Reneo Pharmaceuticals
Vice President, Global Tech Ops & CMC
With a diverse background in large pharma and biotech companies, Helen leads the successful technical and strategic development of novel compounds, devices, and businesses.
Helen is the Vice President of Global Tech Ops & CMC at Reneo Pharma Ltd., a clinical-stage company focused on the development and commercialisation of therapies for patients with rare, genetic, mitochondrial diseases. She is also the founder and managing director of Project-ion Ltd, which advances the development of small and large molecules with biotech organisations.
She has a proven track record in developing innovative project strategies and their delivery to critical milestones. A leader of global, multidisciplinary teams in CMC, diagnostics, clinical research, and across R&D.
She enjoyed a range of positions within Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, multiple start-up companies, and the University of Oxford, enabled by degrees in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science and an MBA. She was Head of Pharmaceutical Development at Ziarco, which Novartis acquired in 2016.
Helen is a Faculty Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, a Chartered Chemist, Chartered Scientist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Areas of particular expertise include rare and orphan, infectious, and respiratory diseases. Further interests include business strategy development, supporting emerging pharmaceutical scientist leaders, and patient and public involvement in research.
Moderna
Country Medical Director, UK
Country Medical Director at Moderna UK, Dr Philip Cruz, has over 15 years of experience in medical affairs in the field of vaccines and paediatrics within the pharmaceutical industry. At Moderna in the UK, Dr Cruz is responsible for the development and execution of the medical affairs strategy for Moderna’s infectious disease franchise and drives scientific leadership for the vaccine portfolio, while ensuring compliance with applicable policies and procedures. He also ensures effective interactions with key UK scientific leaders, public health experts, scientific and medical associations and healthcare authorities at the national level, providing country insight-gathering activities to meet the company needs around the clinical development and innovation in the field of vaccination.
Dr Cruz worked at GSK Vaccines for over 11 years, eventually assuming the role of Vaccines Medical Director for the UK and Ireland. Following his time at GSK, he was appointed as Senior Global Medical Affairs Leader (Vaccines) at AstraZeneca. He has a breadth of experience in clinical development and continues his involvement in clinical trials as a local medical lead. His role as an ABPI final signatory has given him established knowledge in medical governance and he has extensive experience in pharmaceutical medical affairs.
A paediatrician by training, Dr Cruz is actively involved in clinical research, research and development and pharmaceutical medicine.
Eli Lilly and Company
Vice President, Neuroscience Search & Evaluation
Jennifer Laird, Ph.D., D.Sc. is VP, Search & Evaluation Pain & Neurodegeneration at Eli Lilly and Company, based at Lilly’s European Headquarters near London, UK. The global Search & Evaluation team complements Lilly’s internal R&D efforts by evaluating, in-licensing or acquiring assets and technologies and by advancing molecules through discovery and development in collaboration with external partners.
Prior to joining Lilly in 2012, Dr. Laird held various leadership roles in Translational Science, Project Management and Pharmacology at AstraZeneca, in academia and Merck. Dr. Laird received doctorates from Bristol University and University of Alicante, Spain.
Oxford Medical Products
Chief Executive Officer
Dr Camilla Easter, has ten years biotech/mechtech start-up as CEO/COO working exclusively on hydrogel based medical devices. Originally a veterinary surgeon, she has run veterinary clinical trials and launched the veterinary arm of a biotech company. Following on from this she moved into the human biotech sector, here she was involved with all aspects of the company including, R&D, fundraising, regulatory and preclinical trials for medical devices.
Charles River Laboratories
Chief Scientific Officer (Early Discovery)
Justin joined Charles River Laboratories in 2022 as Chief Scientific Officer (Early Discovery) and in this role he works closely with a range of experts to develop CRL’s drug discovery strategy, explore opportunities with existing and prospective clients, evaluate new areas of science and technology and develop new approaches to strengthen the CRL offering. Justin trained as a chemist at the universities of York and Oxford, the latter being as a post-doc under Professor Sir Jack Baldwin. Since then, he has gained over 30 years’ experience in drug discovery at several biotechnology and pharma companies including Parke-Davis and Pfizer. Prior to joining CRL, he spent 16 years as Director of Drug Discovery at LifeArc, a UK based charity and not-for-profit organisation, where he led a team covering chemistry, biology, antibodies and diagnostics. Justin holds an honorary professorship at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and he teaches on various aspects of drug discovery at QMUL, University College London and the Wellcome Trust. He also sits on a range of advisory committees and panels in the UK and Sweden. Justin Bryans
Astellas Pharmaceuticals
Head of UK/EU Search & Evaluation,
A biochemist by training, Bradley started his career working for the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, driving drug discovery programmes. He has since spent 20 years commercialising research, mainly emanating from the world’s most prestigious universities. This experience includes seven and a half years within the seed funds team at Cambridge Enterprise (CE), the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge. Here, he made 16 investments in 12 different companies, ranging from therapeutics (including small molecules, biologics and gene therapy), diagnostics and prognostics, medical devices, reagents, digital health, and scientific instrumentation.
