BIORENEWABLES DEVELOPMENT CENTRE LIMITED - Key Persons
Helen Sneddon read Natural Sciences at Christ's College, Cambridge University, and stayed at Cambridge to complete her PhD in organic chemistry, on beta-keto-dithianes and their application to the synthesis of natural products, with Professor Steven V. Ley. After postdoctoral work on the asymmetric catalytic chemistry of Palladium (II) with Professor Larry Overman at the University of California, Irvine, she joined GlaxoSmithKline at Stevenage, UK in 2007 as a medicinal chemist, working on respiratory medicines. In late 2011 Helen founded GSK's Green Chemistry Performance Unit, looking at improving the environmental sustainability of research and development, and the routes arising from it.
Helen has particular interests in solvent and reagent selection and the development of more efficient transformations. Helen has been involved in numerous academic industry collaborations, including as GSK lead for the tripartite GSK-University of Nottingham-University of Strathclyde Accelerated Discovery and Development of New Medicines: Prosperity Partnership for a Healthier Nation. She has been on the Editorial Board of the journal Green Chemistry since 2015, and on the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Sus. Chem. Eng. since 2017. Helen joined the University of York in April 2022, as Director, Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, and Professor of Sustainable Chemistry.
Professor Ian Graham's research focuses on how different compounds are produced in plants and how to improve production of valuable compounds in new or existing crops. Ian's current projects range from the development of novel oil crops such as Jatropha curcas to the production of new varieties of Artemisia annua that deliver higher yields of the antimalarial compound artemisinin.
Job Titles:
- Member of the BDC Board
- Director of the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products
Neil Bruce is the Director of the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) and Professor of Biotechnology at the University of York. His research focuses on plant and microbial metabolism of xenobiotic compounds and characterisation of the enzymes mediating these metabolic processes. In other research he explores the biodegradation of lignocellulose in marine and terrestrial environments - particularly in the context of discovering enzymes for biorefining of lignocellulosic biomass for the production of biofuels and chemicals. His group have discovered a diverse range of enzymes that have environmental and biotechnological applications. He has recently become the Director of the BBSRC-sponsored Biorenewables Biorefinery Network in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (BBNet).
Neil carried out his PhD at the University of Kent before undertaking a postdoctoral position at the University of Cambridge and a Junior Research Fellowship at Wolfson College. He was subsequently appointed to a Lectureship in Biotechnology and awarded a Fellowship at Trinity Hall before being promoted to Reader. He then moved to the University of York in 2002 to join CNAP.