Our people

LifeArc’s CEO Dr Melanie Lee, PhD, CBE. Prior to joining LifeArc Melanie pursued a 30 year career in healthcare R&D and gained leadership experience both from the biopharmaceutical industry and from the medical research charity sector.  Melanie’s previous roles have included Chief Scientific Officer at BTG (most recently) as well as senior positions at GSK, Celltech and UCB.  She has previously held Trustee appointments at Cancer Research Technology and Cancer Research UK and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Sanofi.

Message Melanie

General Counsel and Company Secretary. Edward also manages our Licensing team.

Message Edward

Justin runs our drug discovery and antibody engineering groups at the Centre for Therapeutics Discovery who work on small molecule and antibody projects.

Message Justin

Mike heads up the Centre for Diagnostics Development (CDD), LifeArc’s translational activity seeking to develop novel diagnostic tests from cutting edge basic research. In addition, Mike is leading the creation of a scientific foresighting function at LifeArc to identify future charitable investment areas in translation and runs a small scientific due diligence team that assists the company in new project assessment and acquisition.

Message Michael

Andrew Farquharson, M.Sc., European Patent Attorney, is LifeArc’s Executive Director of Technology Transfer.

Andrew leads the team responsible for identifying, protecting and progressing promising life science research to improve human health. He has many years’ experience of intellectual property law and government affairs in the pharmaceutical industry and private legal practice. He joined LifeArc in 2015, having spent most of his career at AstraZeneca, where he worked in the UK and the USA in his role as Senior Director of Biologics IP and Director of External IP Affairs.

He has also worked independently for the Wellcome Trust and many small biotechs, as well as supported biopharma trade associations EFPIA and IFPMA in the development of their IP and access strategies. Andrew was appointed by the EU Commission to the expert group advising the Commission on EU legislation and its impact on the life sciences sector.

Message Andrew

Message Fiona

Andrew manages our Finance department, and also oversees our IT service.

Message Andrew

Philanthropic Fund Manager

Message Catriona

David Holbrook is Head of Seed Funds at Lifearc. 

Message David

Pauline is Investment Principal, LifeArc Seed Fund at LifeArc

Message Pauline

Andrew Farquharson, M.Sc., European Patent Attorney, is LifeArc’s Executive Director of Technology Transfer.

Andrew leads the team responsible for identifying, protecting and progressing promising life science research to improve human health. He has many years’ experience of intellectual property law and government affairs in the pharmaceutical industry and private legal practice. He joined LifeArc in 2015, having spent most of his career at AstraZeneca, where he worked in the UK and the USA in his role as Senior Director of Biologics IP and Director of External IP Affairs.

He has also worked independently for the Wellcome Trust and many small biotechs, as well as supported biopharma trade associations EFPIA and IFPMA in the development of their IP and access strategies. Andrew was appointed by the EU Commission to the expert group advising the Commission on EU legislation and its impact on the life sciences sector.

Message Andrew

John heads a team responsible for identifying early stage targets, small molecules and monoclonal antibodies for our drug discovery group and the licensing of mature programmes to industry.

Message John

Roberto is responsible for identifying early stage targets, small molecules and monoclonal antibodies for our drug discovery group and the licensing of mature programmes to industry.

Message Roberto

Kevin is responsible for identifying early stage targets, small molecules and monoclonal antibodies for our drug discovery group and the licensing of mature programmes to industry.

Message Kevin

Derek is responsible for identifying early stage targets, small molecules and monoclonal antibodies for our drug discovery group and the licensing of mature programmes to industry.

Message Derek

Zhang is responsible for identifying early stage targets, small molecules and monoclonal antibodies for our drug discovery group and the licensing of mature programmes to industry, particularly in China.

Message Zhi

Ciaran manages the diagnostics group which helps develop early stage diagnostic tests at our Centre for Diagnostics Development based in Edinburgh.

Message Ciaran

Mike heads up the Centre for Diagnostics Development (CDD), LifeArc’s translational activity seeking to develop novel diagnostic tests from cutting edge basic research. In addition, Mike is leading the creation of a scientific foresighting function at LifeArc to identify future charitable investment areas in translation and runs a small scientific due diligence team that assists the company in new project assessment and acquisition.

Message Michael

Justin runs our drug discovery and antibody engineering groups at the Centre for Therapeutics Discovery who work on small molecule and antibody projects.

Message Justin

Katy is an Associate Director in LifeArc’s Centre for Therapeutics Discovery. She manages a team of biologists carrying out assay development and screening.

Message Katy

David heads up the BioTherapeutics team. The group develops therapeutic antibodies, this includes antibody generation, humanisation, affinity maturation and biophysical characterisation of candidates.

Message David

Message David

Andy manages a team of medicinal, analytical and computational chemists who carry out early stage drug discovery, including hit-to-lead development at our Centre for Therapeutics Discovery.

Message Andy

Andrew Farquharson, M.Sc., European Patent Attorney, is LifeArc’s Executive Director of Technology Transfer.

Andrew leads the team responsible for identifying, protecting and progressing promising life science research to improve human health. He has many years’ experience of intellectual property law and government affairs in the pharmaceutical industry and private legal practice. He joined LifeArc in 2015, having spent most of his career at AstraZeneca, where he worked in the UK and the USA in his role as Senior Director of Biologics IP and Director of External IP Affairs.

He has also worked independently for the Wellcome Trust and many small biotechs, as well as supported biopharma trade associations EFPIA and IFPMA in the development of their IP and access strategies. Andrew was appointed by the EU Commission to the expert group advising the Commission on EU legislation and its impact on the life sciences sector.

Message Andrew

Rachael works as part of the team delivering the LifeArc Philanthropic Fund, is Development Gap Fund Manager and provides technology transfer services to the LMB PNAC (shared).

Message Rachael

Georgia covers LMB Cell Biology, LMB PNAC (shared), LMB Neurobiology (shared) and MRC Mitchondrial Biology Unit (shared).

Message Georgia

Sam covers LMB Neurobiology Division, Mammalian Genetics Unit,  Mary Lyons Centre (MRC Harwell).

Message Sam

Madhu looks after IP issues for our charity partners.

Message Madhu

Anji manages all IP, contractual and technology transfer matters arising from the MRC Prion Unit.

Message Anji

Message Francois-Xavier

Steven covers Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (MMC & HGU) and MRC Clincal Sciences Centre (shared).

Message Steven

Alex works with researchers in the Neurobiology and Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry divisions of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology.

Message Alex