Concept Life Sciences has announced the formation of a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) for the drug discovery and development side of the business.
The members are all leading experts in a diverse range of therapeutic areas, including oncology, immuno-oncology, inflammation, ageing, and gastrointestinal.
The SAB will be chaired by Professor Trevor Jones CBE FMedSci, along with Prof Stephen Anderton (group head of Translational Biology) and Dr Paul Doyle (chief scientific officer) from Concept.
They will be joined by three external experts: Prof Christian Ottensmeier, professor of Experimental Medicine, University of Southampton; Prof Janet Lord, director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham; and Dr Ian Cox, CEO, Zebra Therapeutics and director, IDACO Consulting Limited.
Prof Trevor M Jones has a distinguished career in both the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and academia, formerly having been R&D director of The Wellcome Foundation and chair of the UK Government Advisory Group on Genetics Research.
Prof Christian Ottensmeier has been a consultant in medical oncology since 2000, and is Professor of Experimental Medicine at the University of Southampton. He has co-developed a number of national NCRI studies in lung cancer and manages a broad portfolio of active clinical trials in lung cancer and melanoma.
Prof Janet Lord is director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at Birmingham University. She was awarded the Lord Cohen of Birkenhead medal for her outstanding research by the British Society for Research into Ageing in 2013, and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2015.
Dr Ian Cox has 25 years’ experience working with companies in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device sectors across the UK, Europe, Asia and North America, during which he spent 19 years working for Norgine, a pan-European pharmaceutical company, most recently as VP R&D. As CEO of Zebra Therapeutics he oversees the development of a novel early-stage asset licensed as a potential treatment for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
Prof Stephen Anderton is group head of Translational Biology at Concept, following the acquisition in 2017 of Aquila BioMedical of which he was founder and CSO. Steve is an internationally renowned immunologist with more than 120 publications on T-cell activation, T-cell tolerance, Treg biology and immunotherapy of inflammatory disease and cancer.
Dr Paul Doyle is chief scientific officer at Concept. He has a strong scientific leadership record, including 15 years in a wide variety of therapeutic discovery programmes at The Wellcome Foundation. Having joined Peakdale (part of Concept) as COO in 2008, he has now been CSO of Concept since 2017.
The SAB will provide Concept with unbiased advice to help ensure an objective, external perspective, highlighting critical issues and emerging global trends in basic research and medicine to guide the company’s strategy.
