Speakers in 2008

 

Christopher Evans

Sir Christopher Evans is regarded as one of Europe’s leading medical science entrepreneurs. He has a proven track record of establishing successful, high-quality science companies, twenty of which have been taken public on 5 stock markets. These companies have made substantial returns for their venture capital and institutional backers and employ more than 3,500 people. Of note is Chiroscience plc, started by Sir Christopher with £1 million in 1992 and grown to £600 million by 1997 before merging with Celltech plc, which in turn merged with UCB to create one of Europe’s flagship bioscience enterprises. Sir Christopher’s considerable contributions to the biotechnology industry have been honoured with a Knighthood in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List and an OBE in the 1995 New Year’s Honours List.

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William Bains

William is a scientist and entrepreneur. After an academic career in the UK and the USA, he joined PA Consulting Group in 1988, and Merlin Ventures in 1996. In 1999 William founded Amedis Pharmaceuticals Ltd, (since acquired by Paradigm Therapeutics), and in 2002 founded Delta G Ltd., a company exploiting advances in biogerontology to develop new medicines. William has since founded two other biotech companies, and sits on the boards of two others. William also runs Rufus Scientific, helping entrepreneurs, Universities and start-ups identify how to generate value from visionary science and technology. William's expertise has been recognised with Toshiba Year of Invention prize in 1992, election to Human Genome Organisation in 1994, and appointment as a visiting Professor at Imperial College, London and a lecturer at Cambridge University. He is author of over 80 papers and three books.

Gordon Baxter

Gordon Baxter has held several senior research positions within the pharmaceutical industry, working with a variety of companies, including Glaxo, Syntex and SmithKline Beecham. He was the founding entrepreneur of Pharmagene plc and held positions as Chief Scientific Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Non-Executive Director with the Company until its successful flotation on the London Stock Exchange in July 2000. He has a successful track record of innovation in drug discovery and has contributed to the development of several marketed drugs.

 

Bill Bertrand

Mr. Bill Bertrand is senior vice president, general counsel and corporate compliance officer at MedImmune. He was appointed the first general counsel in September 2003 after joining MedImmune in 2001 as vice president, legal affairs. Mr. Bertrand is also the company’s corporate secretary. Under Mr. Bertrand’s leadership, MedImmune’s legal affairs department has grown from three members with no full-time lawyers to more than 30 employees, with 15 full-time lawyers who cover all aspects of legal matters concerning MedImmune including those regarding intellectual property, contracting, compliance and litigation. In March 2006, Mr. Bertrand assumed responsibility for MedImmune’s government affairs and public policy functions. In September 2007, his role expanded to oversee MedImmune’s public affairs function, including public relations, community relations and internal communications. With these additional responsibilities, his full team comprises more than 50 MedImmune employees.

Prior to joining MedImmune, Mr. Bertrand served in various legal positions at Pharmacia Corporation from 1997-2001, including litigation counsel, senior corporate counsel and associate general counsel. He had also been associate general counsel for a life insurance company; a partner at Dickinson, Wright, Moon, Van Dusen & Freeman of Lansing, MI; and taught courses at various institutions, including Seton Hall University School of Law and Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Bertrand currently teaches a biotechnology strategy course at Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Bertrand holds a bachelor of science degree in biology from Wayne State University and a juris doctorate (cum laude) from University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Sydney Brenner

Sydney Brenner was born in South Africa (13 January 1927) and educated at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Medicine and Science). He went to Oxford and received a degree of D.Phil., in 1952 working in the Physical Chemistry Laboratory. After a brief return to South Africa he joined the MRC Unit in the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge in 1956. He worked in it and its successor, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge where he ws the Director from 1979 to 1987. In 1987 he became Director of the MRC Unit of Molecular Genetics retiring in 1992 from the MRC. He is now the Director of the Molecular Sciences Institute, a private research institute in Berkeley, California.

His early research was in molecular genetics, working with bacterophages and bacteria; he discovered messenger RNA (with Jacob and Meselson) and, with Francis Crick, showed that the code was composed of triplets.
In the sixties, he changed directions and initiated his research on C. elegans establishing it as a powerful experimental system for the analysis of complex biological process. As a geneticist, he saw that the techniques of cloning and sequencing would open up new ways of approaching genetics and he turned to studying vertebrate genomics and has established the pufferfish genome as a powerful tool in genome analysis.

Allan Cambridge

A pharmacist by profession, Allan has spent most of his working life in the pharmaceutical industry where he has held senior management or Board appointments in small and large pharmaceutical companies and covering a diverse range of responsibilities, from QA/QC/product development to production to sales and marketing and general management.

