TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM 2009 LONDON

Simon Lovestone is Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London (www.iop.kcl.ac.uk;) and Director of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley Hospital. He studied Microbiology and then Medicine and has continued to practice both medicine and molecular science ever since. His research is in the molecular biology and genetics of Alzheimer's disease with a particular interest in understanding the regulation of tau phosphorylation and using proteomics and other approaches in the search for biomarkers.

Dr Andrew Chadwick

Andrew is a Principal Consultant at Tessella plc specialising in life sciences and healthcare. He advises clients on how to get most value from their R&D investments and processes, with a particular interest in guiding objective decisions that make the best use of available information. He has worked in life science innovation for nearly thirty years, launching a biosensors research consortium at Harwell Laboratories, as head of R&D IT for Boots Pharmaceuticals and subsequently BASF Pharma, and then as a management consultant. He has helped five of the top seven pharma companies and also healthcare organisations on choice of predictive methods, IT strategy and best practice in medical decision-making.

Tom Parke

Tom Parke has been working at Tessella for over ten years. In 1998 he had the great good fortune to manage the development of the software systems to support the ASTIN Stroke trial. This trial, sponsored by Pfizer, run by Dr Michael Krams and designed by Prof Don Berry and Dr Peter Mueller, was a landmark trial for its use of Bayesian modelling to guide the execution of the trial. The design optimized the allocation of subjects to doses and the decision of when and whether to stop the trial.
Tom has now helped implement a number of Bayesian adaptive phase 2 dose finding trials, for a range of pharmaceutical companies across a range of indications. For these trials, he has managed the development of simulation tools, systems to support the running of the trials and the integration of adaptive algorithms with existing IVRS and EDC systems.
He is currently leading projects within Tessella in partnership with Berry Consultants to industrialise this support for adaptive trials and he is consulting with a number of companies to help them define the software systems they require to move adaptive clinical trials into their mainstream activities.
Before working at Tessella, Tom worked at Praxis (now part of Deloitte & Touche) most notably managing projects for part of the air traffic control system at Heathrow Airport, and control software for imaging systems for GE Medical Systems and Varian Oncology. Tom originally learned his software trade at inmos (now part of SGS Thomson), and Imperial Software Technology developing compilers, operating systems, real-time kernels and the use of formal methods.

Dr Anita Grigoriadis
Research Fellow in Breast Cancer Bioinformatics at Breakthrough Breast Research Unit, Guy's Hospital / King's College London

I started my scientific education at the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria as a molecular biologist and did my PhD in London at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. I subsequently remained at the Ludwig Institute as a bioinformatician working in the microarray breast cancer field and at the same time was affiliated with the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Centre at the ICR, working with Prof Alan Ashworth. Following obtaining my MSc in Bioinformatics at Birkbeck College, UCL, I am currently a Research Fellow in Breast Cancer Bioinformatics at Breakthrough Breast Research Unit, Guy's Hospital / King's College London with Dr Andrew Tutt, and a guest bioinformatics lecturer at Birkbeck College, UCL.

Dr. Jonathan Sheldon

As Director of Translational Medicine, Jonathan Sheldon is responsible for all translational research and related activities across IDBS including the recently acquired InforSense business of which he was Chief Scientific Officer.

Prior to InforSense/IDBS, Jonathan was Chief Technology Officer for Confirmant Ltd where he was responsible for developing the company's proteomics products and services. Previously he established the first bioinformatics group and was Head of Bioinformatics for 5 years at Roche Welwyn, UK participating in a number of global initiatives within the company. Dr. Sheldon holds a PhD in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge.

• Head, Department of Oncology, UCL Cancer Institute
• Ronald Raven Professor of Oncology, UCL
• Head, Cancer Research UK Targeting and Imaging Group
• Joint Lead UCL Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre
• Director UCL/UCLH Cancer Clinical Research Facility
• Chairman, NCRI Informatics Initiative Task Force

Professor Richard Begent is a medical oncologist with a clinical practice in gastrointestinal oncology and a research group based on the CRUK Targeting and Imaging Group with the UCL Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and the UCL/KCL Comprehensive Cancer Imaging Centre.

Research:

• Generating new antibody-targeted therapies and imaging of cancer
• Developing biomedical informatics for a systems approach to cancer therapy