LIFT BIOSCIENCE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Founder
- Founder, CEO & Acting Chairman
Martin brings over 20 years' of academic and industrial science experience to his role as Principal Scientist at LIfT. As an experienced immunologist he has published high impact research and has been a founding scientist of biotech start-ups including GammaDelta Therapeutics. Martin is particularly focussed on the challenges in bringing cell therapies from the bench to the clinic, and holds a PhD from University College London.
​Serial entrepreneur, inventor and conceptual biologist with 20 years' experience in bringing over 50 novel biopharma therapies to market for companies like Pfizer, Allergan, abbVie, Amgen, Shire, Takeda, GSK & Sanofi. Alex founded LIfT after losing his mother to Pancreatic Cancer, and seeing a new way to beat cancer by giving patients the immunity of those who are innately resistant to cancer.
Job Titles:
- Chief Regulatory & Development Officer
Pharmaceutical development and regulatory expert with over 35 years of experience in oncology and cell therapies. Experience at multiple managerial levels within pharmaceutical companies and most recently as Senior Vice President for Quality, Regulatory and CMC, for IO Biotech Limited, gaining significant experience in co-ordinating, planning and running a global development of ATMPs and biologics.
Investment executive with a background in Biochemistry and Biomedical Science. Previous experiences include leading corporate development activities for biotech companies in the areas of cell therapies, biologic drug platforms, gene editing and gene modulation technologies.
Job Titles:
- Immunologist
- Principal Scientist, N - LIfT MoA and Translational Lead
Samuel brings almost 10 years of experience within the start-up Biotech industry, working within both the scientific and operational teams. Samuel has been instrumental in the set-up of three biotech start-ups and is an experienced immunologist. Samuel is focused on ensuring neutrophil cell therapy becomes a successful novel treatment.
Job Titles:
- Medical Oncologist & Director of Developmental Cancer Therapeutics, Imperial College
Professor of Experimental Immunology, School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College Dublin (TCD). He is Academic Director of Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) Co-founder of Opsona Therapeutics, TriMod Therapeutics and Parvalis Tx, biotech companies focused on developing immunotherapeutics for inflammatory diseases and cancer.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder in Residence of Deep Valley Labs
Professor of experimental cancer medicine (KCL) and consultant in medical oncology
Holger Karsunky is the Co-Founder in Residence of Deep Valley Labs. He previously worked at Stemcentrx as Director of Cancer Biology. Former Senior Director for abbVie Oncology. Former R&D Director for Cellerant Therapeutics, the only other company in the world to have successfully produced GMP grade neutrophil progenitors (through to PIII clinical trials for neutropenia).
Clinical Immunopathologist. Director of the Centre for Cell, Gene & Tissue Therapeutics at the Royal Free Hospital and Professor of Cell & Tissue Therapy at UCL. He is a world-leader in the development of cell and tissue medicines for immunotherapy and transplantation and is an MHRA QP for release of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products, for use in clinical trials. Founder of Achilles Therapeutics, Cell Medica, InMune Bio
Job Titles:
- Principal Scientist, Preclinical Lead
Aoife is a skilled cellular immunologist with almost ten years experience across academic and biotech startup labs. Aoife will be focusing on elucidating the mechanisms of action of Immunomodulatory Alpha Neutrophils in the tumour microenvironment.
Job Titles:
- Princip Al Scientist, Cell & Gene Engineering Lead
Mihil obtained his Ph.D in viral immunology from Cardiff University, Wales. He then went to work at GammaDelta Therapeutics, using his skills in cell and molecular biology to develop new platforms and gene engineering strategies. He is fascinated by basic scientific discoveries and how they can be translated into novel applications for immunotherapies.
Lugein combines her medical and cell therapy production expertise to help bring cell therapies from early process production to patient. Lugein obtained her Medical Degree from the University of Southampton. She completed her foundation training years in the NHS, gaining experience in a range of medical and surgical specialties. Through this practice, Lugein became fascinated in the potential of novel cellular therapies to revolutionise the future of medicine. Lugein subsequently obtained a Master's degree on the Manufacture and Commercialisation of Stem Cells and Gene Therapies at UCL.
Job Titles:
- Board Member, Meltwind
- Founder of Abcam Plc
Jonathan Milner, Founder of Abcam plc, is an experienced entrepreneur and investor and is passionate about supporting UK life science and high-tech start-ups. He has provided considerable investment and support to over 60 companies and has assisted three technology companies to IPO on the London AIM Stock exchange.
With over 20 years of biotech R&D experience building out drug pipelines and helping drive several multi-billion-dollar companies from start-up, Tony is one of Biotech's most successful leaders. Before joining Evox Therapeutics Ltd as CEO, Tony was CSO of Ablynx, Moderna Therapeutics, Alnylam and Tolerx Inc.
Job Titles:
- Board Director, Downing Ventures
Patrick is an experienced venture capitalist with a successful background in early-stage biotech companies and licensing deals with public and private companies. Formerly with BioMed Partners and Novartis. Patrick holds a Master's degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Basel (Biozentrum), a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and a degree as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Job Titles:
- Board Director, Kizoo Technology Ventures
Prof. John Campbell completed his PhD in Pathology at Edinburgh in 1995, and has over 30 years' experience developing cellular therapeutics in the academic, industrial and healthcare sectors.
Richard is an experienced executive with over 25 years' experience in start ups and early stage technology companies. He is a co-founder of FD Solutions, a market leader in the UK for the provision of part time finance directors. He is the provider of Head of Finance services to Mironid Ltd, AdoRx Therapeutics and Lunac Therapeutics.
Job Titles:
- Laboratory Manager
- Senior Scientist
Job Titles:
- Principal Scientist, Process Development Lead
Jakub obtained a Master's degree in Manufacture and Commercialisation of Stem Cells at the University College London.
Jakub gained experience in a professional research team IOCB Prague - Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Assisted in the research of G-Quadruplex structures in DNA/RNA and learned about the research techniques involved.