Mapping out the discoveries of a new class of tumour-associated immune cells

The founding scientists behind Edinburgh-based Macomics, Dr Luca Cassetta and Professor Jeff Pollard who have led the field in understanding the role of macrophages in development, tissue repair and cancer, have authored a major Perspectives review in Nature Reviews Cancer¹, detailing the seminal discoveries in macrophage biology over the past 50 years revealing exciting future prospects for developing precision medicines to modulate macrophages for the treatment of cancer by targeting tumour associated macrophage (TAMs) in the tumour microenvironment (TME).

The TME is now recognized to be inundated with immune cells, of which TAMs are often the most abundant by cell number. TAMs were initially thought to be antitumoral, although some experiments suggested that they could enhance tumour cell growth. However, with the advent of new technologies, sophisticated mouse models and human clinical sample analysis, the roles of TAMs were revealed.

Clinical correlative data and a plethora of preclinical studies of cancers have now shown that both tumour-associated and metastasis-associated macrophages play an important role in promoting cancer.

Scientists are still in the process of understanding TAMs heterogeneity including the cellular interactions during tumour progression and in response to therapy, but Improved intravital imaging (IVI) capabilities in preclinical models and newer technologies such as spatial transcriptomics and multicolour multiplex immunofluorescence and mass spectrometry are enabling mapping at single-cell resolution in the TME cellular landscape.

As summarized in the review, myeloid targeting strategies are now in the clinic and show early signs of efficacy as mono and combination therapies.

“We are entering a golden era of discoveries, resulting in the manipulation of the TME, and in particular TAM biology, that will allow immunotherapy to be widely applicable to many if not all cancers”, conclude Dr Cassetta and Prof. Pollard, adding “Recent technological advances have enabled the decoding of TAM complexity in human tumours; such important steps will allow a more precise TAM targeting in the clinic. The next big challenge will be to apply these technologies on clinical samples coming from patients who failed previous cancer therapies to assess TAM evolution during cancer treatment resistance.”

Macomics is an immuno-oncology company set up to take forward these learnings and opportunities.

Prof. Pollard is a Principal Investigator at the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health (MRC-CRH), University of Edinburgh. Formerly its Director, he has been investigating the roles of macrophages in development, tissue repair and cancer for almost 30 years. His group was the first to show that tumour-associated macrophages promote the progression of tumors to metastasis in part, through the establishment of a suppressive immune microenvironment that supports tumor cell survival. He is co-founder of and remains advisor to Macomics. Dr Cassetta previously worked with Prof. Pollard and is now VP immunology at Macomics, having left his role at the University of Edinburgh to join the company full time.

Modulating TAMs can alter the tumour microenvironment enhancing the body’s ability to fight cancer.  The tumour microenvironment changes macrophage behaviour, and Macomics is exploiting disease-specific TAM biology to selectively target these immunosuppressive cells.

It has proprietary cell models and approaches for the genetic manipulation of macrophages that, when combined with novel cell functional assays and informatics, enables new target opportunities for specific therapeutic hypotheses to be revealed.

Macomics portfolio is diversified by the mechanism of action and is focussed on multi-hit biological hypothesis, modulating both TAM biology directly and the activity of the broader immune system, to re-invigorate immune responses against cancer cells. It will continue to expand its portfolio of validated targets in diseases where macrophages play a central role in aetiology, response to therapy, and patient outcomes.

Dr Steve Myatt, Macomics CEO said

“We have built a world-class team and made great progress based on the discoveries by our pre-eminent scientists in the field of macrophage biology whose unparalleled expertise guides our mission to discover new therapies that improve the long-term outcome for cancer patients. We are passionate about the therapeutic potential of targeting macrophages for the treatment of cancer. Our vision is to develop a new approach to targeting the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment, that exploits disease-specific macrophage biology to harness the power of the entire immune system. Our diversified portfolio of antibody programs combined with our proprietary target identification approach and world-class team uniquely positions us to deliver on this vision.”

