Chief Scientific Officer

Following first class honours from the University of Cambridge, I carried out PhD studies at King’s College London (awarded 1998), supported by a prize AJ Clark PhD studentship from the British Pharmacological Society. During subsequent postdoctoral work in London, my interests in peptide messengers regulating appetite and metabolism became focussed on molecular mechanisms underlying the signalling and regulation of G protein coupled receptors. I was awarded a competitive independent RCUK fellowship at the University of Nottingham in 2006, was appointed Lecturer in 2011 and Associate Professor of Pharmacology in 2013. My chief expertise is now in the application of fundamental advances in pharmacology to guide improved compound profiling in early stage drug discovery. Since 2019 I have focussed on my role as Chief Scientific Officer and co-director of Excellerate Bioscience Ltd (www.excelleratebio.com), a contract research organization (currently 30 employees) offering molecular and cellular pharmacology services for preclinical drug discovery programs across drug target classes and modalities. This dynamic environment involves leadership in project management, development of in vitro screening cascades, compound profiling and complex assay development for target validation and mechanism of action studies, in areas including obesity, cardiovascular disease, immunology and oncology. My work in both academic and industry contexts received current funding from the UK Medical Research Council developmental pathway (£1.6 million, 2021-2023) and the European Union (Synstar consortium 1 million euros, 2021-2023), with several international collaborations in receptor pharmacology. I was awarded Fellowship of the British Pharmacological Society in 2019. I am also passionate about excellence in pharmacology training in academic and industry contexts, and have also been actively involved in public engagement, for example including an arts crossover project to explain the use of imaging in pharmacology.