Bradley currently heads up the UK/EU Search & Evaluation team at Astellas Pharmaceuticals. Here his team scouts for potential partnerships of interest to Astellas, including research collaborations, licensing, VC investing and M&A.
Bradley has an undergraduate degree in Medical Biochemistry from Brunel University, a research master’s degree in Molecular Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge and an Executive MBA from Bayes (formerly Cass) Business School. He is also a visiting business fellow at InnovationRCA, the commercialisation arm of the Royal College of Art.
Anglia Ruskin University
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation)
Strategic leadership experience in higher education
Professor Barnett has over 17 years’ experience of senior strategic leadership in the UK university sector. She is currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Anglia Ruskin University with strategic leadership responsibilities for research and innovation; the ARU Doctoral School; and student employability.
Research interests
Professor Barnett has active research interests in the causes and mechanisms of cancer and ageing, and more recently in public health matters and has co-authored over 180 peer-reviewed original research papers. She has supervised, to successful completion, 21 PhD students. During her career she has secured over £35 million of funding from a range of regional, national and international bodies to support successful teaching, research and innovation initiatives.
Other leadership and appointments
Yvonne is currently Trustee and Council member of the Royal Society of Biology; Director of Medilink Midlands; Academic Adviser for Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Board member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, member of Harlow Growth Board, Co-Chair of the Ox-Cam ARC Universities Operational Group, Governor of ARU Peterborough and Immediate Past President of the Heads of University Centres for Biomedical Sciences. She is also a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Biology and the Institute of Biomedical Science. In addition, she was Deputy Chair of the REF 2021 A03 Sub-Panel for Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy, chaired the current QAA national benchmark group for Biomedical Sciences and the UUK Gold Open Access Working Group on Good Practice Guidelines. She was a long-standing Non-Executive Director of BioCity Group Ltd, founding Director of the highly successful Doctoral Training Alliance in Applied Biosciences for Health. Yvonne was a Trustee of NESTA; and has been an active executive members of a number of other learned societies and regional innovation agencies and initiatives.
Moderna
Country Medical Director, UK
Country Medical Director at Moderna UK, Dr Philip Cruz, has over 15 years of experience in medical affairs in the field of vaccines and paediatrics within the pharmaceutical industry. At Moderna in the UK, Dr Cruz is responsible for the development and execution of the medical affairs strategy for Moderna’s infectious disease franchise and drives scientific leadership for the vaccine portfolio, while ensuring compliance with applicable policies and procedures. He also ensures effective interactions with key UK scientific leaders, public health experts, scientific and medical associations and healthcare authorities at the national level, providing country insight-gathering activities to meet the company needs around the clinical development and innovation in the field of vaccination.
Dr Cruz worked at GSK Vaccines for over 11 years, eventually assuming the role of Vaccines Medical Director for the UK and Ireland. Following his time at GSK, he was appointed as Senior Global Medical Affairs Leader (Vaccines) at AstraZeneca. He has a breadth of experience in clinical development and continues his involvement in clinical trials as a local medical lead. His role as an ABPI final signatory has given him established knowledge in medical governance and he has extensive experience in pharmaceutical medical affairs.
A paediatrician by training, Dr Cruz is actively involved in clinical research, research and development and pharmaceutical medicine.
Discovery Park Ventures
Director
As EJ Palmer Consulting, Emma Palmer Foster works with pharma and biotech companies/organisations on strategy, investor relations and communications. She chairs a UK NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Product Development Award Panel, is a Director of Discovery Park Ventures and Investor Director at two of its portfolio companies. Emma has more than 30 years of experience in the European healthcare sector, via roles in investment banking, VC, financial communications and investor relations, journalism and technology transfer. She has worked with a wide range of pharma, biotech and medtech firms on IPOs, M&A transactions, public and private fundraisings. Emma has an MA in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Durham University Business School
Think10
Founder
Melanie is a seasoned Executive and Non-Executive Director across Pharma and Medtech companies, including FTSE 100 biotech, large public and small venture backed boards. She has a strong background in corporate development of strategy in public and private companies to their next phase of growth and is widely connected across the global healthcare sector. Melanie is pursuing a portfolio career in life sciences focused on new technologies and innovation to transform the opportunities for human health and wellbeing.
