Life Sciences and Biotechnology
I help research teams sort out which experiments and development options the available evidence can support.
DATA, AI & TECHNICAL CONSULTING
Better decisions from imperfect data.
I help life-sciences teams work out what their research supports, civil teams make sense of scattered project records, industrial and agricultural teams compare process options, and small businesses build clearer websites or useful tools. I bring a PhD in microbiology and applied machine learning experience, and I have helped take products to market in industry.
01 / QUESTIONWhat needs to change?
02 / EVIDENCEWhat do we know?
03 / LIMITSWhat is uncertain?
REVIEW GATE Defined next step Scope · review · handoff
INPUTS TRACEABLEJUDGMENT ACCOUNTABLE
CHOOSE YOUR FIELD
Where I can help
The work varies by field. Explore the area closest to yours, or get in touch about a problem that crosses disciplines.
Civil Engineering and Infrastructure
Bring plans, records and project data into a form that engineers can inspect before relying on them.
Industrial and Agriculture
Understand which assumptions matter when comparing processes or evaluating a change in production.
Small Business and Professional Services
Get a clearer website or a practical tool for the work your business does every day. AI is optional.
Clear scope Evidence you can check Files you keep
Relevant work / practical next steps
Examples of the work and the thinking behind it
I've included research projects, employment experience and consulting examples. Each is labeled so you can see what was actually demonstrated.
Flagship case study · Commercialized product
Turn complex data into a product customers can use.
I brought scientific modeling, product development and customer economics together to turn a research program into a commercial decision tool at a major animal-nutrition company.
The original problem was poultry nutrition. The broader capability is turning complicated data into useful recommendations, making the service affordable to deliver and giving customers a reason to adopt it.
$180 → $25per-sample analysis cost
Read the flagship case study →Major animal-nutrition company · 2015–2018 · Historical employment work
Galleon™ Broiler Microbiome Intelligence received a 2023 Gold Edison Award after my tenure.
Life Sciences and Biotechnology
Conceptual analysis
Test the economics before committing to the build.
A conceptual bioprocess study compares technical options under space-mission resource constraints.
Conceptual design and analysis; not deployed hardware
Civil Engineering and Infrastructure
Prototype
Bring scattered project data into one reviewable workflow.
A synthetic workbench illustrates source assembly and discrepancy flags for specialist review, not validated engineering conclusions or licensed design.
Consulting work · Prototype design; no real-project results claimed
Worked example
Compare your options under real constraints.
A constrained formulation example keeps data provenance beside the modeled cost and requirements.
Illustrative data; no client results or completed implementation claimed
Small Business and Professional Services
Team-used workflow
Put existing knowledge to work on the next proposal.
A consulting workflow reuses source material to draft proposals while leaving review and approval with people.
Consulting work · Team use reported; business-impact metrics not established
When a recurring workflow is the problem
A closer look at a recurring workflow
If a process consumes too much time or keeps producing avoidable errors, we can examine it before anyone commits to a build. The options below stand on their own. Website, scientific modeling and writing projects can be scoped directly.
- 01
Workflow Teardown
A half day on one workflow with the people who run it, then a short readout: where the friction is, and whether the Sprint is the right next step.
Teardown details → - 02
Diligence Sprint
Three calendar weeks after kickoff and receipt of agreed source material. You leave with a pilot specification and a build, narrow, defer, or stop decision.
Sprint details → - 03
Pilot build
If the decision is build, the pilot runs in your environment on representative inputs, with agreed acceptance criteria and run records you can inspect.
Pilot details → - 04
Independent advisory
Review an AI decision, vendor claim or existing workflow at any stage. A single engagement or a scoped monthly retainer ends in a written advisory record. Evaluation can be scoped explicitly; nothing auto-renews.
Advisory details →
Before you commission the work
See example deliverables What would you actually receive?
The examples show what a first assignment could look like in each field, including what you would receive and who reviews it.
Career record
Selected work from my employment history
These examples come from my employment history. They show work I led or contributed to in those roles, not results delivered to McIntosh Consulting clients.
Over 62 countries reported adoption of HTSi and its intestinal-integrity index
At Elanco, I owned HTSi strategy, vision, roadmap and analytics direction, coordinating R&D, marketing and sales. A 2020 study reported adoption of HTSi and its intestinal-integrity index by customers in over 62 countries during my tenure.
