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Drug Discovery

Emma has accumulated broad practical expertise in drug discovery, project leadership and strategic positioning to enable drug discovery programmes in Immunology, Oncology and Fibrotic disease. Emma is a highly experienced cellular biologist and pharmacologist, but in addition to that her work has also had a sharp focus on the translational relevance of these in vitro systems to human disease and in vivo disease models. This background makes Emma well placed to develop practical and relevant drug discovery workflows for your programmes. Her extensive experience in human tissue applications also lends her to translational activities such as ex vivo study, exploratory biomarker investigation and patient selection assay development. Emma has a history of working across matrix teams, multidisciplinary teams, external collaborations and external service providers. As such, Emma can engage with your internal teams, collaborators and CRO teams to effectively lead and/or manage your projects.

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  • Small molecule and synthetic macromolecules: Drug Discovery to Candidate Selection

    • Mapping of the path to Candidate Selection Point (CSP), including budget, infrastructure risk management and resource planning.

    • Primary screening assays and hit finding, using engineered overexpression systems and reporter systems. Working with internal or external (e.g. CRO) teams

    • Delivery of an exploratory cellular pharmacology packages to address safety and efficacy, to drive desired mechanism of action and including complex primary, co-culture, and ex vivo models

    • Screening cascades: Hit to Lead and Lead Optimization. Working with CROs on integrated drug discovery projects including exploratory PK and ADME

    • Hands on experience in GPCR, Ion Channel and Kinase targets/pharmacology and siRNA/RNAi for therapeutic application.

    • Experienced in Immunology and Tissue Remodeling  Biological Mechanisms.

    • Innovative in vivo pharmacodynamic studies to explore mechanism of action, site of action and formulation. Working with internal or external (e.g. CRO) teams

    • PKPD and exploratory biomarker validation. Alignment of in vivo observations with in vivo PK data and in vitro cellular pharmacology to provide proof of biological mechanism. Exploration of in vivo efficacy endpoints in the context of patient data and human disease tissue.

    • Project leadership of multidisciplinary and geographically dispersed teams.

    • Collaboration with external biotech technology providers and strategic pharma partners.

    • Oncology, Autoimmune and Respiratory disease. Oral and Inhaled administration

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  • Candidate selection for biologics projects: Including monoclonal antibodies and T cell Engagers

    • Mapping of the path to Candidate Selection Point (CSP), including budget, infrastructure risk management and resource planning.

    • in vitro cellular screening strategy to identify potent and selective molecules for both antagonist and agonist mechanisms

    • in vitro kinetics, epitope binning and pharmacological mechanism of action investigations

    • Exploratory cellular pharmacology packages to address safety and efficacy, to drive desired mechanism of action and including complex primary, co-culture, ex vivo models

    • in vivo pharmacodynamic studies to explore mechanism of action, PKPD and exploratory biomarker validation. Working with internal or external (e.g. CRO) teams

    • Exploration of in vitro and in vivo efficacy endpoints in the context of patient data and human disease tissue.

    • Experienced in Immunology and Tissue Remodeling  Biological Mechanisms.

    • Project leadership of multidisciplinary and geographically dispersed teams.

    • Collaboration with external biotech technology providers and strategic pharma partners.

    • Oncology, Autoimmune and Respiratory disease. IV administration.

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  • in vivo and translational pharmacology studies via CROs: to support preclinical validation across multiple therapeutic areas.

    • Tolerability and PK study design. Working through CROs: selecting the right provider and managing the project.

    • Oncology, Immune-Oncology, Autoimmune and Respiratory disease models. Experience with evaluation of Xenograft models, Syngeneic Studies, Fibrosis and Immunological disease models including those requiring humanized immune systems

    • In vitro model validation, using transcriptomic and histological data to evaluate in vitro culture systems (e.g. iPSC models) by comparison with relevant human and animal tissues

    • Exploratory Biomarker Studies

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  • Patient selection and stratification strategies: Oncology projects

    • Identification of target patient groups on basis of biological, clinical, competitive and commercial rationale

    • Development of patient selection assays for early clinical application

    • Exploratory Biomarker Studies

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  • Collaboration management and external relations: Pharma, Biotech and Academic Collaborations

    • Project leadership and steering committee experience from both Pharma and Biotech perspectives.

    • Engagement of academic partners for access to tissues, expertise and key model systems

    • Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) establishment for external guidance and niche technical and clinical knowledge

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