VP, Head of Disease Biology & Interim Head of Discovery - Exscientia

Alex has a long career in drug discovery research. He work for 18 years at Novartis and the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research and 2.5 years at the LG Chem Life Sciences Innovation Center in Cambridge. During his tenure at Novartis he supported each step of the pharmaceutical pipeline including early research, target discovery, drug discovery, and early translational work. He has contributed to multiple projects that have entered clinical trials and eventually to commercialization for small molecules, biologics, and siRNA therapeutics. While the Vice President and Head of the Translational Medicine department at the LG Chem Life Sciences Innovation Center, he managed the internal R&D portfolio of LG Chem Life Sciences in Seoul and supported the strategic advancement of collaboration activities for the Innovation Center in Cambridge to help drive new target and platform technology into clinical development.

Chief Scientific Officer for Xcellomics

Principal Investigator - University of Oxford

Daniel Ebner is the Academic Chief Scientific Officer for Xcellomics, a Principal Investigator at the University of Oxford. Previous to his academic career at the University of Oxford, Daniel has worked for >10 years in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. He now heads the High Throughput Cellular Screening and Oxford CRISPR/Cas9 Screening Facilities at the Target Discovery Institute (TDI), Centre for Medicines Discovery, Nuffield Department of Medicine. Daniel’s main academic research, is focused on identifying and advancing novel combinatorial therapeutics for the treatment of glioblastoma. Daniel has worked with academic and industrial collaborators to complete >150 research projects and has published >70 peer-reviewed papers in high impact journals over the past 5 years.

Chief Executive Officer (Interim) - Exscientia

Dave is an experienced drug hunter with over 20 years experience leading successful teams and driving major strategic collaborations. Prior to joining Exscientia, he held various positions within Evotec including EVP Chemistry and more recently EVP Alliance Management. Earlier, he spent almost 10 years working for Merck at their former neuroscience facility near Cambridge. A medicinal chemist by training, Dave was educated at Cambridge before obtaining a PhD at the University of Manchester, followed by post-doctoral studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

VP, Antivirals - Exscientia

Professor of Virology - University of Cambridge

Ian Goodfellow is a prominent virologist and Deputy Head of the Virology Department at the University of Cambridge, where he specializes in studying viruses and their interactions with host cells. Known for his research on noroviruses and viral genome translation, Dr. Goodfellow has made significant contributions to our understanding of viral pathogenesis. In addition to his academic role, he serves as Vice President of Antivirals at Exscientia, a cutting edge pharmaceutical company focused on using AI for drug discovery, where he leads efforts to develop innovative antiviral therapies.

Academic Chief Scientific Officer for Xcellomics

Principal Investigator - University of Oxford

Daniel Ebner is the Academic Chief Scientific Officer for Xcellomics, a Principal Investigator at the University of Oxford. Previous to his academic career at the University of Oxford, Daniel has worked for >10 years in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. He now heads the High Throughput Cellular Screening and Oxford CRISPR/Cas9 Screening Facilities at the Target Discovery Institute (TDI), Centre for Medicines Discovery, Nuffield Department of Medicine. Daniel’s main academic research, is focused on identifying and advancing novel combinatorial therapeutics for the treatment of glioblastoma. Daniel has worked with academic and industrial collaborators to complete >150 research projects and has published >70 peer-reviewed papers in high impact journals over the past 5 years.

Industrial Chief Scientific Officer for Xcellomics

Associate Director, Biology - Exscientia

Erin has over 10 years of cellular and molecular biology research experience. She obtained her Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Vanderbilt University, where she led the molecular mode of action studies for an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional cancer drug discovery program. Following her graduate studies, she served for 3 years as lead biologist for an oncology small molecule inhibitor program at Forma Therapeutics. Erin has extensive experience in the fields of cancer biology, DNA damage repair, and deciphering complex molecular modes of action for novel small molecule inhibitors.

Director, Project Biology - Exscientia

Di obtained her Ph.D. in Biology at Purdue University and conducted postdoctoral research in the area of tumour angiogenesis at Harvard Medical School. Prior to joining Exscientia, Di worked as a drug discovery project lead at the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research and at Merck Research Laboratories. She has led multidisciplinary project teams to find small molecules suitable for clinical development in the areas of immunology and oncology. She also has extensive experience in building genome-wide CRISPR screening and deep mutational scanning pipelines for target identification and in-depth structural/function understanding of novel targets.

Functional Genomics Head - University of Oxford

Elena is a biotech scientist with a PhD in stem cell biomedicine from University of Seville. She is currently a Senior Postdoc in the High Throughput Cellular Screening Facility at the Target Discovery Institute (University of Oxford). Elena has 6 years of experience developing and producing genome wide CRISPR/Cas9 screenings in diverse biological models, including pancreatic beta cells, hepatocytes, adipocytes, and patient iPSC-derived macrophages. She joined Xcellomics as Head of Functional Genomics.

Deputy Head of Functional Genomics - University of Oxford

Sneha holds a PhD in infection biology focusing on vaccine development for infectious diseases. She is currently a postdoctoral scientist in the Cellular High Content Imaging Group led by Daniel Ebner at the Target Discovery Institute (TDI), Centre for Medicines Discovery. Sneha is responsible for cell-based high-throughput functional genomic screens. Before joining TDI, Sneha worked in Prof. Terry Rabbitt’s group at University of Oxford, where she worked on establishing technologies to target cellular protein function using antibody fragments as drug surrogates. She has experience developing specific and potent reagents to study cancer development and drug-like molecules as leads for therapeutic drug development.

Senior Biological Data Scientist - Exscientia

Otto is a Senior Biological Data Scientist at Exscientia, where he applies bioinformatic and machine learning techniques to support target and biomarker identification efforts. Prior to Exscientia, he trained in cancer and stem cell biology, conducting research at the Francis Crick Institute, Genentech, The Buck Institute for Research on Aging and The Institute of Cancer Research.

Senior Director, Discovery Chemistry - Exscientia

Prior to joining Exscientia, Ashley started her career at AbbVie and was most recently a Team Leader of Discovery Chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline. She has led efforts across the early space of drug discovery including fragment-based drug discovery programs and in targeted protein degradation. She is currently serving as a Topic Editor for ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters. Before her transition to industry, Ashley obtained her Ph.D. in organic chemistry with Professor Justin Du Bois at Stanford University.