Experience

PolyTherics Limited, An Abzena Company

• United Kingdom
• Biotechnology Research
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Senior Scientist

  • 2012 - Present

  Enabling better pharmaceuticals; Abzena’s bioconjugation technologies provide site specific cytotoxic drug loading to antibodies and small molecules, and introduces a new wave of targeted oncology therapies with extended circulation half-life and improved efficacy. Key achievements:• Oversaw synthetic strategies and successfully completed a two year reagent program to develop Abzena’s core bridging-conjugation technology to secure Abzena’s (PolyTherics’) Unique Selling Proposition.• Developed in-house methodology and delivered a diverse set of novel conjugation linkers to support the intellectual property filings on the improved technology.• Provided a new advanced series of products to enable bridging conjugation and ADC synthesis without aggregation, with reduced time scales (2 hr instead of 24 hr), with improved Drug to Antibody Ratio (DAR) and with >90% site selective bridging.• Applied a variety of potent cytotoxic drugs (category 1 & 2) in the construction of key conjugation-toxin reagents. Chemistries included use of toxins, conjugation reagents, PEG spacers, cleavable self-immolate and non-cleavable linkers.• Project managed the optimisation and provision of scaled quantities of a multi-step synthetic bridging conjugation-linker-cytotoxic drug (category 2) product, to meet Abzena’s 1st key milestone license agreement with a US biotech partner.• Established improvements in terms of project delivery, laboratory operations, communications and reporting.• Supervised staff with regard to efficient synthetic practice and apprising clear objectives across the sites.•Identified strategic opportunities, provided R & D proposals and generated data packages where required.



Medifill Ltd

• Head of R & D

  • May 2011 - Apr 2012

  A medical device start-up company established in December 2010 to provide automated aseptic filling to FDA standards. The company comprises state of the art Class 100 clean room and GLP laboratory facilities for the onsite manufacture and quality assurance of a variety of liquids intended for the medical device, veterinary and cosmetic industries. My remit was:• Project manage the complete refurbishment of a two storey 700m2 business unit to provide stylish reception, offices, boardroom, an operational warehouse, IT services and a state of the art 0.5M Euro laboratory.• Procurement of laboratory analytical equipment, general equipment, glassware and consumables. Achieved 40% cost saving across three Agilent analytical instruments.• Installation / 21 CFR Part 11 / IQ OQ validation of the laboratory. This included a 60 litre Buchi reactor, a walk-in fume hood, R & D fume hood, Agilent 7820A GC, Agilent Cary 60 UV/Vis, Agilent Cary 640 FTIR, Brookfield DVII Pro viscometer, KMS Karl Fischer autotitrator, smaller equipment. • Medifill's SOPs and internal quality assurance to meet Medifill's first audit.• Project manage phase one construction of the Class 100 Clean Room.• Establish links to and liaise with the Irish Government funding bodies to acquire funding grants to bolster Medifill's R & D program.



University of Warwick

• United Kingdom
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Research Fellow

  • Oct 2009 - Apr 2011

  DELIVERY OF SUSTAINABLE HYDROGEN / EPSRC Supergen Project 14.Multidisciplinary consortium involving 12 UK Universities covering a wide range of disciplines from chemistry and engineering to socio-technical analysis.Developed photo-electrochemical platinum group catalysts to lower the energy demands of hydrogen release from alcohols and biomass.Regularly presented research findings to the consortium meetings for the benefit of disseminating the work and for establishing collaborative links with other members.Actively sought to bring together emerging technologies.

• Research Co-Investigator

  • Apr 2008 - Sep 2009

  HYDROGEN GENERATION / ENERGY STORAGE - FORMIC ACID.Research Co-Investigator: Multidisciplinary EPSRC collaboration between Warwick and Birmingham Universities, brought together through the Birmingham Science City Energy collaborative package. Successfully developed an inexpensive catalytic system that produces hydrogen gas from formic acid extremely rapidly under mild conditions. Managed a research group on the Warwick side and led a research team at the Birmingham Chemical Engineering site. Demonstrated the catalytic system can be scaled up and can be directly coupled to hydrogen fuels cells.

• Research Fellow

  • Jul 2004 - Mar 2008

  ASYMMETRIC ORGANOMETALLIC CATALYSIS.Designed a simpler and cheaper class of asymmetric iridium hydrogenation catalysts and extensively screened them for reduction of pro-chiral ketones. Patent application surrendered with Warwick Ventures.Developed highly efficient and active arene Ruthenium (II) and Rhodium (III) catalysts for asymmetric transfer hydrogenation.Raised commercial awareness of the above technologies. Some are now included in the Johnson Matthey Catalysts Transfer Hydrogenation Kit. http://www.jmcatalysts.com/pharma/pdfs-uploaded/TransHydrogKit.pdf

• Research Fellow

  • Jul 2002 - Jun 2004

  ELECTRON RICH CHIRAL PHOSPHINES.A collaboration with Rhodia Group, catalyst division (Birmingham) on the synthesis of a series of extremely air sensitive electron rich asymmetric phosphine ligands. After successfully achieving the synthetic methodology the ligands were screened for organometallic catalytic activity in cross coupling reactions.



New Zealand

• Gap Year

  • Mar 2001 - Feb 2002

  Explored the mountains and squash courts of New Zealand.Summary Core Topics: Synthetic Methodology (organic / organometallic / phosphine / polymer / materials), Catalysis (applied catalysis, asymmetric catalysis and industrial applications [Johnson Matthey]), Sustainable Energy Vectors (chemical engineering, energy storage, hydrogen flow reactor technology and fuel cells). Explored the mountains and squash courts of New Zealand.Summary Core Topics: Synthetic Methodology (organic / organometallic / phosphine / polymer / materials), Catalysis (applied catalysis, asymmetric catalysis and industrial applications [Johnson Matthey]), Sustainable Energy Vectors (chemical engineering, energy storage, hydrogen flow reactor technology and fuel cells).