  1. Cassetta, L., Pollard, J.W. A timeline of tumour-associated macrophage biology. Nat Rev Cancer(2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-022-00547-1

Offices

Edinburgh

Macomics Ltd.
The University of Edinburgh
Campus Service Centre
Roslin Innovation Centre
Easter Bush Campus
Bush Farm Road
Roslin
EH25 9RG

info@macomics.com

Cambridge

Unit 5
Technopark
Newmarket Road
Cambridge
CB5 8PB

Recent news

Joe Lindsay

Research Lab Technician

 

Joe joins us from Axol Bioscience, where he gained several years of IPSC and differentiated cell culture experience with a focus on quality control and process optimisation. Through this, he gained expertise in flow cytometry, immunocytochemistry, molecular biology techniques and process workflow design. He also has worked extensively with microglia, macrophages and other immune cell types through a BSc (Hons) in Immunology from the University of Aberdeen, and a MSc (Hons) in Immunology and Inflammation from the University of Birmingham, completing a dissertation on HIF1α and immunometabolism with the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing.

As a research lab technician, Joe maintains IPSCs in culture for differentiation and prepares macrophages for use in experiments at the Edinburgh site. He also monitors production levels and plans IPSC thawing and differentiation to improve production efficiency and year round availability of macrophages

Kathryn Oliver

Associate Director, Programme Management  

 

Kathryn joins Macomics as a programme manager with 15 years of experience in drug discovery and development. She will be responsible for driving internal projects through the candidate selection process, towards development.

She joins from Eliem Therapeutics where she has been managing small molecule clinical and discovery programs, targeting neuronal excitability disorders.  Previously to Eliem, Kathryn managed multiple antibody projects (standard and novel formats) for clients via RxCelerate Ltd.

Kathryn gained her love for drug discovery and development during her Chemistry degree at the University of Sheffield, including an industrial placement year at UCB/Celltech where she worked as a medicinal chemist.

Simon Dew

Chief Business Officer

 

Simon has over 20 years’ experience in the life sciences industry in Business Development & Licensing, Corporate Development and Corporate Strategy, as well as commercial roles in Europe and in international markets.

He has held senior leadership roles in large Pharma organisations including Astellas and GSK. More recently his experience includes executive roles in Biotech including, ReNeuron, Mereo Biopharma, Evox Therapeutics and Gyroscope Therapeutics. Simon’s extensive experience has led numerous partnerships including in-licencing and pipeline building, through to out-licensing and complex platform-based deals.

Simon also acts as an independent strategic advisor to a venture capital investment group and their portfolio companies.

After obtaining a degree in Pharmacy, the early part of his career included roles in the NHS and CRO’s including Quintiles (IQVIA) and Parexel

Kevin Lee

Non-executive Director

 

Kevin joined Bicycle Therapeutics from Pfizer, where he served as senior vice president and chief scientific officer of the Rare Disease Research Unit. In that role, he held responsibility for more than 20 novel programs across the full spectrum of research and development, established Pfizer’s rare disease strategy, conceptualized and implemented the company’s gene therapy strategy with the creation of the Genetic Medicine Institute and founded the Rare Disease Research Consortium. Prior to joining Pfizer, Kevin worked at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and, in addition to leading the formation of multiple strategic commercial and academic partnerships, he led epigenetics research and was responsible for the creation of the EpiNova Discovery Performance Unit. Before joining GSK, he lectured at Warwick University Medical School and founded Cambridge Biotechnology (acquired by Biovitrum) and Neurosolutions.

Kevin studied pharmaceutical sciences at Nottingham University, followed by a Ph.D. in pharmacology at Cambridge University. He undertook postdoctoral training as a Wellcome Trust International Prize Fellow before joining the Parke Davis Research Unit in Cambridge, U.K. Kevin is an author on over 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, has an MBA from Warwick Business School and has been awarded an honorary Chair in Molecular Pharmacology from the University of Warwick. In addition to his seat on Bicycle’s board of directors, Kevin is also a non-executive director of Alchemab Therapeutics Ltd

 

Professor Paul Crocker FRSE

Advisor

 

Paul is Emeritus Professor of Glycoimmunology, University of Dundee. He is a recognised expert in the understanding how immune cells utilise host glycans to regulate immune and inflammatory responses and translating this to human disease.

 

Amber Ngo

Associate Scientist

 

Amber is an experienced laboratory technician, previously working at Bio-Rad and where she was responsible for facilitating changes to interdepartmental procedures and performing in-depth analysis of manufactured products using her expertise in various immunological assays including flow cytometry, ELISA and western blots. She has an MBiol. in Biochemistry from Nottingham Trent University, England.

As part of the drug development team, Amber is responsible for managing laboratory operations and supporting in vitro testing and biochemical assays within the team.

