgani, Head of Microbiology R&D of S-Biomedic, is bringing forth new findings with the help of his team. Certified in project management, digital marketing, Mini-MBA, cGMP, and GLP, he is a true professional who loves taking charge and leading towards a new revolution. His role at S-Biomedic is helping them develop a revolutionary portfolio of products that will transform the lives of people.

Stating his success definition, he says, “I never thought that success is having an important position or a big salary, for me at whatever level you are, if you do your job right you will for sure achieve personal satisfaction – that is a success. However, success is also finding the right balance between the personal and the professional lives.”

Never settling for something less

At the start of his career, Amine feels lucky to join forces with Nuritas, a company using artificial intelligence for the discovery of life-changing molecules. He became fascinated with the power of AI and its endless possible applications.

He adds, “Even today, I look into every possible implementations of AI in my current role. If someone could read all the papers published about a specific disease, for sure, he will find that a drug, a cure is a hidden in the combination of those papers. A Human being can not read 100000 paper and make connections between them, but an AI brain can do that.”

After completing his Post-Doc, he questioned himself about his future journey. Top scientific papers, more knowledge to the research community, all tempting goals, but Amine wanted to be a part of a bigger mission that will mark a dent over the world. So, he left the academic world to pursue his dreams and chase the shortest path to his target. 

Tackling a dilemma to choose between a startup and a huge corporate beast for the next step, he decided to join forces with a startup to enjoy the freedom to grow and evolve. He stresses his choice by stating, “I chose startups as you have more freedom to innovate and learn. I cannot come to my work just to do my work! I feel the need to do “the extra mile.” Running this extra mile keeps me motivated every day.”

Crossing out the obstacles while progressing forward

After completing his bio-engineering degree, Amine wanted to pursue the Ph.D. program to expand his reach. However, the bureaucracy decided against it, and he had to immigrate to France to acquire his doctorate. After completing his Ph.D., he stayed unemployed for six months, thinking about his next right move. He expresses, “This challenging period gave me the strength to cope with “routine” and taught me to always stay positive and never neglect any opportunity.”

He grabbed a spot in Ireland but soon left it for his new role in Scotland in April 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 crisis, his contract was canceled, and he was back to square one. Amine held onto his nerve, reached out to his contacts, and joined forces with S-Biomedic. He expresses his golden mantra,“ My strategy is easy, take it, make it, reach out, and never give up!”

Comprehensive services and vision of S-Biomedic

Established in 2014, S-Biomedic NV became the world’s leading skin microbiome company. Since the skin microbiome consists of billions of microorganisms residing in and on the body, the bacteria community covers the largest proportion. Thus, the founders of S-Biomedic NV found through their extensive research that the overall body health is dependent on the bacterial community composition on the skin and any imbalances within this microbiome lead to different types of diseases. Amine says, “Our products directly modulate the skin microbiome, enabling the recovery of a healthy microbiome community and opens the door to effectively treat acne and other skin diseases.”

Sharing his long-term company vision, he shares, “I want to help the company to be the reference worldwide in the skin microbiome and in essence, change the life of billions suffering from skin diseases. My aim to achieve this is by creating a work culture that is built on trust, responsibility, and ownership.”

Spreading Awareness and driving innovation Microbiome

Owing to the lack of clear regulations and guidelines in the microbiome field, the Human microbiome project is still incomplete. Also, the non-scientific community is quite unaware of the microbiome and its impact on our lives. So, he tries to connect with different microbiome professionals via webinars or conferences to highlight the regulatory hurdle. Besides that, he keeps educating the public about microbiomes and their benefits through his 5700+ LinkedIn followers. 

Innovation is the key driver to propel the company ahead. Thus, any company lacking innovation within its core DNA will close at a point. He adds, “In this context, if you do not invest in innovation, you will do what we call “me too,” you will not progress and for sure end up going backward, especially in biotechnology.” 

Managing Professional and Personal fronts 

Being the Head of Microbiology R&D of S-Biomedic, he works with a team of 6 scientists and creates a plan for their work as per the priority of different projects. His role also calls for many other responsibilities such as maintaining regular communications with different stakeholders, finding new R&D partners, troubleshooting experiments and their feedback assessment, and meeting with the leadership to shape the company’s future ahead. 

Emphasizing his “higher calling” for motivation, he believes in making a difference in people’s lives. Therefore, he keeps reminding the team the same and helps them achieve their short-term goals to restore their motivation! 

He feels lucky to have a supportive wife and lovely daughter. He shares, “My wife knows precisely when I need a break and offers me the comfort I need to do just that! When I have a long day at work, and I go back home, and I have my daughter jumping on me, saying with a huge smile, “Papa!” I forget all the heavy lifting I did during my day.” To keep the balance intact, efficient day-to-day work planning aids in keeping his strength up for the second day. 

Looking Forward to a Brighter Future

Amine aims to imbibe a culture of ownership within his team, and for this, he keeps enhancing his leadership skills to develop a plethora of interpersonal tools. 

For upcoming business leaders, he shares his inspirational message, “If you are in a rush, take a step back and see if you did something wrong, as usually, the success lies in the details. If you are too far in your journey and you feel you are lost, go back to where it all started and see if you can do it differently. If you can’t, this probably means that you are on the right track. You just need to figure out the next right step. Finally, before throwing too much energy, money, and time on something you don’t know well, ask some peers and see if you can do things differently.”