He was General Manager of Evans Medical at the time of its MBO from Glaxo and its subsequent sale to Medeva in 1990. At the same time, he was a member of the Board of Management of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and its senior technical and commercial committees; he was also instrumental in establishing the British Generic Manufacturers Association. In 1990, he joined Deloitte and Touche where he was involved in setting up Du Pont Merck Pharmaceuticals in Europe and advising the European Commission on the establishment of the EMEA.This was followed by a period of seven years in international business development at Wyeth Laboratories.

He subsequently joined the newly listed virtual company Alizyme, where he was responsible for its business development. In 2002, he was appointed CEO of Lipoxen Technologies and prepared the company for its successful flotation on AiM. Since then he has been involved in the start-up or turn round of a number of biotechnology companies, and is currently COO at Atlantic Healthcare Limited and CEO of Havilah Vaccines Limited.

Peter Chambré

Peter Chambré is Chairman of Alpharma API, a leading global developer and supplier of antibiotic active ingredients, of ApaTech Ltd., a world leader in synthetic bone graft technologies and of 7TM Pharma, a company focusing on discovery and development of new drugs targeting 7TM receptors. He is an adviser to 3i Group plc, the private equity firm. He is also a Director of BTG plc and Spectris plc.

Peter Chambré was Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Antibody Technology plc from 2002 until its acquisition by AstraZeneca in July 2006. Previously, Peter was Chief Operating Officer at Celera Genomics Group and, before that, was CEO at Bespak plc. Peter has also held senior positions at Bain & Company and Unilever plc.

 

Francesca Crawford

Fran Crawford is a clinical pharmacologist and has a PhD from Liverpool University. She has more than 20 years experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in both management and R and D roles.

Fran worked at Ethical Holdings for 13 years initially in clinical development but subsequently became R and D director where she was responsible for the development programmes of 5 products formulated in various drug delivery technologies. She has also worked for Elan Corporation further to the acquisition of Ethical Transdermal by Elan where she was Chief Scientific Officer and General Manager of the UK transdermal operation. Previously she was COO of a technology management company managing IP portfolios and mentoring start up companies and R and D director of Sirus Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a clinical stage biotechnology company which developed polymer products targeting drugs to the CNS. Sirus was sold to Arakis in 2004. Fran then joined Spirogen, an oncology research company as COO. During this period she founded Altacor with David Alcraft, Chairman of Bridgehead International and raised series A funding in February 2007 at which time Andy Richards became chairman. Altacor is an Ophthalmology Specialty Pharma company with marketed products and a growing development pipeline.

Aubrey de Grey

Born London, England, 1963
B.A., M.A. and Ph.D., University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Chairman and Chief Science Officer, Methuselah Foundation

The central goal of my biogerontology work is to expedite the development of a true cure for human aging. In my view, the main obstacle to developing such technology is the position of biogerontology at the boundary between basic science and medicine: the fundamental knowledge necessary to develop truly effective anti-aging medicine mostly exists, but the goal-directed frame of mind that is best suited to turning research findings into tolls is very different from the curiosity-driven ethos that generated those findings in the first place. As a scientist with a training in an engineering discipline (computer science), I am unusually well placed to bridge this gap. I attempt to do so in three main ways: I do basic biogerontology research, I identify and promote specific technological approaches to the reversal (not merely the prevention) of various aspects of aging, and I argue in a wide range of for a (extending well beyond biologists) for the adoption of a more proactive approach to extending the healthy human lifespan sooner rather than later. Methuselah Foundation - Chairman and Chief Science Officer

Tim Eden

Current post: Teenage Cancer Trust Professor of Teenage and Young Adult Cancer, University of Manchester/Christie Hospital NHS Trust and Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s University Hospitals Trust.

Having qualified in 1970 from University College and Hospital London following trainee posts in London, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight, Edinburgh and Stanford University California. He became consultant paediatric haematologist at Bristol Children’s Hospital South West Blood Transfusion Service in 1979 In 1982 he returned to Edinburgh as the first consultant paediatric haematologist and oncologist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children and created there a comprehensive laboratory and clinical service.

In 1991 he was invited to take up the Mark Ridgwell Chair of Paediatric Oncology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College and in 1994 was recruited to Manchester as the first CRUK Chair of Paediatric Oncology at the University of Manchester. In 2005 he moved sideways to the first Teenage Cancer Trust Chair of teenage and young adult cancer. During the years as a consultant he has combined comprehensive clinical care with a research interest in clinical trial creation, monitoring and analysis, the epidemiology and aetiology of childhood and teenage cancer, psychosocial impact of cancer and its management on young people and their families, and evidence based medicine as a member of the Cochrane Oral Health Group.

He has been the President of The International Society of Paediatric Oncology until 2007, Chairman of UKCCSG (now CCLG) from 1989 – 92, Chairman of the Medical Research Council Working Party on Childhood Leukaemia 1991 – 2000, a member of the MRC Leukaemia Steering Committee 1991 – 2002. For 12 years he was a member of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation and the Environment from 1991 – 2004. He has served on the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committees of the Leukaemia Research Fund and CRUK most recently as CTAAC from 2002 – 2004 and now a member of the Clinical and Translational Research Committee.

