Reverse engineering human nature

Jane Osbourn is Alchemab’s Chief Executive Officer and provides overall leadership to the company. Prior to joining Alchemab, Jane served as Vice President of R&D at MedImmune, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca, where she contributed to the development of antibody phage display technology, authored key publications and patents and contributed to the discovery and development of a number of marketed antibody therapies including HUMIRA® (adalimumab) and IMFINZI® (durvalumab).

Jane chairs the Cambridge-based cell therapy company Mogrify, has served as a Director of Babraham Bioscience Technologies, and Cambridge Enterprise, and is a member of the Crick Translational Advisory Group. Previously, she served as a Member of the UK Medical Research Council Industry Grant Award Assessment Panel, and from 2015-2019, served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the UK BioIndustry Association.

Jane was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Scrip’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 for services to drug discovery, development and biotechnology. She earned a PhD from the John Innes Centre for Plant Science Research in Norwich and BA in Natural Sciences (First Class: Biochemistry) from the University of Cambridge. 

Ulrich Wendt is our Chief Business Officer leading the expansion of partnerships with biopharma for the development of novel antibody therapeutics.

Prior to joining Alchemab, Ulrich served as Global Head of Business Development Immunology at Sanofi. Prior to this he drove global Business Development for the diabetes and primary care business units and oversaw global search & evaluation and alliance management teams in cardiometabolic disease. With academic roots in biostructure and biophysics, Ulrich earned his PhD from Freiburg University, completed postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley and Genentech, and earned an MBA from IMD, Lausanne.

Paul Varley is our Chief Development Officer where he oversees our development processes including Pre-clinical Development, Toxicology, Chemistry Manufacturing and Control (CMC) and Quality.

Prior to joining Alchemab, Paul held similar roles at Kymab, Ltd., AstraZeneca/MedImmune and Cambridge Antibody Technology. Paul also worked at British Biotech, the UK National Institute of Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. 

Paul is a former member of the British Pharmacopeia (BP) Commission and Chair of BP Expert Advisory Group on Biological and Biotechnological Products. He currently chairs a MHRA/BP Medicines working party on new standards for Biological Medicines (DPS) and is also a member of the European Pharmacopeia (EP) Expert Committee on Monoclonal Antibodies. Paul is also a member of the UK Vaccine Task Force/BIA Manufacturing Advisory Group.

Paul earned a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and a BSc degree in Biomolecular Sciences (First Class) from Portsmouth Polytechnic.

Alex Hewitson is our Chief Operating Officer, where he has global oversight of our operations footprint and our human resources function.

Prior to joining Alchemab, Alex held several senior leadership roles within AstraZeneca where he was most recently Head of Operations, ensuring business operations were maintained during the company’s transitional move to Cambridge, leading the business operational activities during the pandemic, and setting operational strategy.   

Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Alex was Programme Director and Head of Campus Delivery Programme for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) where he led the delivery of the UKs National Capability Asset in the form of the high containment laboratories at The Pirbright Institute, and development of the UK Research and Innovation Campuses, through the delivery of key specialist national assets across the BBSRC Estate Portfolio.

Alex is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Surveyor, and is a Director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge. 

Jake Galson is Alchemab’s Vice President of Technology where he leads the development and application of novel technologies for the company. 

Prior to Alchemab, Jake was the Bioinformatics lead at Kymab Ltd, where his group developed the IntelliSelect® antibody discovery software platform. Jake is also one of the pioneers of immune receptor repertoire sequencing, serving as a member of the AIRR community, and authoring numerous key publications in the area. He has also worked at The Oxford Vaccine Group, GSK Vaccines, and University of Zürich, applying this approach to further understand basic immunology, as well as in support of vaccine development, diagnostics, and antibody drug discovery.

Jake holds a PhD in Medical Sciences and a BA in Biological Sciences (First Class), both from the University of Oxford.

Malcolm Gates is our Vice President of Finance, with oversight of all financial matters.

Prior to joining Alchemab, Malcolm was most recently Vice President of Finance at Evonetix, a venture capital backed research company in Cambridge. Prior to that Malcolm was Group Finance Director at Cambridge Cognition, an AIM listed public company, for six years. In both of these roles, Malcolm covered a range of finance, operational and commercial responsibilities.

Before these roles, Malcolm had over 15 years working in professional services with PwC. Malcolm worked globally (being based in the UK and Australia) and also across a range of industries. Malcolm worked in both the assurance and consultancy practices, as well as internal roles in Risk and Quality and Learning and Development.

Malcolm is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), and has an MA in Geography from the University of Cambridge.

Kimberly Long is Alchemab’s Vice President of Research where she leads new target identification and validation. Prior to joining Alchemab Kimberly was Vice President of Biology at ROME Therapeutics and Casma Therapeutics. Prior to Casma Therapeutics, Kimberly held positions of increasing responsibility at Scholar Rock and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. Kimberly eared a PhD in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and a BA in Biology from Northwestern University.

Martin Butler is our Vice President of Operations where he oversees Alchemab’s site and scientific operations, procurement, and supply chain functions.