 

Dr Samuel Witham

Junior Bioinformatician


Sam has an MBiol in biology from the University of York and a PhD in synthetic plant biology from the Earlham Institute (University of East Anglia). During his PhD, he gained extensive experience in both wet and dry lab techniques, and generated a CRISPR library, validated connections in a gene regulatory subnetwork, and reprogrammed the subnetwork using feedback controllers.
He also ran bioinformatics workshops in Ghana for Beneficial Bio, a biotech start-up that provides low-cost solutions for protein production. Samuel is passionate about using bioinformatics to uncover novel insights into biological systems and disease mechanisms. As part of the drug discovery team, Samuel analyses and visualises complex biological data, developing pipelines to aid target identification.

Dr Valérie Méresse Naegelen

Advisor

Dr Méresse Naegelen has over 20 years of experience in research and clinical development of small and large molecule compounds for various indications in oncology. A seasoned physician-scientist, she joined Roche in 2002 where she currently oversees translational and clinical activities related to the in-licensing and acquisition of external assets for Roche, pRED Oncology in Basel. Previously she gained experience in roles that encompassed both early and late clinical development of oncology assets across various technical modalities for the treatment of solid tumours and haematological diseases. Under her leadership, multiple programs have entered and progressed through clinical development, some accompanied by extensive biomarker and translational activities.

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.

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.

Lisa Seymour

Operations Manager/ Health and Safety Officer

Lisa has three years of experience as a licensed animal technician and seven years of experience as an Advanced Laboratory Technician in Clinical Microbiology/virology and Parasitology. She also has over eight years of 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.

Dr Doody

Advisor

Jacqueline Doody has over 30 years of industry experience and is ex-VP of Immuno-oncology at F-star working on bispecific antibody therapies targeting T cells. Dr Doody headed the Immunology departments at ImClone and Eli Lilly taking antibody programs to the clinical stage, including the macrophage program on CSF-1R.

Dr Squadrito

Advisor

Mario Leonardo Squadrito is project leader in the Unit of Targeted Cancer Gene Therapy, directed by Prof. Luigi Naldini, at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Milan, Italy. Dr Squadrito is an expert in cell engineering and is focusing his research in the development of new gene-base strategies to convey antitumor molecules to liver metastases to activate immune functions. Previously, Dr Squadrito pioneered RNA sequencing of tumour associated macrophages and invented genetic tools to exploit circulating microvesicles as a source of tumor antigens for innovative tumor vaccines.

Professor Okkenhaug

Advisor

Klaus Okkenhaug is Chair of Immunology, at Cambridge University within the Department of Pathology. An expert in T cell biology, his research focuses on the pathways used by the immune system to instruct and coordinate defences against pathogens. Furthermore, he employs mouse models to predict and understand the effect of drugs on the immune system. Professor’s Okkenhaug work has made major contributions to understanding the role of PI3K signalling in cancer, with several PI3K inhibitors having now received regulatory approval for the treatment of breast cancer and B cell malignancies.

Professor Speiser

Advisor

Daniel Speiser is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Fundamental Oncology at the University of Lausanne and formally led the Unit for Investigator-Initiated Trials at the Department of Oncology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV). Professor Speiser has over 30 years of medicine and translational research experience and was previously clinician-scientist at the Ludwig Cancer Research Institute. Professor Speiser has pioneered T cell-based immunotherapy for cancer patients, and made significant contributions to understanding the activation, differentiation and function of human T cells, with special emphasis on direct analyses of immune activatory and inhibitory pathways, and their relation to parameters of cancer biology and inflammation.

Carlos Gomez-Roca

Advisor

Carlos Gomez-Roca is a cancer specialist at the Institut Universitaire du Cancer de Toulouse (IUCT), where he is Co-Chair of the Clinical Research Unit at IUCT-Oncopole and leader in the Early Phase Unit with a focus on targeted therapies and immuno-oncology. His main research interests are early clinical development, phase I trials across solid tumors, innovative methods of evaluation of novel drugs’ clinical activity, personalized medicine and mechanisms of toxicities and resistance of new targeted agents and immunotherapies. He ran the first-in-human trial of emactuzumab, the trail-blazing monoclonal CSF1R antibody targeting tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs).

Professor de Visser

Advisor

Karin de Visser is a tumor immunologist with special interest in the crosstalk between the innate and adaptive immune system in cancer. She is a senior group leader at the Division of Tumor Biology and Immunology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, alongside her appointment as group leader at Oncode Institute and professor of Experimental Immunobiology of Cancer at Leiden University Medical Center. Her research focuses on understanding mechanisms by which the innate immune system influences metastatic breast cancer. Utilizing state-of-the-art transgenic mouse models, Professor de Visser’s research team has made major contributions to understanding how mammary tumors induce pro-metastatic systemic inflammation and how the genetic make-up of breast cancer dictates immune composition and function in tumors.