Melanie has held Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director of R&D/CSO roles. She has a strong capability in corporate strategy and financial acuity and is passionate about translation in life sciences and is focused on driving and leading change to embrace technologies into pathways to product success for human health. She held NED and Executive board positions since joining Celltech (a FTSE 100 Board) in 1998 and is very familiar with Boards of all types.
Melanie’s most recent NED appointment is with privately owned, Portuguese based Bial in 2023.
She was CEO of LifeArc for 5 years during a major transformational change as the Keytruda royalty stream was monetised and set a new strategy to lead translation in the life sciences. Melanie is currently a Trustee of the Dementia Research Institute.
She is a proven people focused leader who inspires others to achieve their potential and who builds high performance Executive and leadership teams to deliver on ambitious strategies for their organisation. Melanie has an open and positive style of communication and ensures engaging and concise communication of the corporate story.
Melanie works through her own consultancy, Think-10, to provide support and advice to the life sciences sector and to bridge the generational divide to listen to young entrepreneurs to achieve their potential and bring through new life changing technologies to maximise patient wellbeing.
Discovery Park Ventures
Director
As EJ Palmer Consulting, Emma Palmer Foster works with pharma and biotech companies/organisations on strategy, investor relations and communications. She chairs a UK NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) Product Development Award Panel, is a Director of Discovery Park Ventures and Investor Director at two of its portfolio companies. Emma has more than 30 years of experience in the European healthcare sector, via roles in investment banking, VC, financial communications and investor relations, journalism and technology transfer. She has worked with a wide range of pharma, biotech and medtech firms on IPOs, M&A transactions, public and private fundraisings. Emma has an MA in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Durham University Business School
In a competitive market, how do you stand out to attract investors? How can your IP strategy enable you to gain market share, attract more investments, and create a meaningful ROI?
Eli Lilly and Company
Vice President, Neuroscience Search & Evaluation
Jennifer Laird, Ph.D., D.Sc. is VP, Search & Evaluation Pain & Neurodegeneration at Eli Lilly and Company, based at Lilly’s European Headquarters near London, UK. The global Search & Evaluation team complements Lilly’s internal R&D efforts by evaluating, in-licensing or acquiring assets and technologies and by advancing molecules through discovery and development in collaboration with external partners.
Prior to joining Lilly in 2012, Dr. Laird held various leadership roles in Translational Science, Project Management and Pharmacology at AstraZeneca, in academia and Merck. Dr. Laird received doctorates from Bristol University and University of Alicante, Spain.
J A Kemp LLP
Partner, European and UK Patent Attorney
Marc Wilkinson is a European and UK Patent Attorney with over 17 years’ experience representing clients in the biotechnology and life sciences sectors. Prior to this, he worked for over 5 years as a research scientist in the pharmaceutical industry.
Marc’s specialises in all areas of biotechnology and life sciences with a particular focus on genetics, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology. Marc handles patent cases involving humanised and monoclonal antibodies, transgenic technologies, induced pluripotent stem cells, RNAi, genome manipulation and editing including CRISPR, gene therapy, nucleic acid microarrays, diagnostic assays, microfluidic devices, PCR assays and reagents, and medical devices.
As well as providing patent validity, infringement and freedom-to-operate advice, he has extensive experience drafting and prosecuting patent applications. He has been involved in numerous cases before the Opposition Divisions and the Technical Boards of Appeal at the European Patent Office, and he holds the UK Higher Courts Litigation Certificate.
Astellas Pharmaceuticals
Head of UK/EU Search & Evaluation,
A biochemist by training, Bradley started his career working for the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, driving drug discovery programmes. He has since spent 20 years commercialising research, mainly emanating from the world’s most prestigious universities. This experience includes seven and a half years within the seed funds team at Cambridge Enterprise (CE), the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge. Here, he made 16 investments in 12 different companies, ranging from therapeutics (including small molecules, biologics and gene therapy), diagnostics and prognostics, medical devices, reagents, digital health, and scientific instrumentation.
