HELEN HORTON

Chief Research Officer, Touchlight

Dr Horton began her role as Chief Research Officer at Touchlight in June 2020, having worked in immune modulation and vaccine R&D for 23 years, covering all stages from discovery to early clinical development.

In her most recent role as Senior Scientific Director of Infectious Disease Molecular Immunology at Janssen Pharmaceutica (a Johnson and Johnson company) she was responsible for the development of Janssen’s DNA therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of chronic Hepatitis B infection, taking the product from initial discovery through to early clinical testing.

Prior to this role, Dr Horton worked in academia and was appointed Associate Professor at the Center for Infectious Disease Research, Seattle, WA (formerly Seattle Biomedical Research Institute), Affiliate Associate Professor at University of Washington (Seattle, WA) and Associate in Clinical Research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle, WA).

Helen holds a PhD in Biology from the University of York.