Meet Our Team
Nick Staples, PhD - CEO (Interim)
Nick has more than 20 years’ industry experience in the Life Sciences, Healthcare and capital markets worldwide. He has led a range of international transactions and strategic projects including M&A, fundraising (more than £150 million to date), licensing, divestments and new business ventures.
Prior to his current role, Nick was the CEO of Locate Bio, and previously the Chief Business Officer at Artios Pharma and also Chief Business Officer at TopiVert Pharma.
He also held include senior corporate and business development roles at Vectura plc, SSL International plc and Protherics plc, was a life sciences equity analyst at WestLB Panmure and a management consultant in life sciences at PA Consulting.
Chris Pickford, PhD - Chief Scientific Officer
Chris is Chief Scientific Officer, leading the scientific team to deliver drug candidates into the clinic.
Before joining Avvinity Therapeutics, Chris was Head of Drug Discovery at Centauri Therapeutics, a research biotech specialising in infectious diseases; Research Director at Agalimmune, an immuno-oncology biotech; and a project leader for Salvensis, a neglected diseases drug discovery company.
In addition Chris worked for 12 years as part of Pfizer’s Research and Development organization, leading infectious diseases projects from new target identification to first-in-human trials.
Chris studied for a biochemistry degree at the University of Birmingham and obtained a PhD from the National Institute of Medical Research, London.
Helen Lavender, MSc - Head of Biology
Helen has been involved with Avvinity Therapeutics since its foundation. She has extensive experience of drug discovery having worked on both classical small molecule and novel biological therapeutic approaches.
Helen has led global biology teams comprising collaborators drawn from Pharma, Biotech and Clinical backgrounds. During her time at Pfizer, Helen was responsible for defining and delivering the biology program supporting preclinical characterization of a novel gene therapy agent to Hepatitis C Virus.
Helen has authored and contributed to multiple peer-reviewed publications and has regularly presented at international conferences. Her technical experience encompasses new target identification, assay configuration, screening cascade development, hit identification and lead characterization.
Helen studied Microbiology at the University of Bristol and holds an MSc in Business Analytics from the University of Kent.
Mel Glossop, BSc, FRSC, CChem - Head of Chemistry
Mel has more than 25 years’ experience in both Pharma and Biotech environments.
She previously spent five years as Head of Chemistry for Centauri Therapeutics Limited, responsible for the strategy, delivery and execution of the chemistry immunotherapy portfolio across a range of chemical disciplines including aptamers, peptides, carbohydrates and antibodies.
Mel established a diverse patent portfolio leading to both private and public investment, underpinning the Centauri linker platform. In 2017 she was listed as one of ten Movers and Shakers in UK BioBusiness for Great Science (BioBeat 2017).
Prior to Centauri, Mel led the chemistry programme for Agalimmune, enabling the synthesis and scale-up of the lead asset from discovery through to CMC. Prior to this, Mel spent 17 years at Pfizer, leading multiple global chemistry teams, both in-house and externally to enable delivery of molecules from hit-to-lead through to candidate-nomination and development.
Mel is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and is currently an independent consultant and project director for Apollo Therapeutics.
Jessica Boyle, MBA, PhD - Business Manager
Jessica is responsible for project management and business operations for Avvinity Therapeutics.
She has worked in these roles in research biotech since 2015 and prior to this was a research project manager supporting the Antivirals research teams for Pfizer UK and a medicinal chemistry team leader within Pfizer Animal Health Discovery Chemistry.
Jessica holds an honours degree in Chemistry from Durham University, an MBA from the University of Warwick’s Business School and a PhD from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nottingham.
Zoe Crookes, Contracts Manager
Zoe is responsible for contracts management for Avvinity Therapeutics. She is a UK solicitor and member of the Law Society with legal experience in investment banking, biotech, environmental and start-up management.