Bradley currently heads up the UK/EU Search & Evaluation team at Astellas Pharmaceuticals. Here his team scouts for potential partnerships of interest to Astellas, including research collaborations, licensing, VC investing and M&A.
Bradley has an undergraduate degree in Medical Biochemistry from Brunel University, a research master’s degree in Molecular Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge and an Executive MBA from Bayes (formerly Cass) Business School. He is also a visiting business fellow at InnovationRCA, the commercialisation arm of the Royal College of Art.
Oxford Medical Products
Chief Executive Officer
Dr Camilla Easter, has ten years biotech/mechtech start-up as CEO/COO working exclusively on hydrogel based medical devices. Originally a veterinary surgeon, she has run veterinary clinical trials and launched the veterinary arm of a biotech company. Following on from this she moved into the human biotech sector, here she was involved with all aspects of the company including, R&D, fundraising, regulatory and preclinical trials for medical devices.
24Haymarket
Sr. Investment Associate
Alex is an investment executive at 24Haymarket, a UK-based VC with over £110m assets under management. Alex leads the healthcare vertical, with a portfolio that includes Radar Healthcare, DrDoctor and Mogrify. Before joining 24Haymarket, Alex worked in management consulting at Accenture helping to drive digital strategies at global corporations. Alex has a biochemical engineering degree from Queens University in Canada and an MBA from London Business School.
AI is very much a buzzword across industries, including the biotech industry. How can we adopt an intelligent AI strategy to maximise benefits and minimise risks?
Mills & Reeve
Partner and Head of Life Sciences
James heads Mills & Reeve’s multi-disciplinary life sciences practice. He supports businesses across the full product lifecycle, from start-up to commercialisation.
A key focus of his work is supporting clients on strategic contracting covering technology / IP in and out- licensing transactions, research collaborations, clinical trial agreements and long term partnering agreements. James also advises on sector regulation including pharma and medical device regulation, market access, borderline products, advertising and clinical trials.
Baseimmune
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Josh has a PhD in Vaccinology and Infectious Diseases from the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford where he pioneered computational approaches to design vaccines against various infectious diseases. He’s designed a number of vaccines against diseases such as dengue and chikungunya to human papilloma virus (HPV) and malaria. Two of his vaccine candidates are currently in human clinical trials and licensed to pharma. For the last three years he worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London, developing new ways to create malaria vaccines. In 2019 he co-founded Baseimmune to generate mutation-proof vaccines through deep learning technology.
CoSyne Therapeutics
CTO and Head of AI
Experienced computational scientist, bringing state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and mathematical techniques into large scale data applications.
Deep learning expert, with a particular interest in applying AI to medical research needs.
Prior experience using machine learning and molecular mechanics for drug design, protein – protein interaction modelling, drug combination therapy design.
Prior experience in using AI for image analysis, including MRI, CT and mammogram scans for detecting anomalies.
Experienced GPU programmer, speaking C++, CUDA, OpenCL, Java, python and C#
Arctoris
Chief Executive Officer
Martin-Immanuel Bittner MD DPhil FRSA is the Chief Executive Officer of Arctoris, the drug discovery platform company that he co-founded in Oxford in 2016. Martin graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Freiburg in Germany, followed by his DPhil in Oncology as a Rhodes scholar at the University of Oxford. He has extensive research experience covering both clinical trials and preclinical drug discovery and is an active member of several leading cancer research organisations, including EACR, AACR, and ESTRO. In recognition of his research achievements, he was elected a member of the Young Academy of the German National Academy of Sciences and of Sigma Xi.
Ignota Labs
CEO and Co-Founder
Sam is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ignota Labs. Ignota Labs’ Explainable AI platform predicts and solves safety problems throughout the drug development process. Sam is a former mathematician and leader in data-driven solutions to solve healthcare-related problems. He has an MBA from INSEAD Business School, a Masters in Mathematics from Nottingham University and experience working across the NHS, big pharma and other corporates, hospital trusts, and startups.
As biotech products become increasingly innovative, it’s essential to engage with regulators. How can engaging with regulators early and often help you overcome hurdles, understand data requirements, and maximise the benefits of innovation?
Kathryn Simpson Consulting Limited
Business Consultant
Kathryn is a respected and successful change leadership expert, with diverse career experience in Europe and North America. She has over 25 years of consulting and line experience with leading organisations (Unilever, Mars, KPMG and GSK). Since 2007 she has been leading her own independent consulting business, primarily working within the Life Sciences sector. By partnering with leaders at all levels within the sector, growth and sustainable success has resulted for the organisations she has worked with. She has recently published a book – “Leading for Change: How to thrive during uncertain times”.