Internationally in addition to his role as President of SIOP he is an advisor to the Commonwealth University Scholarship/Fellowship programme and a founding trustee of the World Childhood Cancer Foundation providing sustainability funding for developing countries. During the last two years he has been a member of the Children and Young Person’s IOG Advisory Group for NICE guidance implementation for the care of children and young people with cancer. He is Medical advisor to the Teenage Cancer Trust. He is married with two children and two grandchildren.

Peter Ehrenheim

In March 2006, GE formed a new Life Sciences business with five core segments. Peter Ehrenheim was appointed President and CEO of the new business with 3,800 employees worldwide. The Life Science business is part of GE Healthcare, a $15 billion division of General Electric Company. GE Healthcare focuses on early prevention, to find and eliminate disease sooner so people can live longer, fuller lives.

Peter started his career in the company 1983 as a mechanical designer in R&D. At that time the business was owned by the pharmaceutical company Pharmacia who sold to the business to Amersham in 1997. Throughout the years Peter has held various positions within the company that has been located both in Europe and in North America. 

Between 1999 and 2006 Peter led the protein separations business. The business grew from $275 million to $550 under his leadership. In 2003 Peter was appointed to the Amersham executive team and following the GE acquisition,  promoted to Vice President in GE in August 2004.

Harriet Fear

UK Trade & Investment is the Government organisation that helps UK based companies succeed in international markets. We assist overseas companies to bring high quality investment to the UK’s vibrant economy.

Harriet is the Head of the LifeSciences Sector Team at UK Trade & Investment (UKTI). UK Trade & Investment is the Government organisation that helps UK based companies succeed in international markets. We assist overseas companies to bring high quality investment to the UK’s vibrant economy. 

Harriet is a member of Her Majestys Diplomatic Service, with 20 years experience of working on international matters. She has worked in Europe, Africa and Asia, from the Congo to the Czech Republic. She believes her current role, supporting UK biotech, pharma and healthcare companies to internationalise, is her most rewarding and interesting to date. Her team (which includes business specialists) are able to support companies with mentoring advice as well as partnering opportunities. Their access to the global Embassy network means they are well placed to access up to date information and leads from all lifescience markets for UK companies.

Barry Furr

Barry Furr is a reproductive biologist and endocrinologist by training who worked for over 33 years at AstraZeneca and its associate companies.

He held a range of research management positions, retiring in 2005 as Chief Scientist.   He worked on the antioestrogenic breast cancer drug, tamoxofen, and both Zoladex and Casodex for prostate cancer were discovered in his laboratory.

He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Institute of Biology, and has an honorary chair at the University of Manchester.  He is a William Pitt Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge and a Trustee of the Breast Cancer Campaign and CRUK.

He has been Chairman of the Industry Forum of the Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Society of Endocrinology and a council member of the Biosciences Federation.

He was awarded an OBE in 2000 for his contribution to cancer research.

He is now a consultant for a number of important companies, including AstraZeneca, Abingworth, Modern Bioscience and Astex, and is a non-executive Director of Genus.

Russell Hagan

Head of Research and Development

Russell joined BTG in 2002 and heads up its research and development team. Russell has 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in a variety of roles spanning the value chain from new target discovery to phase IV marketing. A neuropharmacologist by training he has led numerous drug discovery and development programmes in a number of therapeutic areas including schizophrenia, epilepsy and sleep disorders.

He gained experience in pharmaceutical commercialization strategies and business development in Glaxo Wellcome’s Neurology and Psychiatry Commercial Development team in North Carolina, USA.  Most recently he was Director of Strategy for one of GlaxoSmithKline’s Centres of Excellence in Drug Discovery (CEDD) based in Italy.

Tim Haines

Tim Haines has more than 23 years of international management experience in the life sciences industry. Before joining Abingworth in 2005 he was Chief Executive of the Abingworth portfolio company, Astex Therapeutics. Tim was with Astex for more than five years and was instrumental in establishing it as one of the leading UK biotechnology companies. During his time at Astex, the company accessed more than £50 million in venture capital and closed over $1 billion in deal value potential with pharmaceutical companies. Previously, Tim was Chief Executive of two divisions of the publicly-listed medical technology company, Datascope Corp. Prior to Datascope, he held a number of other senior management positions in the US and Europe. Current and past board positions include Astex Therapeutics, Fovea, IMI, PowderMed and XCounter. Tim has a BSc from Exeter University and an MBA from INSEAD. At Abingworth, he identifies and creates new businesses and provides support for portfolio companies.

