Expert scientific guidance
Professor Tim Elliot - Professor of Experimental Medicine, Southampton University
Professor Elliott holds the Kidani Chair of Immune-oncology at the University of Oxford. His research encompasses themes within the biology of antigen processing and presentation and immunity to tumours.
He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and the Academy of Medical Sciences; Chair of the CRUK Expert Review Panel for Cancer Immunology and member of Discovery Research Committee; and Editor-in-chief of the British Society for Immunology journal Immunotherapy Advances.
Professor Michelle Garrett - Professor of Cancer Therapeutics in the School of Biosciences, University of Kent, Canterbury
Michelle Garrett is Professor of Cancer Therapeutics and Faculty Director of Medical Sciences at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
She received her PhD from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) London, undertook post-doctoral research at Yale Medical School, USA and in 1994 she moved to Onyx Pharmaceuticals, USA, where she was part of a collaboration with Pfizer, which led to the discovery of the CDK4 inhibitor Palbociclib (IBRANCE®).
She returned to the ICR in 1999 to a group leader position, specialising in the discovery and development of novel small molecule cancer therapeutics, focussed on signal transduction pathways and cell cycle checkpoints. Whilst at the ICR, Michelle became a Reader in Cancer Therapeutics and Head of Biology for the CRUK Cancer Therapeutics Unit.
In 2014 Michelle joined the School of Biosciences at the University of Kent where her research focusses on new cancer drug discovery and cancer drug resistance. She currently has three cancer drugs in clinical development, the AKT inhibitor AZD5363 (Capivasertib), the AGC kinase inhibitor AT13148 and SRA737(CCT245737), which targets the CHK1 kinase.
Dr Anthony Kong - Reader and Honorary Consultant Clinical Oncologist, King’s College, London
Dr Kong is a reader at King’s College London and an honorary NHS consultant clinical oncologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS trust. He was previously a clinical senior lecturer at University of Birmingham and a clinician scientist at University of Oxford.
He has been a principal investigator for numerous early and late clinical trials in breast cancer and head and neck cancers, including immunotherapy trials.
Anthony is conducting translational research in relation to resistance mechanisms and biomarkers of various HER/ErbB inhibitors and immunotherapy in breast and head and neck cancers.
Dr Mike Westby - CEO, Centauri Therapeutics Ltd
Mike is Chair of the Avvinity Therapeutics Scientific Advisory Board. He has 15 years’ experience in Pharma R&D, having worked for both Roche and Pfizer. Mike has worked across the Research and Development spectrum and whilst at Pfizer he helped successfully develop a novel therapy for treatment of HIV infection.
Mike also headed up Pfizer’s Opportunities for Partnership in Medicine (OPM) Research Unit and was a member of the Research Leadership Team at Pfizer’s R&D UK Laboratories.
Mike trained in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at University of Durham, obtained his PhD at Warwick University and then completed a postdoctoral research fellow at St George’s Hospital Medical School.