She provides each organisation the approaches they need to meet their unique situation. Tailored approaches are used to develop a consolidated understanding of their environment and the priority challenges they face. This provides the basis for facilitating customised workshops where leaders not only create a desired future, but are ready to move forward and implement their ideas. Working with individual leaders or teams she advises how to bring other stakeholders with them so they achieve success together. These practical and supportive approaches create focus, accountability and collaboration across organisations and their partners. Organisations are left with an increased leadership capability and tangible business results.
Vitarka Therapeutics
Chief Executive Officer, Chief Scientific Officer
As the founder and functioning CEO and CSO of Vitarka Therapeutics, Vineeta has more than 15 years’ experience in drug development. She has led multi-million-pound multi-site projects at UCL, Boehringer Ingelheim and Ipsen Bioinnovation. As an asset leader, she has delivered 2x therapeutics being tested in 7x clinical trials and 3x therapeutics for clinical development. She is a co-inventor on 13x granted patents. At Ipsen Bioinnovation, she was the strategic alliance leader for collaborations with Harvard Medical School (Isaac Chiu and John Collier), Boston Children’s Hospital (Min Dong) and Broad MIT (David Liu) where she sat on the Joint Steering Committee with the tech-transfer offices for in-licensing negotiations and research contracts. Previously, as a member of Prof Chris Shaw’s team she co-discovered mutations and functional properties of TDP-43 and FUS genes. These are breakthrough discoveries, with an entire disease pathology now termed as “TDP-43 proteinopathies”. Her work as first author and co-author is published in several imminent journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Neuroscience, PNAS, etc. with a citation record of >7000. Outside of work, Vineeta is a professional dancer with a Bachelors in Bharatnatyam and Post-Diploma in Indian Classical Dance form Kathak. A fun fact about her is that she has the memory of an elephant!
ValiRx PLC
Chief Executive Officer
Dr Suzy Dilly is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of the AIM-listed UK biotech, ValiRx PLC. Suzy is an experienced entrepreneurial scientist. After commercialising her Chemical Biology post-doctoral research in the University of Warwick spin-out, a2sp Limited, Suzy was awarded a prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship, during which formal commercial and entrepreneurial training completed her transition from lab to boardroom. Completing commercial transactions to progress projects through multiple companies, Suzy has been working in small company virtual biotechs since 2006.
Newcastle University
Professor
Moein Moghimi is a Professor of Pharmaceutics and Nanomedicine at the School of Pharmacy, and Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University (UK), and an Adjoint Professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy, University of Colorado, Denver. He is co-founder of S M Discovery Group Inc. and S M Discovery Group Ltd. He further serves as Associate Editor of Molecular Therapy (the flagship journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy) and Drug Delivery (Taylor and Francis). Previously, he was Chair of Nanomedicine at Durham University (UK), Professor of Nanomedicine at Copenhagen University, Director of the Centre for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology (Copenhagen University), Visiting Professor at the University of Padova (Italy) and Affiliate Professor at Houston Methodist Research Institute (Texas). He graduated with Honors in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester (UK) in 1985 and completed his PhD in Biochemistry at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School (Imperial College). He is widely published and reported in the press, and recognised for his contribution to fundamental and translational research in nanomedicine and drug delivery, especially in mechanistic understanding of nanoparticle-mediated complement activation and adverse reactions, and as an inventor of many drug delivery systems for tissue-specific targeting.
New technologies enable drugs to be manufactured more efficiently, more compliantly, and at a lower cost. What is the role of advanced, automated, data-controlled processes in the future of biopharmaceutical manufacturing?
Turbine AI
Chief Discovery Officer
Amrik has over 20 years’ experience in drug discovery, focusing mainly on biologics for a range of diseases in inflammation, fibrosis and immuno- oncology. He graduated with a PhD in Biochemistry and protein engineering from Leicester University. After 6 years in academic research at the Institute of Biotechnology, Cambridge University, he moved into the biotech sector. He has held senior roles in biotech and pharma such as Domantis, GSK and CSO/founder of the therapeutics division of Avacta Lifesciences.
During his career, he has planned and worked on multiple projects with pharma and biotech companies based in the US (Moderna, BMS, Pfizer etc), Asia (LG Chem) and Europe (GSK, AstraZeneca, etc). He is an expert of formulations for inhaled delivery, DNA encoded approaches for cell and gene therapy applications and the development of novel biological platforms to address disease targets in a wide range of settings. He has significant experience in building multidisciplinary teams to deliver new technologies into clinical development.