Stuart Hendry

Stuart has 20 years experience in the medical device industry having been CEO of Sphere since founding in 2002. Prior to Sphere he held positions at the Generics Group plc, PowderJect plc, Diametrics Inc and Pfizer Hospital Products, . He has been instrumental in the commercialisation of numerous medical devices mainly in the area of clinical monitoring and diagnostics. He is on the MedilinkEast steering committee and works with ERBI's board to represent the region's medical devices interest, he is also on the CBI SME Council and the Healthcare KTN steering committee. He holds a doctorate in biosensor technology and is author on numerous patents, scientific and medical publications in the area of clinical diagnostics and monitoring.

Gottfried Himmler

Gottfried Himmler is one of f-star’s founders and acts as CEO. Previous to f-star, Gottfried was in the executive management team of igeneon, a cancer immunotherapy company with antibodies in clinical trials, where he was responsible for R&D, IP, manufacturing and project management. He left igeneon after its acquisition by the then NASDAQ listed Aphton Corp. in 2005. In 1992 he had founded CODON genetic systems, a company specialized on molecular biology services (DNA-synthesis, sequencing and protein engineering). With a strong background in process engineering Gottfried worked with various pharmaceutical companies on the design and construction of production plants for biologicals. He is named inventor on more than 80 patents and patent applications (resulting from more than 15 patent families). Prior to his entrepreneurial activities, Gottfried was assistant professor at the Institute of Applied Microbiology in Vienna/Austria. He studied Biotechnology in Vienna/Austria and obtained his science doctorate in 1992.

Harren Jhoti

Dr Harren Jhoti is Chief Executive and a Board Director of Astex Therapeutics, a UK-based biotechnology company with around 95 employees that has raised over £63M in private financing from leading European and US venture capital firms. Astex is a pioneer in the field of Fragment-based drug discovery and has generated three novel drug molecules that are in early clinical development. Dr. Jhoti has also served as a non-executive director for Iconix, a US-based biotechnology company, and is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Cellzome, a private European biotechnology company.

Dr Jhoti participates in various scientific committees of the UK research councils and medical societies and is also a member of international editorial advisory boards of peer-reviewed scientific journals. His publications include research papers in leading journals such as Nature and Science and Dr. Jhoti has also featured in TIME magazine after being named by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer.

Before setting-up Astex in 1999, he was previously Head of Structural Biology and Bioinformatics at GlaxoWellcome (now GlaxoSmithkline) in the UK (1991-1999). While at GlaxoWellcome, he was involved in drug discovery projects aimed at a variety of therapeutic targets in inflammation, cardiovascular, anti-infectives and metabolic diseases.

Dr Jhoti graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from the University of London in 1985 and received his PhD in Protein Crystallography, in 1989, from Birkbeck College, University of London. He is married to Kate Hilyard and has two daughters.

Barry Kenny

Barry has over 23 years research and management experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He spent eight years at Syntex Research Scotland where he completed his PhD and was involved in multiple drug discovery programmes. He joined Pfizer Central Research in 1992 and went on to become Section Leader with broad responsibility for urogenital disease and was responsible for the successful discovery and progression of drug candidates into clinical development. He was a co-founder of Cambridge Drug Discovery in 1997, merging with Biofocus in 2001. As Director of Business Development for Biofocus, he established a wide range of international deals and collaborations. He joined Paradigm Therapeutics as Commercial Director in 2003 to drive the company's commercial strategy, including the initial CNS collaboration with Takeda in 2005. Following the acquisition of Paradigm by Takeda, he was appointed as Vice President, Drug Discovery at Takeda Cambridge in March 2007 with overall responsibility for IND discovery.

Ian Kent

Ian has broad experience of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, food science and agrochemicals sectors and he has held a number of senior roles in industry and the public sector.

For the last ten years he has led a portfolio lifestyle being a nxd and chairman of 20 companies both private and quoted. He has been closely involved in private fund raisings, in a number of IPOs as well as M&A and some successful high-profile exits. Ian is transaction orientated.

He is currently Chairman of Argenta Discovery Limited, Avantium Holding BV, Intercytex plc and Piramid Limited. (which announced its sale to Roche on 14th April 2008 at 8x and >60%IRR)

Jonathan Lewis

Jonathan W. Lewis, Ph.D., is Director of Business Development at Genentech where he is responsible for worldwide partnering activities in solid tumor oncology, anti-angiogenesis and tumor immunotherapy. Transactions include collaborations on research technologies, early and late-stage product partnerships and manufacturing agreements. He has also been responsible for a variety of strategic investments in early stage companies from Genentech’s venture fund (GenenFUND).

Prior to Business Development, Jonathan was in Genentech's Market Development group, where he held responsibility for products, strategic assessments and lifecycle planning within the company’s immune-related diseases franchise.

