Experience

PentaBind

• United Kingdom
• Biotechnology Research
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Co-Founder & CTO

  • Nov 2021 - Present

  We are a platform techbio company using generative AI to design aptamer-based therapeutics. These DNA and RNA nano-hooks are ready for personalised medicine, and are solving unmet, and currently undruggable, needs in oncology and neurodegenerative diseases. Main responsibilities: wet-laboratory design, automation/robotics, AI-driven 'closed loop' platforms, operations, clinical strategy, drug discovery and development. Learn more about how we are merging generative AI for synthetic biology with molecular evolution, robotics and lab automation, below. Show less



Stealth Startup

• United States
• Technology, Information and Internet
• 700 & Above Employee

• Co-Founder

  • Nov 2021 - Present

  Biotechnology, Software, Artificial Intelligence. Biotechnology, Software, Artificial Intelligence.



London Centre for Nanotechnology

• United Kingdom
• Nanotechnology Research
• 1 - 100 Employee

• PhD Physics (Molecular Biophysics)

  • Sep 2016 - Present

  Based at the London Centre for Nanotechnology (UCL) and Molecular Sciences Research Hub (Imperial College London). Working between labs in biophysics, medicinal chemistry, molecular & systems biology. “Deciphering how drugs (small molecules) interact with, and influence, the final target (DNA and proteins) using applied, physics-inspired techniques (single-molecule biophysics and nanotechnology).” - Early-stage drug discovery: Single-molecule, biophysical and pharmacodynamic studies of anti-cancer therapeutics and their targets (G-quadruplex DNA and PARP1 inhibitors) - Developing an in vitro model system to evaluate G-quadruplex specific ligands - Understanding how mechanical and topological constraints influence G-quadruplex stability - Co-discovered an alternative function of PARP1 - DNA and small molecule-enzyme interactions - Chemical biology of nucleic acids - High-resolution imaging and characterisation of biomolecules (DNA, protein) and materials Industrial co-sponsor: Bruker (Santa Barbara, California) Key collaborators: Malloy Lab (Francis Crick Institute, UK), AstraZeneca (Cambridge, UK) Other collaborations: Vakonakis lab (centriole assembly, University of Oxford), Haider lab (computational biology, UCL Cancer Institute), Ying Lab (neurodegenerative diseases, Imperial College London), Hadjur lab (chromatin architecture, UCL Cancer Institute) Core experimental techniques: AFM, FRET, EMSA, qPCR, spectroscopies (CD, UV-Vis) Computational tools: Matlab, Python, R, Wolfram Mathematica, ImageJ/Fiji and statistical analysis packages (Excel, Origin Pro, Prism, SPSS) For 3D illustration and animation: Adobe illustrator, Blender For molecular modelling: Chimera, PyMOL, Chem3D, ChemDraw Primary supervisor: Professor Bart Hoogenboom (UCL, Nanoscale Biophysics) Secondary supervisor: Professor Ramon Vilar (ICL, Medicinal Chemistry) Member of the CDT in Advanced Characterisation of Materials. Show less



Entrepreneur First

• United Kingdom
• Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
• 400 - 500 Employee

• LD17 Cohort

  • Sep 2021 - Mar 2022

  Entrepreneur First (EF) is the worlds leading talent investor and one of the worlds top startup accelerators/incubators. EF have built over 500 companies, have over 3000 alumni worldwide, with a portfolio valuation of over $4 billion that includes Tractable (valued >$1bn), Magic Pony (acquired by Twitter, ~$150m), and Omnipresent ($120M Series B less than 2.5 years after founding). Backing includes Reid Hoffman (former founder Paypal and LinkedIn), Greylock Partners (Silicon Valley VC), Founders Fund (founded by Peter Thiel) and Demis Hassabis (cofounder Google DeepMind). Show less



Semantic Evolution

• United Kingdom
• Financial Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Data Analyst

  • Dec 2020 - Feb 2021

  Internship within A.I. Fintech R&D and data analytics. Worked on the development of the financial statement model and analysed the A.I. parsing features involved in data restructuring. Internship within A.I. Fintech R&D and data analytics. Worked on the development of the financial statement model and analysed the A.I. parsing features involved in data restructuring.



Bruker Nano Surfaces & Metrology

• United States
• Nanotechnology Research
• 300 - 400 Employee

• Application Scientist

  • Nov 2017 - Nov 2017

  Instrument and probe prototype development (Atomic Force Microscopy, R&D). Instrument and probe prototype development (Atomic Force Microscopy, R&D).



University of Exeter

• United Kingdom
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• MPhys Masters Project

  • Sep 2014 - May 2016

  - Experimentally and theoretically investigated the feasibility of a Millikan style experiment to measure the surface charge of human erythrocytes - Built a micro-electrophoresis system Experimental: Bright-field and fluorescence microscopy, voltammetry and electronics Theoretical: Electrochemistry, electrostatics & electrokinetic phenomena (electrode kinetics, colloids, electrophoresis and electroosmosis), statistical mechanics (PBE) and fluid dynamics (Navier-Stokes) Computational: Solidworks (3D printing), GNU Octave (data language), C and VBA Primary supervisor: Professor Peter Winlove Secondary supervisor: Dr Peter Petrov (Membrane Biophysics) Show less



University of Oxford

• United Kingdom
• Research Services
• 700 & Above Employee

• Particle Therapy Cancer Research Institute

  • Jul 2011 - Jul 2011

  Digital communications: the potential benefits of proton therapy for treating cancer when compared with alternative treatments (website). Digital communications: the potential benefits of proton therapy for treating cancer when compared with alternative treatments (website).



CERN

• Switzerland
• Research Services
• 700 & Above Employee

• Database Development

  • Jun 2009 - Jun 2009

  At LHC-CMS detector - developed a database system for charting the PCs used in the high-level, real-time triggering of the data acquisition system. At LHC-CMS detector - developed a database system for charting the PCs used in the high-level, real-time triggering of the data acquisition system.