Careers in Discovery

Dave Hallett, Exscientia

"True discovery really happens at the interfaces."

Dave Hallett is the Chief Operating Officer of Exscientia, a company at the forefront of applying AI to drug discovery. From starting out as a chemist in big Pharma through commercial and operational roles, Dave's varied career has given him unique insight, which he shares on this episode of Careers in Discovery.

We discussed:

💻 AI in drug discovery, and the impact it has on what's possible

💻 Thinking about the commercial endgame for your scientific research

💻 Finding talented people to surround yourself with

💻 The advantages of taking a year out in guiding your career decisions

Enjoy!

Tony de Fougerolles, Evox Therapeutics

"If you're in a research role, and you really understand how a clinical or commercial person thinks, you can bring some of those insights into deciding what drug you want to make and which attributes to focus on."

Tony de Fougerolles is a drug hunter in the classic sense. He's spent his career identifying and advancing transformational technologies that have changed what's possible in biotech.

Now CEO of Evox Therapeutics, Tony joining us on Careers in Discovery to discuss:

💊 The difference between research and drug hunting

💊 The current state of UK & European biotech

💊 How you can have the right technology at the wrong time

💊 Why the people and not the technology in a business ultimately determine its' success

Enjoy!

Ross Burn, CatSci

"The first step for any business venture is to make sure you really understand your core value proposition and what the market demands are."

This week on Careers in Discovery, we spoke with Ross Burn, co-founder and CEO of CatSci.

We talked to Ross in depth about the company's journey, including:

🧪 The importance of understanding market demand

🧪 Instilling an innovation culture

🧪 How automation and digitisation are impacting the day-to-day job of scientists

🧪 The thought process behind pivoting a business

🧪 People's misconceptions about entrepreneurship

Enjoy!

Richard Butt, Apollo Therapeutics

"We have to be sure that the mechanism we're targeting can be followed through to a disease, and a clinical & medical need. It doesn't matter if the science is really cool if there's ultimately nowhere to translate it to, so it's really important that we stay on top of emerging trends."

Academia and industry have increasingly been joining forces to drive innovation in drug discovery, but they remain separate worlds in many ways.

We spoke to Richard Butt, CEO of Apollo Therapeutics, who have a unique approach to industry-academia collaboration, about:

🎓 The differences between the two sectors

🎓 Why commercial analysis is important, but shouldn't be overdone

🎓 What he looks for in a spin-out technology

🎓 The upward trends in UK biotech

Enjoy!

Darrin Disley, Mogrify

"Think about success as a journey, not a series of destinations, and think about it holistically. You need to get a sense of how you're doing that's not defined by others."

Darrin Disley is an ex-professional footballer, scientist, OBE, investor and advisor to more than 40 companies, serial entrepreneur, one of the founders of Horizon Discovery and now CEO of Mogrify, a company intent on changing the face of cell therapy.

In this week's episode, we talked about Darrin's unique journey, and he shared his fascinating insights into:

🧫 Creating enough freedom to become an entrepreneur

🧫 How to raise money on your own terms

🧫 His principles for entrepreneurship, self-development and career development

🧫 The "Four R's" he operates by

🧫 How multi-disciplinary science is coming together to build the future

Enjoy!

Chris Kirton, Axol Bioscience

"If you're a scientist and you can look at data; if you can look at a problem and spot the pattern to figure out what the probable solution is, then it's exactly the same thought process, just applied to Operations."

Chris Kirton's career started out like many others in biotech - a PhD in Immunology followed by a couple of post-docs that built on his research.

When he took his first steps into industry, Chris didn't expect to change direction, but after becoming Head of Operations for Envigo, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Absolute Antibody, he stepped into the role of Chief Operating Officer at Axol Bioscience, a specialist stem cell company facilitating cutting edge research.

We spoke to Chris on Careers in Discovery about:

🚴‍♂️ Stem cells, and how far the technology has come

🚴‍♂️ The similarities between Immunology and Operations

🚴‍♂️ Knowing yourself and focusing on your strengths, then building a team to support you

🚴‍♂️ How cell and gene therapy are changing the pharmaceutical industry

Enjoy!

Ian Wilkinson, Absolute Antibody

"If you've got an idea, speak up about it and don't be afraid to fail."

Welcome back to Careers in Discovery! In our first episode of 2020, we were joined by Ian Wilkinson, Chief Scientific Officer at Absolute Antibody.

Through an interview packed with insight, Ian shared with us:

📣 What it's like to be employee number one at a start-up

📣 How a science-driven company succeeds in industry

📣 Finding your voice

📣 Why you shouldn't take science personally

📣 What's next for antibodies

Enjoy!

Jason Mellad, StartCodon

"Scientists are the best entrepreneurs, they just don't realise it. You're constantly begging for money, asking for your research to be published and speaking at conferences - that's sales, marketing and PR right there."

For our last episode of 2019, we're delighted to be joined by Jason Mellad, CEO and Co-Founder of StartCodon, the Cambridge Life Sciences Accelerator.

The son of a scientist and an entrepreneur, Jason went into consulting after his PhD in Medicine, then Tech Transfer and Business Development, before becoming the CEO of Cambridge Epigenetix, where he led a complete pivot and fundraising round to change the fortunes of an already successful company.

Along the way, Jason's learned a huge amount about career development, entrepreneurship, why everyone should get some sales experience, the make up of a successful founder, the fantastic opportunity in UK biotech and more - he shared this all with us on Careers in Discovery.

Enjoy!