Before joining Genentech in 1999, Jonathan worked in the mergers and acquisitions Investment Banking group at Credit Suisse First Boston in London.

Jonathan holds a doctorate in Immunology from the University of Oxford, where he was a Wellcome Trust Prize Student. He received his B.A. in Biological Sciences also from Christ Church, Oxford.

Conrad Lichtenstein

Professor Conrad Lichtenstein is Chief Operating Officer of Population Genetics Technologies Ltd –developing novel technology, conceived by Nobel laureate Professor Sydney Brenner, to sample large populations to identify the genetic variation responsible for human disease and drug response. Conrad obtained his PhD from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Washington, Seattle, he returned in 1983 to a faculty position at Imperial College. Then after a sabbatical year at the National Cancer Institute, Frederick, Maryland, USA, he returned to London as Chair of Molecular Biology at Queen Mary, University of London from 1996-2005.

Jonathan Milner

Jonathan Milner has a degree in Applied Biology from Bath University and a PhD in Molecular Genetics from Leicester University. From 1992 to 1995, he was a research fellow for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in the laboratory of Professor Tony Rees at the University of Bath, and from 1995 until 1998, he was a research fellow at Cambridge University in the laboratory of Professor Tony Kouzarides, where he studied genes and proteins associated with human cancers. While working at this research he saw the opportunity to market antibodies created by the human genome project over the internet, which was becoming increasingly popular at that time, and in February 1998 he proceeded to found Abcam with David Cleevely and Tony Kouzarides.

Kieran Murphy

Kieran Murphy is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Whatman plc, a filtration and separations business currently in the process of being acquired by GE Healthcare Life Sciences Ltd. His industry experience includes CEO positions at Innovata plc (created when ML Laboratories acquired Quadrant in 2005), Adprotech, Novartis Animal Vaccines and Vericore.

Stephen Oesterle

Stephen N. Oesterle, M.D., joined the company in 2002, after serving as Associate Professor of Medicine at the Harvard University Medical School and Director of Invasive Cardiology Services at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. In his position as Senior Vice President for Medicine and Technology, Oesterle provides executive leadership for Medtronic scientific research, formation of technological strategies and continued development of strong cooperative relationships with the world's medical communities.

A teacher and innovator in the field of cardiac catheterization, Oesterle developed and directed interventional cardiology programs at Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles from 1986 to 1991; at Georgetown University in 1991 and 1992 and at Stanford University from 1992-98.

While at Stanford, Oesterle established the University Medical Center's first endovascular device laboratory. Subsequently, he founded a similar medical device development laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital where he and his colleagues sought unique, minimally invasive methods for treating coronary disease, valvular disease, rhythm disturbances and heart failure.

Oesterle was born March 3, 1951 in LaGrande, OR. He is a 1973 summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College and received his medical doctorate from Yale University in 1977. His internship and residency years were at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1977-80 and he served a fellowship in interventional cardiology at Stanford from 1981 to 1983.

 

John Poley

John is a mechanical engineer who has spent his career in the design and development of products and processes across a wide range of industry sectors. With over twenty years experience in the Technology Division of PA Consulting Group, as a consultant and Senior Partner, in 2000 John became a founder member and Engineering Director of Meridica, a Pfizer Group company, and was responsible for engineering design and development across its product range. With the acquisition of Meridica by Pfizer Ltd in 2004, John became an Associate Research Fellow within Pfizer, and now acts as a consultant within Pfizer’s Global Centre of Emphasis for drug delivery devices.

Andy Richards

Dr Andy Richards is a serial Biotechnology entrepreneur and business angel. He is currently a director of Vectura plc, Summit plc, Biowisdom, Theradeas, Pharmakodex, Cancer Research Technology (commercial arm of CR-UK) Babraham Bioscience Technology, Aitua and is Chairman of Altacor.

Andy has a PhD in Chemistry and spent his early career with ICI (now AstraZeneca) and with PA Technology. He was a founder of Chiroscience and an executive director through to the sale to Celltech in 1999. Since that time he has been founding and investing in new biotechnology companies including several of those listed above as well as
Arakis, Geneservice, Cambridge Biotechnology Ltd, Amedis Pharmaceuticals, Sirus Pharmaceuticals and Daniolabs all of which were recently sold. He is a director of the Bioindustry Association (BIA) a founder member of the Cambridge Angels, a founder investor in LibraryHouse and an advisor to Toscana Life Sciences.

Tim Sharpington

Tim Sharpington is the CEO of Serentis which he co-founded in 2006. Tim has worked in the life science industry for 20 years and has held clinical development and management positions in big pharma at Cyanamid and Pfizer, in the service sector with ICON and in biotech at Sequus (US) and Arakis. In these positions he has taken products to market in the US and Europe and has been involved in multiple licensing and M&A deals.

