United Kingdom
I am a scientist and strategic leader focused on advancing biologics innovation through the combined power of deep biological insight, drug development expertise, and AI-enabled scientific approaches. My work sits at the intersection of structural biology, cell biology, biologic therapeutics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, with a strong emphasis on designing smarter molecules, improving development decisions, and accelerating the path from scientific concept to therapeutic impact. I am particularly passionate about the future of smart biologics and the role of AI, machine learning, and data-driven science in transforming how we discover, evaluate, and develop new medicines. My experience spans the scientific and strategic foundations required to advance next-generation biologics, including work connected to one of the industry’s most successful multispecifics platforms. By integrating mechanistic biology with computational innovation, I aim to drive more predictive, efficient, and insight-led approaches to biopharma R&D. I bring a collaborative, forward-looking leadership style to complex scientific challenges, with a strong focus on building partnerships, fostering cross-disciplinary thinking, and shaping innovation at the interface of science, technology, and translational medicine. My goal is to translate cutting-edge advances in biologics, next generation therapeutics and AI into meaningful progress for patients and to help define the future of AI-powered drug discovery and development.
Senior scientific leader driving strategy, governance, and delivery across AI and data-enabled biologics design. Responsible for shaping scientific direction, guiding cross-functional programmes, and translating complex technical work into executive-level decisions, platform impact, and organisational value. Partners across biology, bioinformatics, machine learning, wet lab, IT, legal, and governance to accelerate innovation, strengthen reporting, and ensure alignment with business priorities and long-term platform strategy. Recognition within AZ 2025 R&D Executive Vice Presidents Choice Award - Accelerating synthetic and biologic drug discovery with the use of AI External Senior Leadership As Chairperson of FAITE, I lead a multi-company consortium across AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and UCB focused on applying federated learning and active learning to improve biologics property prediction. The goal is to build privacy-preserving AI models for key developability risks, reduce late-stage failures, and accelerate smarter, more efficient biologics discovery. Board membership DenovAI - I contribute to the strategic direction to advance next-generation AI-enabled biologics discovery. DenovAI is focused on the de novo design of therapeutic antibodies and small protein biologics, combining generative design, and computational biophysics to create a differentiated platform that integrates molecular design, binding prediction, and developability optimisation within a single discovery engine. CombinAbleAI developed a physics-informed AI platform for the design and optimisation of therapeutic antibodies and complex biologics, using machine learning and molecular simulation to improve affinity, stability, manufacturability, and overall developability. insitro’s acquisition announcement in 2026 positioned these capabilities as the biologics engine within TherML™, expanding insitro into a truly modality-agnostic AI drug discovery platform. AION Lab Spin Out
Director leading the strategy and build-out of AstraZeneca’s AI- and machine learning-driven antibody and biologics platforms. Combines deep scientific expertise with computational innovation to drive in silico developability, AI-guided optimisation, and de novo design across a highly matrixed R&D environment, translating platform science into portfolio impact and competitive advantage. Recognition within AZ 2022 R&D award for science and innovation 2023 CEO award science and innovation 2023 IT Excellence award
At Ichnos, I was Project Leader for ISB 2001, a trispecific T-cell engager for multiple myeloma, leading the programme toward IND and helping position it for successful external partnering. I built an automated in silico binder-screening platform to connect discovery with engineering, partnering with external technology providers to improve speed, selection, and design quality. ISB 2001 showed strong tumour cell killing and the ability to overcome immune escape, and was subsequently licensed to AbbVie in a landmark deal. My work sat at the intersection of multispecific antibody therapeutics, scientific leadership, and computational innovation.
Scienitific/medical writing. IND, patent and scientific research documents.
At Roche, I contributed to the advancement of biologics innovation by combining deep expertise in structural biology, cell biology, biochemistry, and antibody therapeutics with a strong focus on strategic, cross-functional delivery. My work supported the design and development of next-generation biologics, including multispecific formats, and helped translate scientific insight into robust discovery strategies and platform impact. Working across highly collaborative teams, I operated at the interface of science, innovation, and therapeutic ambition to help drive meaningful progress in biologics R&D. I'm named as inventor on more than 30 patents and patent applications covering bispecific, trispecific, tetraspecific, and multispecific antibody formats, activatable antibodies, digoxigenin-based payload delivery, and HER2-targeting bispecifics. Core patents include the CrossMab family, XGFR bispecific series, TetraMab format, and conditional active bispecific designs.
Early in my career at Roche, I worked with Wolfgang Schafer, Juergen Schanzer, and Christian Klein to translate a novel scientific concept into a scalable technology platform. That work led to my recognition as a named co-inventor of CrossMab, now widely regarded as one of the foundational enabling technologies for bispecific and multispecific antibody therapeutics. CrossMab solved a core challenge in bispecific IgG development: the chain association problem, where co-expression of two different antibody arms can lead to heavy- and light-chain mispairing. By introducing a targeted domain crossover in one Fab arm, the platform created the structural distinction needed to drive correct pairing without relying on artificial linkers, while maintaining the expression, stability, and manufacturability expected of conventional antibodies. The technology was established across multiple formats, including CH1-CL, VH-VL, and full Fab crossover. The platform was successfully demonstrated in Ang-2/VEGF-A bispecific antibodies, showing potent anti-angiogenic and anti-tumour activity in vivo. CrossMab has since underpinned multiple approved bispecific therapeutics and has been broadly adopted across the pharmaceutical industry as a standard approach for bispecific antibody production. Clinical and industrial impact: CrossMab technology underpins multiple approved bispecific antibody therapeutics and is widely adopted across the pharmaceutical industry as a standard bispecific production approach® Foundational paper: Schaefer W, Regula JT, Bähner M, Schanzer J , Croasdale R e t al. "Immunoglobulin domain crossover as a generic approach for the production of bispecific IgG antibodies." PNAS 2011;108(27):11187-11192.
Design and development of novel protein formats (Bi- & multi-specific antibodies) and evaluation of platform technologies.