Dr Fraser Murray is an experienced drug hunter and entrepreneur with almost 30 years of experience in drug discovery and early development in both pharma and biotech. In addition to being CEO of Pheno Therapeutics he is currently Head of Scientific Evaluation at Advent Life Sciences. He was most recently Chief Executive Officer of Pandeia Therapeutics which was acquired by a mid-cap pharmaceutical company in December 2022.

Prior to this he was Chief Scientific Officer of Chronos Therapeutics and Chief Executive Officer of Polleo Pharma. Fraser has co-founded 5 biotech companies and consulted for multiple startups and venture capital firms since leaving a career in big pharma. Fraser began his career as a scientist at Merck’s Neuroscience Research Centre in the UK before moving on to roles at Astra Zeneca and Shire where he headed discovery biology for Speciality Pharmaceuticals. Fraser studied Immunology and Pharmacology at the University of Strathclyde and undertook a PhD in Neuropharmacology at the School of Pharmacy, University of London. He later studied for an executive MBA at Alliance Manchester Business School.

Prof Siddharthan Chandran is an international leader in both the discovery and translational arms of regenerative neurology with a focus on multiple sclerosis. He is Head of the Dept of Neurology and Dean of Clinical Medicine at Edinburgh University. He was an Honorary Consultant Neurologist at Cambridge University Hospitals and a Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge before joining the University of Edinburgh in 2009 as MacDonald Professor of Neurology.

His discovery science is rooted in the creation and bespoke analysis of new cohorts (MS and ALS/MND). This has led to the identification of potential molecular targets in neuro-glial interactions in disease, hypothesis-testing in human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) systems, and establishment of innovative clinical trials in MS and MND. In the early years of stem cell technology, he discovered signalling pathways underlying oligodendrocyte and motor neuron generation and showed that oligodendrocytes promote neuroprotection and axonal integrity by distinct mechanisms. In 2021, his lab created an organoid platform to study human myelin biology. His translational work includes pioneering clinical trials to evaluate cell and drug-based remyelinating therapies.

He founded the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic and leads the MS Society Edinburgh Centre of Excellence. He is a Programme Leader in the UK Dementia Research Institute, Honorary Professor at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit, UCL, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh, Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Prof Neil Carragher is a translational research scientist with 30 years of drug discovery and development experience within academia and the pharmaceutical industry (Yamanouchi (now Astellas) and AstraZeneca). While Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca he pioneered early multiparametric high-content phenotypic screening approaches. In 2010 he joined the University of Edinburgh and established and directs the Edinburgh Cancer Discovery Unit (ECDU) and Edinburgh Phenotypic Assay Centre (EPAC) laboratories which focus on advancing cell based assay technologies and drug mechanism-of-action studies. In 2015 he was appointed Professor of Drug Discovery at the University of Edinburgh and in 2018, Director of Translation for the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine in Edinburgh. He is the former Chief Scientific Officer: National Phenotypic Screening Centre Phenomics Discovery Initiative (PDi): http://npsc.ac.uk/. President of the Society of Biomolecular Imaging and Informatics: https://sbi2.org. Founding member & co-chair of the European Cell Based Assay Interest Group: www.eucai.org. Co-organizer of the most recent keystone symposia on Modern Phenotypic Drug Discovery (Denver May 2022) and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of Institute Pasteur Korea.

Jane Rhodes PhD MBA is Chief Business Officer at Verge Genomics. Jane has more than 25 years of experience in drug discovery, company building and strategic leadership in the biotech industry. Her passion lies at the intersection of life sceience and technology. Based on her work in the digital health space she cofounded Qr8 Health, a software development company pioneering the development of clinically validated patient neurological self assessment tools. Jane serves as the Executive Chair of the Board at Pheno Therapeutics and as a Non Executive Director at Turbine AI.

Raj joined Advent in 2005 bringing over 20 years of experience in biomedical research and as an entrepreneur and investor.

After gaining an MA and DPhil from Oxford University, he pursued a successful academic career in molecular medicine before co-founding Oxford GlycoSciences (IPO on LSE and NASDAQ). Following its sale to UCB-Celltech, he became Chairman of Galapagos nv, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Novartis Venture Fund and a founding Director of Celldex Therapeutics.

Since joining Advent, he has been involved with those portfolio Companies primarily engaged in the discovery of new medicines, including Avila, EUSA and Thiakis.

Raj currently serves on the Board of several portfolio Companies including Arrakis, Aura Biosciences and Levicept.

Sohaib joined LifeArc as Senior Investment Principal at LifeArc Ventures in 2021. He is responsible for leading new investments and managing portfolio companies.

Sohaib brings more than 10 years of experience across investment banking and venture capital following a career in medicine. He was an Investment Director with ALSA Ventures, focused on therapeutics investing, a Principal at Cambridge Innovation Capital and worked in healthcare M&A with Perella Weinberg Partners.

Sohaib qualified in Medicine from the University of Birmingham where he also completed a PhD. He practised medicine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and gained an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge.

Dr. Tim Harris is a science and business leader with 45 years of experience guiding and leading R&D. Most recently, he was Chief Science Advisor to Repertoire Immune Medicines and before that EVP R&D at Bioverativ after being Head of Precision Medicine at Biogen. Tim started his Biotech career as a scientist at Celltech in the UK in 1981, went to Glaxo group research as Director of Biotechnology in 1989 and came to the USA in 1993 to be VP R&D at Sequana Therapeutics.

He was subsequently Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Director of the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) at SAIC-Frederick. He is a Venture Partner at SV Health Sciences Investors. He founded Caraway Therapeutics, a company therapeutics directed to lysosomal function in 2016 and Catamaran Bio a company developing NK cell therapeutics in 2019. He is Chairman of the SAB of both companies and a Board observer.