Karol Sikora

Karol Sikora is Medical Director of CancerPartnersUK which is creating the largest UK cancer network as a series of joint ventures with NHS Trusts. He is Professor of Cancer Medicine and honorary Consultant Oncologist at Imperial College School of Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, London. He is Scientific Director of Medical Solutions PLC, Britain’s leading cancer diagnostic company. He has recently been appointed Dean of Britain’s first independent Medical School at the University of Buckingham. He is a Senior Adviser to the WHO Cancer Programme and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

He studied medical science and biochemistry at Cambridge, where he obtained a double first. After clinical training he became a house physician at The Middlesex Hospital and registrar in oncology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He then became a research student at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge working with Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Sydney Brenner. He obtained his PhD and became a clinical fellow at Stanford University, California before returning to direct the Ludwig Institute in Cambridge. He has been Clinical Director for Cancer Services at Hammersmith for 12 years and established a major cancer research laboratory there funded by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. He chaired Help Hammer Cancer, an appeal that raised £8m towards the construction of the new Cancer Centre at Hammermith. He became Deputy Director (Clinical Research) of the ICRF. From 1997 to 1999 he was Chief of the WHO Cancer Programme and from 1999 to 2002, Vice President, Global Clinical Research (Oncology) at Pharmacia Corporation.

He has published over 300 papers and written or edited 20 books including Treatment of Cancer - the standard British postgraduate textbook now in its fifth edition and most recently The Economics of Cancer Care. He is on the editorial board of several journals and is the founding editor of Gene Therapy and Cancer Strategy. He was a member of the UK Health Department’s Expert Advisory Group on Cancer (the Calman-Hine Committee), the Committee on Safety of Medicines and remains an adviser to the WHO. He currently directs a cancer drug donation programme in Africa.

Geoff Smith

Geoff Smith is a Senior Director at Illumina responsible for sequencing chemistry and molecular biology R&D for the company’s high throughput DNA sequencing platform, and manages major cross-functional programmes in the UK and US spanning concept to product launch.

Geoff has gained over 10 years experience of senior technical management in rapid growth companies from start-up, merger and market listing. Geoff holds a first degree and PhD from Cambridge University and postdoctoral fellowships in the UK and US.

 

Simon Sturge

Simon Sturge became Chief Executive Officer of Vernalis in April 2003 following the mergers between Vernalis plc, British Biotech plc and RiboTargets Ltd. Mr Sturge founded RiboTargets when it was spun out from the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in July 1997.

After graduating with a degree in biology from Sussex University in 1980, Mr Sturge has spent more than twenty five years in the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of roles. After leaving university Mr Sturge became Product Manager of Napp Laboratories, Head of Sales and Marketing at Portex and Business Development Manager at Astra Pharmaceuticals before joining Celltech in 1988. Mr Sturge was appointed Chief Executive of Celltech Biologics plc (now Lonza Biologics plc) in 1995 where he remained for two years before joining RiboTargets as Chief Executive Officer.

 

Muneo Takatani

Dr. Muneo Takatani has worked for over 26 years at Takeda, Japan`s largest pharmaceutical company holding a number of positions in research, management and international relations. After completing his postdoctoral study at MIT with Professor K. B. Sharpness he started his career at Takeda in 1981 as a medicinal chemist working on anti-cancer drug discovery. He become a Research Head in 1992 with broad responsibility for projects in oncology, cardiovascular, diabetes disease areas and created several IND compounds. In 1996 he moved to the Corporate Planning Department, and in 1997 became Senior Manager in the Pharmaceutical Business Development Department.

From 1998 to 2000, he was posted to Paris as an international representative to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), holding the position of Principal Administrator. After a spell as General Manager of the Licensing Department in 2003, he returned to the Pharmaceutical Research Division as Director of Strategic Research Planning, during which he played a leading role in the acquisition of Paradigm and the establishment of Takeda Cambridge (TCB). In November 2007, he was appointed to his current position, Head of Global Research Management , with responsibility for the management and expansion of Takeda`s global research network.

Ian Tomlinson

Ian Tomlinson is VP, GSK-Domantis Group and heads up Domantis Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of GSK based in Cambridge, UK. Domantis was co-founded in 2000 by Dr Tomlinson and Sir Gregory Winter, in partnership with the UK Medical Research Council and MVM Limited to develop an entirely new class of drugs based on the smallest fragments of antibodies, called Domain Antibodies, or “dAbs”. As an independent company, Domantis raised $83 million from a range of investors, including Peptech Limited, 3i and Novo Nordisk, hired 80 employees and established a state-of-the-art R&D facility in Cambridge, UK. In January 2007 Domantis was acquired by GSK for $454M.

A graduate and research fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, UK, Dr Tomlinson was a Group Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK. He was at the LMB for 11 years, where he initially worked on the completion of the sequencing and mapping of all human antibody genes. His later work at the MRC-LMB focused on engineering recombinant antibodies.