Sadie Kemp

Senior Research Technician

Sadie brings over 15 years of experience, gained in both commercial and academic laboratories. With a background in cell culture and cell infection assays, her expertise includes confocal microscopy, immunohistochemistry, ELISA, and molecular biology techniques.

Sadie joins from seven years at Napier University where she held technical roles of increasing responsibility. Prior to that gained significant experience at the University of Edinburgh and Moredun Scientific. During these roles, she has contributed to projects across a range of therapeutic areas including immunology, bacteriology, and cancer.

She has a BSC (Hons) in Natural Sciences from the Open University and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Conor Poland

Associate Scientist

Conor has experience in academic and industrial settings. He is a cell biologist experienced in working with induced pluripotent stem cells, immortalised cells, primary cell cultures, and fibroblasts from human skin samples.

He joins from Cignpost Diagnostics, a private Covid testing facility, where he established and ran its qPCR laboratories for COVID-19 testing during the recent pandemic. Prior to this, he completed his PhD at the University of Dundee at the Jacqui Wood Cancer centre, where he gained extensive experience with induced pluripotent stem cells and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing among other molecular techniques. Prior to this, he gained experience at Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford and in the microbiology lab at Geneius Lab Ltd. He has a BSc (Hons) in Human Genetics from Newcastle University.

Dr Chantell Payton

Associate Scientist

Chantell has extensive experience in tissue culture, cell line development and characterisation, confocal microscopy, and in vitro assay development.

Chantell joins Macomics from the world-leading Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh, where she undertook a PhD investigating the acquisition and potential biomarkers of cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy resistance. She has a BSc (Hons) from the University of Lincoln where she undertook several research placements investigating protein expression in several cancer signalling pathways

Dr Moritz Haneklaus

Principal Scientist

Moritz is a molecular immunologist with over 10 years of experience studying human myeloid biology. He has extensive expertise in applying molecular techniques and genomics to complex immunological questions.

He joins from an academic career, most recently as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Child Health, University College London studying brain tumour single-cell analysis. Prior to that, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge as part of the Open Targets consortium investigating neuroinflammation in the context of Alzheimer’s disease.

Moritz obtained his PhD in Immunology at Trinity College Dublin studying inflammatory signalling in macrophages. He has an MSc in BioMedicine from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, and a BSc in Biology from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Stephane Guillaume

Associate Scientist

As part of the drug discovery team Stephane is responsible for protein expression and characterisation, including the development of novel in vitro and cellular assays for antibody characterisation. Stephane has a BSc (Honours) in Microbiology and Immunology from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Australia, and subsequently undertook research on tissue-resident memory T cells and their role in cancer, gaining extensive experience in a variety of model systems. Stephane has been accepted to study for his PhD at the prestigious Babraham Institute, Cambridge UK, and we hope to have him back at Macomics when he will have completed his studies.

Dr Carmen Rodriguez-Seoane

Scientist

Carmen has over 10 years of research experience with expertise in the use of human and embryonic/induced pluripotent stem cell models and a wide range of molecular biology techniques.

Carmen joins from the University of Edinburgh where she was a post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Inflammation Research, having started as a Research Assistant. She moved to the UK after obtaining her PhD from the Brain Protein Malfunction Lab at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She has a M.Sc. in Biomedical Research and a B.Sc. in Biology.

Dr Helena Engman

Associate Scientist

As part of the cell biology and immunology team, Helena is responsible for the maintenance, development, and characterisation of complex cellular models using specialised cell culture methods and a wide range of molecular biology techniques. Helena studied for her interdisciplinary PhD at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences and the School of Chemistry, Edinburgh University and has considerable experience in human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell lines, Raman spectroscopy, confocal microscopy, immunofluorescence, UV-vis spectroscopy and 3D apparatus design and printing. Previously, Helena received her BSc (Hons) in Human Embryology and Developmental Biology at the University of Aberdeen and undertook a research placement at the Barcelona Stem Cell Bank (BLCB).

