Management Team
Keith F Martin, PhD, MRPharmS, Chief Executive Officer
Keith Martin has over 25 years' experience in pharmaceutical R&D, business development and new venture experience. He was previously founder and president of KetoCytonyx Inc where he was responsible for securing seed and Series A funding of €4.6 million and completed a Phase I lead programme. Previously Keith was Global Director of Life Sciences at BTG where he was responsible for an extensive portfolio of product candidates and licensee marketed products. Prior to this, he was Deputy Head of Biology at BASF Pharma where he developed six CNS compounds from the bench through to Phase I and was a key member of the team that developed two products to full market approval.
Keith has been the recipient of the Wellcome Trust Fellowship in Mental Health at the University of Nottingham Medical School and a NATO Exchange Fellowship to Princeton University Psychology Department. Keith has published over 150 papers, reviews & abstracts and is an inventor on 10 patents.
Professor David Wraith, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer & Founder
Professor David Wraith is the CSO and founder of Apitope. He is a world leading research immunologist with over 25 years’ experience and has authored over 100 articles in peer reviewed scientific journals.
David was the Head of the Department of Pathology & Microbiology at the University of Bristol from 1996 -2004. He has been awarded research fellowships by MRC (UK), National MS Society (USA), Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University and the Wellcome Trust.
He has vast experience in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry including: member of SAB for TEVA, GSK and Peptide therapeutics; expert advisor to Hoffman La Roche on autoimmune therapeutics; expert advisor to DTI on Stem Cell Therapies and to the Food Standards Agency on Peanut Allergy; member of the MRC Infections and Immunity Board; a member of research grant panels for ARC, MS Society, NIH, NKRF, and the Wellcome Trust.
Hayley French, Commercial Director
Hayley brings with her over fifteen years’ experience of negotiating licences and collaborations and managing alliances in the life sciences sector. Prior to joining Apitope, Hayley spent three years at Novartis, based at the Basel headquarters, where she worked closely on all global deals and collaborations in the respiratory division.
Prior to Novartis, Hayley worked in the Life Sciences Group of Bird & Bird, London, specialising in advising pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Prior to joining Bird & Bird, she was Head of Commercial Legal Affairs at the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research (CAMR) in Salisbury, UK. Hayley started her career at University College London Ventures where she was responsible for the development, management and commercialisation of technologies in the life sciences sector.
Hayley is chair of the Licensing Executives Society International (LESI) Education committee and is a board member of LES Britain & Ireland. She regularly carries out training sessions on Best Practice Negotiations and Licensing Agreements.
She has a B.Sc. in Microbiology from the University of Liverpool, as well as a PhD in Microbiology and a M.Sc. in intellectual property from the University of London.
Dr Graham Roberts, Development Director
Dr Graham Roberts has over 25 years of experience within R&D in the biotech and CRO business. He was previously Global VP Regulatory Affairs at SRA GCD Ltd. Graham has in-depth experience in drug development from full service CRO to small and medium sized organisations. He was previously Director at British Biotech Ltd, where he was responsible for two Phase II oncology products and the manufacturing and regulatory lead for all biotech development projects. Prior to this, Graham held the position of Research Group Manager at Celltech Ltd.
Graham has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge and a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Sheffield.
Dr Martin Sims, Research Director
Dr Martin Sims has over 20 years of drug discovery research experience gained in the pharmaceutical industry. He was previously a Director in Medicines Discovery and Development at GlaxoSmithKline. Martin has an in-depth experience in inflammation and autoimmune therapeutic areas having led multiple projects, both therapeutic antibody and NCE projects, in these disease areas. Formerly he was head of the Immunology Department in the Respiratory and Inflammation Drug Discovery group at GlaxoWellcome.
Martin has a PhD in immunology from the University of Cambridge and a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham.
Alison Bentley Higgins, Quality Assurance Director
Alison has over 15 years’ clinical research experience. Alison’s previous work experience has included Quintiles (UK) Ltd., the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and the NHS. Alison worked as a Clinical Research Associate with Janssen-Cilag Ltd, as a Project and Clinical Research Manager, and then Director of Business Operations with Constella Group Ltd. formerly Origin Pharmaceutical Services Ltd. In 2007 Alison founded Selixir Ltd. which provides a quality driven clinical research consultancy service to biotech, pharmaceutical and related healthcare industries.
Dr Jan Steiner, Medical Monitor
Jan Steiner has 25 years' experience in clinical pharmacology and clinical development in both blue chip and start up pharmaceutical companies. Jan founded Oxford Therapeutics Consulting in 1992 working on projects in cancer vaccines and chemotherapeutics, immunomodulators in respiratory and CNS diseases and infectious disease vaccines.
Jan has also held the position of European Medical Director for Gensia Inc, and was previously head of clinical pharmacology departments at Hoffman La Roche (UK) and Searle. She has contributed to numerous successful regulatory filings to perform clinical trials in Europe and USA. Jan has been Examiner for the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (Dip Pharm Med) for 18 years.
Katie Macdonald CA, Finance Director & Company Secretary
Katie Macdonald is a senior finance professional and Chartered Accountant with 15 years’ experience, including six years at a FTSE 250 biotech/pharmaceutical company. She founded PharmaFinance Ltd, a vehicle which provides virtual finance director and company secretarial services to small biotech companies. Prior to this, Katie was Vice President of R&D Finance & Administration at PowderJect Pharmaceuticals Plc, where she was involved in preparing the company for IPO, and subsequent second round fund raising.
Dr Andrea Jahraus, Research & Development Manager
Andrea obtained her PhD in the Cell Biology Program at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg (Germany). She then moved to the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands for a post-doc in plant molecular biology. In 2000, she became a biotech equity analyst at Puilaetco Investment Bank in Brussels (Belgium) before joining Beta-Cell NV as Director for Cell Production and Quality systems. Prior to her function at Apitope, she lead a cross-functional project team at Tigenix NV and was closely involved in the EMEA and FDA dossier preparation and the development of auxiliary medical devices towards CE marking. She also was responsible for the implementation of GLP-like structures into the company. Andrea joined Apitope International in Hasselt (Belgium) in January 2009 as Diagnostics Development Manager.
Dr Heather Streeter, Research Project Leader
Following completion of a PhD at the Department of Biochemistry, U.C. Cardiff, Heather began her research career at NIMR, Mill Hill, London and then at Stanford University, California. Since 1998 she has worked with Prof. David Wraith at the University of Bristol on T regulatory mechanisms in autoimmunity. Heather has been involved with Apitope since its founding in 2002 and has developed three patents that provides the platform technology for Apitope for selecting tolerogenic therapeutic peptides (Apitopes™) for autoimmune diseases. Four Apitopes™ were recently tested in Phase I Clinical Trial in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis individuals with a successful outcome for safety. The immunological analysis also indicated promising signs of efficacy.
Heather is now leading a team of scientists in developing immunoassays for Apitope’s next clinical trial and in discovering, developing and researching new Apitopes™ for multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases.