Mark Treherne

J Mark Treherne BSc, MPhil, PhD. Mark obtained his PhD in receptor neuropharmacology from Cambridge University with funding from Merck. He then went on to complete a post-doc on diabetes, before holding a Senior Faculty position at the Biozentrum in Basel.

Mark now has over 20 year's experience in the discovery of novel treatments for diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

Mark was formerly at Pfizer in the UK, where he was responsible for research into neurodegenerative diseases. On leaving Pfizer in 1997, Mark set up Cambridge Drug Discovery as Chief Executive, which was sold to BioFocus in 2001 for £28 million. Mark has now been involved in raising over £60 million for various early-stage biotechnology companies and is Chief Executive of Senexis.

David Tuveson

Research Goals
Pancreatic cancer and melanoma are deadly malignancies when detected at late stages. Our laboratory investigates both of these cancers by producing models in Mus musculus that mimic the human diseases closely, and participating in clinical trials with experimental therapeutics. The goals of the laboratory are to identify the essential components of malignant transformation of pancreatic cells and melanocytes in vivo, and to translate this knowledge into effective tumour detection and treatment strategies.

Qualifications and Personal History

• 1994 - MD PhD, Johns Hopkins University (Immunology), Baltimore, USA
• Medical residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital
• Medical oncology fellowship at the combined Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Care programme
• Postdoctoral fellowship with Tyler Jacks (MIT)
• 2002-2006 - Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvannia, USA.
• Joined the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute in summer 2006.

Toby Wilson Waterworth

Toby Wilson Waterworth is a chartered accountant and has extensive  experience in developing and funding  the start-up, turn-around, development and commercialisation of high growth healthcare businesses, both in the UK and internationally. 

Toby was involved in the UK merger and acquisition activity of pharmaceutical group Robannic NV prior to joining Chiroscience Group plc in 1994 when it floated on the London Stock Exchange and was subsequently acquired by Celltech Group plc. In 1996 Toby joined the “virtual” biopharmaceutical company Alizyme plc when it floated as one of the first companies to join AIM and, as part of the small team, was involved in raising £35 million over a five year period, overseeing its admission to the Official List  on the London Stock Exchange and growing it to value of over £200 million.

Toby has since then been involved in founding and building a number of businesses in the healthcare sector including Novexin, Astron Clinica, HD Clinical and AIM listed Lipoxen plc.  Toby is also founder and Chief Executive of the emerging international pharmaceutical group Atlantic Healthcare Ltd.

Toby is an advisor to the British Government’s Global Entrepreneurs Programme where in April 2005, he was appointed an international healthcare Dealmaker.  He is also a founding member and Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum of the United Kingdom, one of 24 global chapters of the Massachusetts  Institute of Technology, USA, providing education, support and access to international networks for technology  entrepreneurs.

 

Day 3 - Technology Showcase

Clive Cookson

Clive Cookson has worked in science journalism for the whole of his professional life. He graduated in chemistry from Oxford University in 1974. After journalism training on the Luton Evening Post, he became science correspondent of the Times Higher Education Supplement in London and then spent four years in Washington as American Editor of THES.

He returned to London in 1981 as technology correspondent of the Times and moved to BBC Radio as science correspondent in 1983. He joined the Financial Times as technology editor in 1987 and has been Science Editor of the FT since 1991.

Stephen Hart

Stephen Hart is a Reader in Molecular Genetics at the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH). He is a graduate of Liverpool University and received his PhD from the University of Cape Town in microbial genetics 1992. He is also the founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Genex Biosystems Ltd, an ICH spin-out company. His research interests include the development of clinical gene therapy strategies using synthetic vector systems for a range of disease applications including cardiovascular diseases, cancers and respiratory diseases. He has published over fifty research papers in these fields and is also an inventor on ten patent applications covering synthetic gene delivery technologies. Based on this IP he helped to launch Genex in 2005 with funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Bloomsbury Bioseed Fund.

Mike Romanos

Mike is a molecular biologist with 22 years experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. He is Vice President of the Discovery Technology Group (DTG) in GlaxoSmithKline R&D, a global organization whose aim is to discover and validate drug targets and biomarkers in close partnership with each therapeutic group. Through a more rigorous and systematic use of technologies such as RNAi, transcriptomics, etc., coupled with increasing use of primary human cell models, DTG aims to improve target and compound decision-making in the drug discovery process through to the clinic.