BiologIC Technologies
Chief Executive Officer
Richard is co-founder, CEO and Chair of BiologIC Technologies Limited. BiologIC’s integrated processing development platform enhances yields, process robustness and scalability of advanced biology products. The platform, enabled by novel biocomputer technology, is a new category of machine built from fluidic processing chips designed like computer chips. Our vision is to help customers engineer biology to solve enormous challenges faced by humanity (feeding 9.8 billion people by 2050, mitigating climate change and reducing the threat of diseases) in an environmentally sustainable, economically accessible way.
An authentic and passionate leader, Richard inspires transformational change through the alignment of purposeful vision, high performing talent and quality capital. He creates significant value through executive leadership, vision and strategy, commercialisation of science, capital market expertise, cultural and organisational change and building operational scale.
In seven valuable years as interim CEO, deputy CEO, CFO, COO and Company Secretary, Richard was instrumental in growing Horizon Discovery Group plc from an emerging private company of £3m revenue in 2012 to a recognised global leader in gene editing delivering revenue of £60m at a valuation of £350m. Richard delivered one of the most successful ever Life Science listings on AIM raising £68.6m in a heavily oversubscribed IPO at the top of its valuation range within 3 months, fundraisings in the UK and the US, four acquisitions and hostile bid defence.
Richard was previously Vice President, Finance at CSR plc, a dual listed FTSE 250 semiconductor company with $1bn of revenues, and a director in Deloitte’s life sciences practice. Richard is a qualified chartered accountant with a first class degree in biological sciences from Durham University.
Factorytalk UK
Managing Director
Neil Wetherall is the Managing Director of Factorytalk UK. Neil has supported the global bio-pharma industry for over 30 years through his roles in operations, supply chain and engineering in a top tier pharma company. He also led the IT strategy for supply chain and manufacturing, implementing enterprise wide technology programmes across all continents. He now supports our clients focusing on Global, Europe and the Americas. Neil is a member of ISPE supporting MES and Pharma 4.0.
The UK has a strong network of biotech hubs, science parks, and innovation hotspots. How do you choose your location to maximise your growth?
ARISE
Innovation Hubs Director
Dr Beverley Vaughan joined the Arise Innovation Hubs as Director in June 2021, with over 20 years’ experience in the healthcare and life sciences sector.
Beverley trained as a clinical scientist in Haematology and working at Cambridge and London University Hospitals.
Working in the innovation sector for the last 10 years with roles in Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst (SBC), Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT) and the University of Oxford in programme manager and director level positions.
Whilst at SBC Beverley supported the development of translational research facilities and raised funding from multiple pharma and biotech companies for the Open Innovation Challenge in Neurodegeneration. At CGT Beverley managed a wide portfolio of project from novel drug discovery spin outs to NHS led delivery of cell therapy products. Most recently she was responsible for the delivery of a drug discovery consortium-UKSPINE- pivoting traditional pathways to meet the demands of healthy aging with partners, Universities of Oxford, Dundee and Birmingham, Medicines Discovery Catapult, The Francis Crick Institute and Sanger Centre Cambridge.
Since joining Arise as Director Beverley has been working on building the life science strategy for their newest hub located on the Harlow Innovation Park, leading on strategy, fund raising and partnering activities to build a cluster of expertise within this synapse of the London-Cambridge corridor. She is also a member of the NC3Rs CRACKIT advisory panel.
Discovery Park
Chief Executive Officer
I am a strategic and proactive business executive with a pragmatic and results oriented approach. I have a track record in property and business investment strategies with demonstrated success in growing and transforming businesses.
I am also passionate about helping businesses succeed and helping individuals attain their potential.
As CEO of Discovery Park, my focus is to further enhance Discovery Park’s offer as a global centre of excellence for science research and innovation – from startup right through to full scale production.
We are looking to provide a vibrant and more diverse ecosystem that our companies can benefit from and have easy access to and to continue the development of the great science community at the park.Mayer Schreiber
Astellas Europe
Associate Director, Innovation Management
An organised, adaptable and independent scientific business & strategy developer and liaison with a background in pre-clinical drug development and scientific business development. A strong communicator with the ability to use one’s own initiative to problem solve and a drive to see things through to completion.
Dependable, cooperative and honest in a multidisciplinary team working environment.