Alicia Poindron

Senior Scientist

As part of the drug discovery team, Alicia is responsible for the development of protein production, purification, and antibody characterisation using in vitro and Flow Cytometry assays. Alicia has broad expertise in early-stage protein purification methods, as well as large-scale downstream processes and optimisation for monoclonal antibody GMP production. Alicia has the extensive biotech experience, previously at Kymab Ltd, first as a Research Associate and later as Research Scientist, and at Novasep. Alicia received a technical degree at the Lycée technique Galilée, a Bachelor of Science from the Pierre and Marie Curie University, and a Master of Science from Polytech Marseille, Aix-Marseille University, France.

Dr Carola Ries

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr Ries has over 20 years of immunology and drug discovery experience and is an internationally recognised expert in macrophage immunology. She formally led Roche’s innate immunity department in cancer immunotherapy and was a member of the pRED immunotherapy discovery leadership team. Dr Ries led the discovery of emactuzumab (CSF1R program) and contributed to its clinical translation, identifying a clinical population in which emactuzumab provided significant clinical benefit. Earlier in her career Dr Ries was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. McCormick at UCSF, where she discovered her passion for oncology. Dr Ries has over 35 publications and is named an inventor on over 10 patents.

Dr Jane Dancer

Non-Executive Director

Dr Dancer has over 30 years’ experience in Business Development across biotech, pharma and agrochemicals. She was Chief Business Officer at F-star, VP Business Development at Cellzome and Director, Business Development at MedImmune Ltd (formerly Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT)).  Jane spent the first part of her career in the agrochemical industry where she held research and project management roles in Aventis Crop Science, AgrEvo UK Ltd and Schering Agrochemicals Ltd.

Jane has an MBA from The Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge and a PhD and a first degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK. Jane is on the board of Spirea, PharmEnable and Chair of the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust.

Dr Elizabeth Roper

Investor Director

Dr Roper joined Epidarex as a Partner in 2013. She has more than 20 years of experience in the life science and healthcare industry, either as a venture investor or an operating executive. She has held senior operation roles and held various directorships including Chair.  She focuses on shaping and building early-stage life science opportunities into successful companies and investments.

Prior to joining Epidarex, Liz was Head of Business Development and part of the management team at Chroma Therapeutics Ltd., where she led the establishment of several major company-building alliances including a multi‐target deal with GlaxoSmithKline. Liz is a former executive with the life science venture capital team at the Investments Division of The Wellcome Trust. She is also a former member of the Life Science team at Atlas Ventures, London.

Liz currently serves on the Boards of Directors of AdoRx Ltd (Chair), Nodthera Ltd., Mironid Ltd., Caldan Therapeutics Ltd., Epidarex Exeed (Chair), EM Imaging Ltd, Macomics Ltd. and Dunad Therapeutics Ltd.

Liz holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biochemistry (1st class) from the University College Cork, and a PhD from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

Dr John Haurum, M.D., D.Phil

Advisor

Dr Haurum has over 20 years of industrial experience. Dr Haurum is the ex-CEO of F-star, where he built successful biotech with clinical-stage oncology assets and ex-VP of Research at ImClone and earlier a CSO at Symphogen.

Prof. Michele De Palma

Advisor

Prof. Michele De Palma, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), leads research into tumour microenvironment including tumour associated macrophages, tumour angiogenesis and immunotherapies. His previous work has led to the first-in-kind clinical trials of engineered monocytes in patients with brain and haematological cancers

Dr Jacqueline Doody

Advisor

Dr Jacqueline Doody has over 30 years of industry experience and is ex-VP of Immuno-oncology at F-star working on bispecific antibody therapies targeting T cells. Dr Doody headed the Immunology department at ImClone taking antibody programs to the clinical stage, including the macrophage program on CSF-1R.

Prof. Karin de Visser

Advisor

Prof. Karin de Visser, Netherlands Cancer Institute, studies the impact of the immune system on metastatic breast cancer and therapy response and is working on novel immunomodulatory strategies to fight metastatic breast cancer.

Dr Maikel Fransen

Senior Scientist

Maikel Fransen has over twenty years of experience in R&D in the biotech and pharma sectors (Acambis, GSK, Isogenica, Ossianix). He obtained his PhD at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK; prior to moving to industry, he worked as a post-doctoral research associate at the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, UK.

A biochemist by formation, Maikel has gained extensive expertise in early-stage immuno-oncology projects, with a focus on membrane protein biochemistry and antibody drug discovery, using various biophysical, structural biology, and phenotypic assay techniques.