Mike’s previous role was in the generation and production of recombinant biologicals to enable GSK’s screening, structural and biopharmaceutical pipeline. Since first joining Wellcome in 1986, Mike has held positions leading groups or projects in vaccine development/biotechnology, antiviral and CNS drug discovery, target identification and lead discovery. He has played a leading role in building GSK’s ion channel science base, as well as developing major capabilities in other areas such as GPCRs, monoclonal antibodies, and gene expression.  Mike carried out postdoctoral research at the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill (influenza viral replication), and Leicester Biocentre (yeast biotechnology), received a PhD from Imperial College (molecular virology) and a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge.

Will West

Will West is CEO of CellCentric Ltd, a biotechnology company focused on epigenetics. Will completed his PhD in immunology and virology in 1992, sponsored by Unilever (UniPath). He held a post-doctoral position at the National Institute of Biological Standards and Control before joining Procter & Gamble Healthcare in 1994. He was responsible for clinical development in a number of therapeutic areas. He led an international team and delivered programmes throughout Europe, the Americas, South Africa and China. In 2001 he joined CellFactors plc, a tissue engineering biotechnology company in Cambridge, where he was responsible for Product and Business Development. In 2004 he was recruited by Avlar BioVentures to help initiate CellCentric. Will holds a Masters degree in Clinical Research as well as an MBA from London Business School.

 

Day 3 - Cluster Presentations

Per Aniansson

Managing Director, Colonix Medical Limited (www.colonixmedical.com)
Mr Aniansson joined Colonix Medical as Managing Director early 2006. He is a non-executive Director of Star Syringe, a UK based medical technology company, for which he was previously the Managing Director. Mr Aniansson has a background as management consultant in the Life Sciences industry from positions with Accenture and Arthur D. Little (1992-97). During the period 1998-2006 he was a venture capitalist and investment manager, making and managing investments in early stage high tech companies as well as big pharma companies. Mr Aniansson is Swedish and holds an MSc in Engineering Physics from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden and an MBA from Insead, Fontainebleau, France.

Stefan Bauer

Stefan Bauer joined ZAB Brandenburg Economic Development Board as Senior Manager Life Sciences supporting companies to settle their business in the state of Brandenburg. In the life sciences sector Berlin-Brandenburg his team accompanied € 57.5 million investments in 2007. After studying biochemistry at the Free University Berlin he gained professional experience in R&D and Business Development of the biotech industry. Stefan holds an MBA from the Berlin School of Economics with a focus on small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Hans Baumeister

Dr. Hans Baumeister, Ph.D., - Glycotope GmbH

Hans Baumeister was trained in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Universities of Berlin and Hamburg and holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry. During his scientific career he worked in renowned research institutes in Germany (e.g. the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam) and in the USA (Roche Institute of Molecular Biology in Nutley, NJ). From the start-up of the GLYCOTOPE GmbH in 2001, he was Head of the GlycoEngineering Group where he developed the GlycoExpress technology at GLYCOTOPE. In 2004, Hans Baumeister changed to the business development group at GLYCOTOPE and directed this group since 2005 holding procuration. Recently, he was appointed as COO and Head of the Service Unit.

Bob Boyle

Bob Boyle co-founded Sentinel Oncology in 2005 with the aim of discovering new technologies and therapies to treat cancer. Bob has 15 years experience of R&D management with positions held at Pfizer, (Sandwich, UK: 1993-1997), Cambridge Discovery Chemistry, (1997-2000), Millennium Pharmaceuticals (2000-2003) and Astex Therapeutics (2003-2005).

Bob has extensive experience in leading research programs with an excellent track record of delivering success and is a named inventor and co-author on many patents and publications.

Matthias Brommer

Matthias Brommer joined LGC in 2006 as Director, LGC Standards and is a Member of the Executive Committee. His responsibilities cover LGC's activities in the areas of Reference Materials, Proficiency Testing Schemes, and Pharmaceutical Impurities and Services. Previously he held various general management, operations, planning and sales roles in the US, Germany and the UK for Sud-Chemie, Hoechst, A.T. Kearney and McKinsey.

Dan Cowell

Dan was formerly Operations Director at Pharmorphix, which he co-founded in 2003 and was subsequently acquired by Sigma Aldrich in 2006. Prior to this he has worked at Oxford Diversity, Cambridge Discovery and Millennium Pharmaceuticals where he was involved in lead discovery and the investigation of new technologies. After leaving Sigma Aldrich, Dan co-founded Hypoxium with Kyla Grimshaw and joined as full-time CEO in Jan 2008.

 

Heike Hanspach

Heike Hanspach was born 1970 in Berlin. After an apprenticeship and three years of work as a bank clerk she studied biology at the Free University in Berlin. After her diploma in biology she decided to combine her experience and gave advice to companies interested in technology transfer and in funding schemes working for BAO BERLIN, a subsidiary of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. BAO BERLIN became Berlin Partner via merger with the regional development agency. Since 2006 Heike Hanspach is part of the Life Science Team supporting foreign companies that are interested in establishing business in Berlin.