Venomtech Ltd
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Steve spent a decade working as a molecular biologist in drug discovery at Pfizer, focusing extensively on pain therapeutics and developing expertise in the gastrointestinal and respiratory fields, as well as in tissue repair. He has a deep understanding of how to use venom and toxin-derived compounds for drug discovery, having worked across the board in molecular biology, pharmacology, biochemistry and anatomy. Steve drew on these years of experience to found Venomtech, with the goal of solving problems faced in the drug discovery, crop protection and cosmetics industries.
London BioInnovation Centre Ltd
Chief Executive Officer
Rich is CEO of London BioInnovation Centre Ltd, a subsidiary company of the Royal Veterinary College and a key provider of innovation space and supports for early-stage biotech companies in London’s vibrant Knowledge Quarter. He joined having spent 3 years at UCC where he was Director of Innovation, responsible for technology transfer, entrepreneurship, consultancy, and incubation.
Prior to that he was at University of Manchester where, during 18 years of service, he held various innovation positions culminating with him being Director of Operations of its subsidiary innovation company. His early career was with AstraZeneca Diagnostics where he held scientific and business development roles before leading its Sales & marketing function internationally. Rich has advised Enterprise Ireland and BBSRC and works closely with Praxis Auril where he co-directs its course on spin-out company creation.
Rich holds a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry (Sussex) and a PhD in molecular biology from Reading.
When time is money, an efficient partnership can be the key to success. What is the key to a healthy partnership between a biotech and CDMO/CMO, and how do partnerships evolve with the changing needs of a growing biotech?
Sai Life Sciences
Associate VP Business Development, CMC,
For the last 15 years, Nathalie has held various leadership positions in both tactical and strategic marketing and, more recently, in sales and business development, successfully building/deploying territorial strategies to support revenue growth for companies offering discovery, development, manufacturing, nonclinical/clinical and commercial solutions for Biotech/Pharma innovators in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
She is also a Strategic Advisor Board member at BioNow and a career mentor for young science graduates with the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).
In 2020 and 2021, she was named one of the Northern Powerhouse Export champions for successfully building and deploying export strategies for a UK entity (Arcinova) leading to market penetration in new/unexplored territories.
She holds an executive MBA with Entrepreneurship Specialism from Warwick Business School, BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry from the University of Strasbourg (France) and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of York.
Charles River Laboratories
Chief Scientific Officer (Early Discovery)
Justin joined Charles River Laboratories in 2022 as Chief Scientific Officer (Early Discovery) and in this role he works closely with a range of experts to develop CRL’s drug discovery strategy, explore opportunities with existing and prospective clients, evaluate new areas of science and technology and develop new approaches to strengthen the CRL offering. Justin trained as a chemist at the universities of York and Oxford, the latter being as a post-doc under Professor Sir Jack Baldwin. Since then, he has gained over 30 years’ experience in drug discovery at several biotechnology and pharma companies including Parke-Davis and Pfizer. Prior to joining CRL, he spent 16 years as Director of Drug Discovery at LifeArc, a UK based charity and not-for-profit organisation, where he led a team covering chemistry, biology, antibodies and diagnostics. Justin holds an honorary professorship at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and he teaches on various aspects of drug discovery at QMUL, University College London and the Wellcome Trust. He also sits on a range of advisory committees and panels in the UK and Sweden. Justin Bryans
Biorelate
Chair
Kevin has over 25 years of experience in the life science industry, covering a wide range of sectors such as drug and vaccine development, biomanufacturing, biomedical imaging and clinical pharmacology. He has been CEO of a number of high growth biotechnology businesses and is currently Chairman of Biorelate Limited, Biotaspheric Limited and ValiRx plc.
Kevin’s non-business roles have included Board membership of the BIA, Chair of BioNow and the Bio/Pharma Advisory Committee of UKTI (now DIT), and membership of various government advisory boards. He is currently a non-executive director of the British Neuroscience Association and sits on an industry advisory board for UoM.
With a passion for improving translational science in the UK, Kevin has developed strong links to academia, funding bodies and government and is keen to improve connectivity across all sectors.
Reneo Pharmaceuticals
Vice President, Global Tech Ops & CMC
With a diverse background in large pharma and biotech companies, Helen leads the successful technical and strategic development of novel compounds, devices, and businesses.
Helen is the Vice President of Global Tech Ops & CMC at Reneo Pharma Ltd., a clinical-stage company focused on the development and commercialisation of therapies for patients with rare, genetic, mitochondrial diseases. She is also the founder and managing director of Project-ion Ltd, which advances the development of small and large molecules with biotech organisations.
