ITI Life Sciences boosts Technology and Markets Team

Press release from ITI Life Sciences

Dundee, Scotland. ITI Life Sciences, the publicly funded innovation group, announces it has boosted significantly its Technology and Markets (T&M) team as it accelerates its activities to identify the next round of new research programmes. Four new analysts, all with highly relevant experience from the life sciences industry, have been appointed during 2008.

Their roles are to identify important growth markets, to evaluate the potential of technologies that currently target these markets, and to define corresponding research programmes that will progress and establish new technologies for subsequent commercialisation. A key consideration is that these new technologies make use of world-class Scottish research in the life sciences areas. New programmes already under review include emerging drug targets (ubiquitin protease), non-invasive surgical procedures, synthetic biology and medical imaging.

The new appointments are:

Dr Nicolas Peyret, Technology Analyst – Nicolas is a French national with extensive experience in research, product development, and technology evaluation in the life sciences. Prior to ITI Life Sciences, Nicolas worked at Applied Biosystems (NYSE: ABI) in the USA as a senior scientist and project manager. He led design and development work for products aimed at identifying genetic variations for drug discovery, disease diagnosis and human identity testing. Nicolas was also involved in new technology assessment and acquisitions, and patent applications. During his five-year tenure at ABI, he contributed to the successful development, commercial launch, and optimisation of several major lines of genotyping and gene expression products.

Nicolas holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Wayne State University (Michigan, USA) and a dual MBA degree from New York University Stern School of Business and HEC School of Management in Paris.

Dr John Gordon, Technology Analyst – John has more than 20 years’ experience in the practice and commercial application of life sciences research. Most recently he was Business Development Officer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which he combined with his role as Chief Technology Officer of CalbaTech Inc., a company he founded in California in 2004. John’s primary role at CalbaTech was to identify and evaluate technologies residing within life sciences research institutions and companies as acquisition targets for the company. Before this, he worked at Burstein Technologies, also in California, which acquired Molecular Drives, a diagnostics company he founded while a Lecturer at the University of Glasgow.

John holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and a B.Sc. in Cell Biology from the University of Glasgow.

Martyn Link, Market Analyst – Prior to joining ITI Life Sciences, Martyn spent five years as Principal Analyst in Life Sciences at Wood Mackenzie, the Edinburgh-based research and consulting business. He specialised in assessing the market for cardiovascular products and forecasting the market need for medical pharmaceutical products. Prior to his therapeutic focus, Martyn undertook corporate analysis of the big pharma players and was involved in the launch and development of a wide range of research products.

Martyn has an M.Phil. in Type 2 Diabetes Research and a B.Sc. in Physiology from the University of Edinburgh.

Dr Liz Fletcher, Market Analyst – Liz joins ITI Life Sciences from the Centre of Enterprise and Innovation (CEI) at the University of Southampton where as Life Science Business Manager she was responsible for identifying, assessing and exploiting new technologies from the School of Biological Sciences and School of Health Professions. During her five years at CEI, she concluded 11 commercial licence agreements with international partners for life sciences technologies originating at the University.

Prior to CEI, Liz was a Senior Editor at Nature Biotechnology in New York and London, a past editor of Pharmaceutical Business News and a science writer/editor at the Wellcome Trust.

Liz has a Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London and a B.Sc. in Pharmacology from the University of Bristol. She also spent six years in postdoctoral research positions in Australia, Canada and at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK.

Dr Paul Heaney, Director of Technology and Markets at ITI Life Sciences, said: “I am delighted we have been able to attract people of such high calibre to the organisation and am confident they can make a real impact into the identification, selection and creation of new research programmes. We have a number of exciting opportunities under consideration and the new additions to the team mean we can progress forward more quickly in evaluating these as potential new programmes as well as seeking new opportunities.”