Macomics Ltd, an immuno-oncology company with world-leading expertise in macrophage biology, announces today that it has made three new appointments to its scientific and operations teams, to support growth and accelerate its R&D.

In the R&D team, Dr Thomas Crozier joins as a Senior Scientist and Dr Yuxin Cui joins as Senior Bioinformatician, with Ms. Lisa Seymour joining as Operations Manager and Health & Safety Officer.

The new appointments are based at Macomics’ Cambridge site and brings the total team to 16 across both sites.

Dr Crozier joins from an academic role at the University of Cambridge. He brings over ten years of research experience and extensive knowledge of the use of unbiased genome and proteome-wide approaches to uncover gene and protein function in a range of biological systems. He obtained his PhD from the University of Dundee.

Dr Cui specialises in bioinformatic analysis of large-scale multi-omics data. He is building Macomics’ infrastructure-based bioinformatic engine for target identification and validation to enhance the understanding of the biology of tumour-associated macrophages. He has extensive R&D experience in both academia and industry, at Apitope, including biomarker identification and drug discovery in various solid and liquid cancers and autoimmune diseases. He has been a Research Fellow at Cardiff University, and postdoc experience from the University of Cambridge and the University of Bristol. He obtained his PhD from the University of Nottingham School of Pharmacy.

Prior to joining Macomics, Lisa was at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute where she held technical roles of increasing responsibility, including three years as a Licensed Animal Technician and seven years as an Advanced Laboratory Technician in Clinical Microbiology/virology and Parasitology. She also has over eight years’ experience as an Administrator. She has a BSC (Hons) in Biomedical Science from Cambridge University and is a Member of IOSH and the Royal Society of Biology. She holds a NEBOSH general Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety which includes Management in Health and Safety.

This expansion follows Macomics’ follow-on financing of £4.24 million announced in July 2021. It is developing precision medicines to modulate macrophages for the treatment of cancer. The Company is progressing a diversified portfolio of therapies targeting disease specific tumour associated macrophages (‘TAMs’) towards the clinic.  Its target discovery platform enables identification and validation of novel macrophage therapeutic targets and is based on its deep understanding of macrophage biology.

Welcoming the new team members and commenting on the Company’s continued growth, Dr Steve Myatt, CEO of Macomics said:

“We are progressing well in our vision is to become a leading immuno-oncology company pioneering macrophage-based therapies for the treatment of cancer. We are delighted that this vision and strategy has enabled us to attract world-class talent to our team, as we advance our early-stage antibody R&D programs. Our new colleagues bring additional expertise and relevant experience that I know will make a positive contribution.”

About the new appointments

Dr Thomas Crozier

Senior Scientist

Thomas is a Senior Scientist at Macomics with over 10 years of research experience and extensive knowledge of the use of unbiased genome and proteome-wide approaches to uncover gene and protein function in a range of biological systems.

Thomas obtained his PhD at the University of Dundee where he focused on the use of proteomics approaches to provide functional annotation to uncharacterised proteins in the pathogenic parasite, Trypanosoma brucei. As a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge he has utilised CRISPR-Cas9 technologies to further understand mechanisms of epigenetic regulation of viral genetic elements and gained broad expertise in genetic engineering of human cell lines.

Dr Yuxin Cui

Senior Bioinformatician

Dr Yuxin Cui specialises in bioinformatic analysis of large-scale multi-omics data.  He has extensive R&D experience in both academia and industry, including biomarker identification and drug discovery in various solid and liquid cancers and autoimmune diseases.  Yuxin obtained his PhD from the University of Nottingham School of Pharmacy and gained postdoc experience from the University of Cambridge and the University of Bristol. Prior, Yuxin was at Apitope where he was responsible for the development of novel vaccine-like drugs and designing immunogenomics-based drug precursors. Before joining Macomics, Yuxin was a Research Fellow at Cardiff University. He is currently helping to enhance the understanding of the biology of tumour-associated macrophages and building an infrastructure-based bioinformatic engine for target identification and validation.

Lisa Seymour

Operations Manager/ Health and Safety Officer

Lisa has 3 years’ experience as a Licensed Animal Technician and 7 years’ experience as an Advanced Laboratory Technician in Clinical Microbiology/virology and Parasitology. She also has over 8 years’ experience as an Administrator in the insurance and recruitment sector.

Lisa Joins from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute where she held technical roles of increasing responsibility. During these roles she has led and contributed to projects involving Schistosoma mansoni and Trichuris muris parasites, including the development of caecaloids to study host-pathogen interactions.

Lisa has a BSC (Hons) in Biomedical Science from Cambridge University. She is a Member of IOSH and the Royal Society of Biology. She holds a NEBOSH general Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety which includes Management in Health and Safety.