Team – Macomics

Teams

LEADERSHIP TEAM
BOARD
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORS

Our internationally experienced multidisciplinary leadership team brings broad expertise. Working closely with our impressive Board of Directors to deliver on our potential to develop new approaches to targeting macrophage activity and thereby change the course of disease.

The Board of Directors is comprised of highly accomplished investors as well as being experienced Biotech advisors. The Board is responsible for the governance of the company and works with the Leadership Team to develop and agree the strategic direction for Macomics.

Our International Scientific Advisors are made up of experts in their field. They bring their diverse experience and expertise to Macomics in the areas of neurodegeneration, inflammation and fibrotic diseases, and are consulted on for scientific and clinical insights across our discovery programmes.

Dr Stephen Myatt Chief Executive Officer >

Dr Stephen Myatt Chief Executive Officer

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.

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 Carola Ries Chief Scientific Officer >

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.

Simon Dew Chief Business Officer >

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

Dr Luca Cassetta VP Immunology and Founder >

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.

Dr Jane Dancer Non-Executive Director

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.

Kevin Lee Non-executive Director

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.

Prof. Jeffrey W. Pollard Founder – In Memoriam >

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.

Professor Prakash Ramachandran Advisor

University of Edinburgh

Dr. Prakash Ramachandran, PhD, is a Clinician Scientist at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include Hepatology, Gastroenterology, General Medicine, Immune systems, Liver Fibrosis, with an expertise and research focus on the immune regulation of organ fibrosis with a view to identifying novel anti-fibrotic therapeutic approaches, actively working to identify approaches to selectively inhibit the function macrophages and reduce tissue scarring.

Dr Carlos Gomez-Roca Advisor

Institut Universitaire du Cancer de Toulouse

Dr 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).

Dr Barry McColl Advisor

UK Dementia Research Institute; University of Edinburgh

Dr McColl expertise is in neuroimmune biology and inflammation, His work aims to identify new treatment targets in this exciting field. Obtaining his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Glasgow in 2004, he went on to complete postdoctoral training at the University of Manchester, joining The Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh in 2010 as a Tenure-track Fellow. He joined the UK DRI at Edinburgh in 2017 to lead a novel programme of research investigating how microglia influence resilience and susceptibility to neurodegenerative and vascular diseases that are causes of dementia

Dr Paulo Michieli Advisor

University of Torino Medical School

Dr. Paulo Michieli is a molecular biologist and a growth factor expert. He has been leading the Translational Medicine group, exploring new therapeutic strategies in both oncology and regenerative medicine. Paolo's team generated a set of HGF-mimetic antibodies that display powerful anti-fibrotic and pro-regenerative potential. Dr. Paolo Michieli is a Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer at EuremAb and AgomAb Therapeutics.

Dr Stefan Haak Advisor

Dr Haak is an immunologist with 15+ years of relevant scientific and business expertise in academic and industrial settings. Strong domain expertise in autoimmunity, inflammation & tissue immunity and immune oncology. Served as Principal Investigator at the Technical University of Munich (TUM & HMGU) and as Biology Lead at Pieris Pharmaceuticals, as well as co-founder of Mysthera Therapeutics.

Prof Andrea Alimonti Advisor

Institute of Oncology Research, Bellinzona, Switzerland

Professor Alimonti is currently Director of the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR) in Bellinzona, where he also leads the Molecular Oncology Group. His research focuses on characterising a novel type of cellular senescence response which is elicited by complete loss of the tumour suppressor PTEN, and on identifying novel compounds with pro-senescence activity.

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

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.

Professor Guy Brown Advisor

University of Cambridge

Professor Guy Brown' is currently Professor of Cellular Biochemistry at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge his current research interests are in the mechanisms of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in the brain and how microglia become activated by inflammatory stimuli and the role of microglial phagocytosis in neurodegeneration, either in damaging or protecting neurons and ways of modulating this.