Elanco · HTSi product ownership · 2020 platform adoption study
Read the 2020 adoption study → R&D portfolio governance and investment decisions
At Land O'Lakes, I monitored the PMI portfolio against business goals, built dashboards and led go/no-go decisions. I also led customer relationships and intellectual-property strategy for the portfolio.
Land O'Lakes · PMI Business Portfolio
Method
How I check AI-assisted work
A model can produce convincing work that falls apart when someone tries to use it. I test the result against the real task before asking a team to rely on it.
Read the full method →-
Keep experimental tools away from live systems.
The agent works in a contained workstation with the tools it needs and nothing else, walled off from your network and operations.
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Test what happens in the actual workflow.
AI-built work routinely passes its own tests and still does nothing in the real flow of the job. I check the work in that flow, on the inputs and handoffs the job actually has, before it counts as done.
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Trace important numbers back to the source.
Where a value has to be right, it comes from the source document, the published table, or a federal data feed, with a citation. Never from the model's guess.
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Bring the right specialist into the review.
I know where my expertise ends. The people responsible for the science, engineering or business decision review the result. I build the workflow that makes their review possible.
Detailed service scopes
Services and what you receive
Review the named deliverables, required inputs and boundaries. These services can stand on their own or support a larger scoped project. The four field pages show where each one fits.
Workflow Engineering
Review a recurring workflow, test an existing synthetic dataset or build a bounded pilot with acceptance criteria and run records.
Scientific & R&D Decision Support
Evaluate AI choices, map R&D and scale-up risks, or compare process options before committing resources.
Federal & Technical Communication
Review an eligible proposal, establish a repeatable proposal process or explain technical work to a defined audience.
About
Dr. Vernon McIntosh
Founder & Principal Consultant
Much of my work begins with a team that knows something needs to improve but hasn't found a practical way forward. I look at how the work actually happens and help decide whether the answer is a technical review, a simpler process or something worth building. Sometimes that's an AI workflow. Sometimes it's a straightforward business tool.
My background includes product commercialization at a major animal-nutrition company, product ownership at Elanco, R&D portfolio governance at Land O'Lakes and scientific evaluation at Signature Science. I hold a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and am a named co-inventor on granted US patents.
Hiring for your team? View my employment portfolio →
AI/ML Workflow EngineeringAutomation & Data ScienceMetabolic EngineeringFederal Proposal SystemsCivil Engineering Tooling
Patents & Publications
Published work and patent records
Named co-inventor on six granted US patents for engineered yeast that produces succinate, and on published US and PCT applications, including microbiome analytics for animal nutrition. Doctoral research on the transcriptional response of microbial systems to chemical stressors. Everything below is on file and verifiable.
Patents & Applications
- US 2023/0298688 A1 Microbiome analytics such as for animal nutrition management
- US 11,821,021 B2 Yeast cells having reductive TCA pathway from pyruvate to succinate and overexpressing an exogenous NAD(P)+ transhydrogenase enzyme
- US 11,390,873 B2 Compositions and methods for succinate production
- US 11,041,176 B2 Yeast cells having reductive TCA pathway from pyruvate to succinate and overexpressing an exogenous NAD(P)+ transhydrogenase enzyme
- US 10,066,246 B2 Yeast cells having NADP(H)-dependent reductive TCA pathway from pyruvate to succinate
- US 9,850,507 B2 Yeast cells having reductive TCA pathway from pyruvate to succinate and overexpressing an exogenous NAD(P)+ transhydrogenase enzyme
- US 9,605,285 B2 Compositions and methods for succinate production
- US 2023/0193299 A1 Compositions and methods for succinate production
- WO 2021/243009 A1 Microbiome analytics such as for animal nutrition management
- WO 2014/018757 A1 Yeast cells having reductive TCA pathway from pyruvate to succinate and overexpressing an exogenous NAD(P)+ transhydrogenase enzyme
Research & Recognition
- PhD Dissertation An Analysis of Global Gene Expression Resulting from Exposure to Energetic Materials
- Recognition Galleon™ Broiler Microbiome Intelligence: 2023 Gold Edison Award
Get started
Bring the question or task.
Tell me what you want to improve, the evidence or material you already have and the result you need. We can decide whether the right next step is a website, a focused tool, an analysis or a narrower review.