Currently, he is responsible for the design and execution of hit to lead in-vitro screening of biologics to support the drug discovery program at Macomics. Maikel is passionate about his research and his vision is to deliver pioneering best-in-class antibody treatments specifically targeting macrophages in the solid tumour micro-environment.

Dr Martha López Yrigoyen

Principal Scientist

Martha Lopez-Yrigoyen is a Principal Scientist at Macomics. As part of the cell biology and immunology team, Martha is responsible for the development of novel complex cell models, myeloid functional genomics and reprogramming approaches, and immunology assays to support target identification, characterisation, and the study of antibody cellular pharmacology.  Martha has deep expertise in macrophage biology and has led the field in the development of methods for the genetic reprogramming of macrophages. Martha has published in leading international academic journals including Nature Communications and is a named inventor on macrophage patents. Martha was one of the first two scientists at Macomics, collaborating with the company whilst a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh, before joining Macomics full time in 2021. She has a PhD in the genetic programming of human iPSC-derived macrophages from the University of Edinburgh. She has received multiple awards including the Winifred Cullis Prize for outstanding PhD.

Richard Brooks

Consultant Head of Finance

Richard Brooks is an experienced executive with over 25 years of experience in start-ups and early-stage technology companies.  He is a co-founder of FD Solutions, formerly a market leader in the UK for the provision of part-time finance directors.  He is the provider of Head of Finance services to Mironid, AdoRx Therapeutics, Lunac Therapeutics, Neophore and Epidarex Exeed.

Dr Krzysztof B. Wicher

SVP Drug Discovery and Development

Dr Wicher is an experienced drug developer. He was a Director of Research at Ossianix, a biotech start-up developing blood-brain barrier penetrant biologics, using a single domain shark antibody platform. He then served as a Director of Pharmacology and Translational Sciences at Kymab, supporting the preclinical development of immuno-oncology biologics. At MedImmune/AstraZeneca he was involved in creating novel biologics formats for the treatment of autoimmune and other diseases. Krzysztof holds an MSc in Biotechnology from the Jagiellonski University in Kraków and a PhD from the University of Uppsala. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the London Research Institute, CRUK (now part of the Crick Institute), and at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge.

Dr Stephen Myatt

Chief Executive Officer

Dr Myatt was appointed CEO of Macomics in February 2021. Steve has over 15 years’ experience of the life science industry gained through leadership positions in commercial, R&D, and executive roles. Steve has diverse experience gained through roles in private biotech companies (Azeria Therapeutics, NeoPhore Limited, AdoRx Therapeutics), venture capital (as a Partner in Sixth Element Capital), early-stage technology transfer (Head of Alliances, Business Development at Cancer Research Technology), and as IND studies program leader for multiple assets. Steve has led and closed numerous commercial partnerships, venture capital financings, IP licensing transactions, and academic collaborations, collectively worth over $1.5bn and has a successful track record of delivering novel therapeutics into clinical trials. Steve has a first-class degree in Pharmacology and a PhD in paediatric oncology drug discovery.

Prof. Jeffrey W. Pollard

Founder – In Memoriam

Prof. Jeffrey Pollard was a Founder, Director, and adviser to Macomics 2020-2023 and was passionate about developing novel therapies targeting tumour-associated macrophages. Jeff died peacefully at home on 1 May 2023 after struggling against cancer.  Jeff was also Professor of Resilience Biology in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, at the University of Edinburgh, and for nearly a decade led the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Reproductive Health (CRH), as Director, (2013-2022). He leaves a huge legacy to the cancer research community and to the world of macrophage and reproductive biology. See announcement here.

DR LUCA CASSETTA
VP Immunology and Founder

Dr Cassetta is a co-Founder of Macomics and is an immunologist with in-depth knowledge of human myeloid cell biology applied to different human diseases.  He obtained a PhD in immunology at the S.Raffaele Institute in Milan studying the role of macrophage polarization in HIV pathogenesis; he then moved to NY at the Albert Einstein Medical College in the lab of Prof. Jeffrey Pollard where he studied Tumor Associated Macrophages in breast cancer. He then moved to the University of Edinburgh continuing his studies on TAMs where he established his own lab as principal investigator. His extensive experience in human macrophage biology contributed to the development of the Macomics screening platform. Dr Cassetta is an author of multiple publications in high-impact international scientific journals including Cancer Cell, Nature Communications, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Blood, PNAS, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. He was awarded the Innovation Prize cup 2019 as a young entrepreneur for the spinout company, Macomics. Dr Cassetta joined Macomics full time as VP Immunology in 2021.