She has a proven track record in developing innovative project strategies and their delivery to critical milestones. A leader of global, multidisciplinary teams in CMC, diagnostics, clinical research, and across R&D.
She enjoyed a range of positions within Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, multiple start-up companies, and the University of Oxford, enabled by degrees in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science and an MBA. She was Head of Pharmaceutical Development at Ziarco, which Novartis acquired in 2016.
Helen is a Faculty Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, a Chartered Chemist, Chartered Scientist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Areas of particular expertise include rare and orphan, infectious, and respiratory diseases. Further interests include business strategy development, supporting emerging pharmaceutical scientist leaders, and patient and public involvement in research.
Aenova Group
Chief Commercial Officer
Neil Jones is Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Aenova, global leading Contract Manufacturing and Development Organisation with around 4,200 employees. Neil Jones has a deep experience in the Pharmaceutical / Biotechnology product and services industries and a great reputation for driving significant growth in the CDMO market. Before joining Aenova, he was CEO and CBO at VMIC. Prior to that he held the position of Director Business Development Europe at Catalent Pharma, after a long and successful career in different roles at Patheon. Mr Jones holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Bristol and a Post Graduate Certificate in Management from the University of the West of England.
What should the biotech workforce of the future look like? How can we develop new skills and embrace diverse ways of thinking to build a better biotech sector?
BoobyBiome
Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder
Lydia is CEO and co-founder of BoobyBiome, a company developing bacterial products for infants from the breast milk microbiome. As a microbiologist, Lydia is passionate about creating solutions in the real world for healthcare and the environment using biotechnology. Lydia has pursued this interest throughout her career; winning the Best Therapeutic prize at the international synthetic biology competition iGEM (2017), through her PhD research at University College London where she has published and presented her work widely from conferences to music festivals (2017-2022) and by winning the UCL Grand Challenges award to set up the first UK infant microbiome conference at the Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street hospital (2020). Lydia launched BoobyBiome with her co-founders in 2019 after participating in numerous Start-up accelerators and workshops (including BiotechYES, Imagine IF, PULSE, Panacea Stars). To date, Lydia and the BoobyBiome team have team successfully won four grant awards (from the BBSRC and Innovate UK) and completed a private equity round to carry R&D at the company forward. Keen to share her expertise, Lydia mentors iGEM and BiotechYES teams and also guest lectures to MSc students on Birkbeck University’s Bio-Business course.
CPI
Biologics Technology Lead
Philip is Technology Lead at CPI Biologics, managing a team encompassing the upstream, downstream, analytical and MSAT groups. In his role he oversees and supports resourcing and delivery of a challenging commercial and collaborative project portfolio. He has experience of technical leadership of projects encompassing a diverse range of product types including recombinant proteins, monoclonal antibodies, viral vectors and nucleic acids, working from bench to pilot scale expressed in mammalian, microbial and/or cell-free systems. This includes high throughput process development, design of experiment approaches to process optimisation and development and exploitation of molecular methods including the use of next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics to inform production clone selection.
Prior to joining CPI, he was a research associate at Newcastle University where he developed and used a range of methodologies including sequencing, bioanalytical and chemical assays to identify novel environmental contaminants. Prior to this he achieved his doctorate for his thesis which developed, validated and published novel in-vitro and in-vivo toxicology models at Newcastle University.
Moderna
Associate Director – Biomarker Strategy & Partnerships (UK & EU)
Commercial life sciences professional with >10 years of industry experience spanning business strategy, product management, new product development, launch and marketing. Broad knowledge base and strong analytical and interpersonal skills to track market trends, fully understand customer needs and pain points and deliver solutions that accelerate discovery. My passion is seeing scientific advances benefiting the world.
Genomics England
Chief People Officer
Jackie Kinsey is the Chief People Officer for Genomics England. She is responsible for hiring, retention and development of talent and wants to enable Genomics England culture to be engaging and great place to work. Jackie has over 30 years experience in HR across multiple industries and organisations including Thomas Cook, BAA Heathrow and Fiserv. Prior to Genomics England, Jackie was Chief People Officer for ThoughtWorks a global digital transformation technical consultancy. Jackie has an MSc in Organisational Behaviour and is a Trustee for POhWER a charity which provides information, advice, support and advocacy to people who experience disability, vulnerability, distress and social exclusion. She is co-founder of a Team Coaching Practice.
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