Prior to joining Alchemab, Martin was Global Supply Chain Director for Horizon Discovery where he managed operational activities at sites within the UK and USA and led the organization’s response to Brexit and the recent pandemic.  Before joining Horizon, Martin held a number of strategic sourcing, planning and operation roles within MedImmune and AstraZeneca. 

Jenny Howell oversees project management at Alchemab and is responsible for managing our research and development portfolio and projects.

Prior to joining Alchemab, Jenny held strategic portfolio and project management roles at AstraZeneca, MedImmune, Alizyme Therapeutics and GSK.  

Jenny earned a BSc in applied Chemistry from Northumbria University.

Becky is Alchemab’s Human Resources Director where she oversees all strategic and operational HR activity across the U.K. and U.S.

Prior to Alchemab, Becky served as the European HR Director at Silence Therapeutics, where she managed all aspects of human resources for the U.K. and German entities. Prior to joining Silence Therapeutics, Becky held various senior positions in biotech and pharma organisations, including EUSA Pharma, Shionogi and Eisai.

Becky holds an MA in Human Resource Management from University of Hertfordshire and a BSc in Psychology from University of Bedfordshire.

Donna Finch is Alchemab’s Vice President of Translational and Clinical Science where she oversees our target discovery and validation activities and our non-clinical and early clinical development efforts.

Prior to joining Alchemab, Donna was Associate Director, Respiratory Inflammation and Autoimmunity, R&D Biopharmaceuticals at MedImmune and AstraZeneca, leading pre-clinical biology, translational and early clinical activities of several projects from conception through Phase 2 clinical development. Prior to MedImmune, Donna held several positions of increasing responsibility at Cambridge Antibody Technology, mainly responsible for Pharmacology.

Donna earned a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology from Leicester University and a BSc in Pharmacology from Bristol University and has an extensive publication and patent record.

Deirdre Flaherty is the VP of Development Project Strategy and Clinical Operations.  She works with the teams to drive the formation of strategy from candidate selection to clinical Proof of concept as well as leading the clinical implementation of the strategy.

She has worked in the industry for over 25 years with roles in Clinical Development, Portfolio Management, Program leadership and Project Management at Merck KgAA (formerly Merck Serono), GW Pharmaceuticals and Abcam.  She has also worked as an independent consultant with other biotech companies prepping them for entry into clinic. 

Deirdre holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and an MBA from Columbia University in New York, New York. 

As Managing Partner of SV Health Investors, Kate Bingham co-leads SV’s biotech franchise, which has a long history of building companies developing transformational new medicines and bringing drugs from discovery to market. Kate’s investments, many of which are examples of SV’s company creation approach to biotech investing, include a wide range of drug discovery and development companies focused on different clinical areas in the UK, EU and US. Her investments have resulted in the launch of eight drugs for the treatment of patients with inflammatory and autoimmune disease and cancer.

In 2021 Kate was awarded a DBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her services as Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce, where she led a team of world-class experts with the shared purpose of finding and manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines.
Kate also serves on the Board of the Francis Crick Institute and ARIA. She has a first class degree in biochemistry from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar).

Jane Osbourn is Alchemab’s Chief Executive Officer and provides overall leadership to the company. Prior to joining Alchemab, Jane served as Vice President of R&D at MedImmune, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca, where she contributed to the development of antibody phage display technology, authored key publications and patents and contributed to the discovery and development of a number of marketed antibody therapies including HUMIRA® (adalimumab) and IMFINZI® (durvalumab).

Jane chairs the Cambridge-based cell therapy company Mogrify, has served as a Director of Babraham Bioscience Technologies, and Cambridge Enterprise, and is a member of the Crick Translational Advisory Group. Previously, she served as a Member of the UK Medical Research Council Industry Grant Award Assessment Panel, and from 2015-2019, served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the UK BioIndustry Association.

Jane was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Scrip’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 for services to drug discovery, development and biotechnology. She earned a PhD from the John Innes Centre for Plant Science Research in Norwich and BA in Natural Sciences (First Class: Biochemistry) from the University of Cambridge. 

Jenna Hebert is an Investment Director on the Venture Team at RA Capital Management. Jenna primary responsibility is to conduct due diligence on biotechnology companies at RA Capital and serve as a board director for Alchemab Therapeutics and a stealth RA Capital portfolio company. Prior to RA Capital, Jenna was an Analyst and Medical Writer at Costello Medical Consulting. Jenna has a BA in Neuroscience from University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Oxford

Kevin Lee is Chief Executive Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics and Non-Executive Director of Mestag and NodThera Ltd. 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). Before joining GSK, he lectured at Warwick University Medical School and founded Cambridge Biotechnology (acquired by Biovitrum) and Neurosolutions.

Kevin holds a degree in pharmaceutical sciences from Nottingham University, and a PhD in pharmacology from Cambridge University. He undertook postdoctoral training as a Wellcome Trust International Prize Fellow before joining the Parke Davis Research Unit in Cambridge, UK. Kevin also holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and has been awarded an honorary Chair in Molecular Pharmacology from the University of Warwick.

Andy is an Operating Partner at DCVC Bio. Andy has spent much of his career at early-stage biotech­nology companies, building teams and developing tech­nolo­gies from concept to commercial product. He currently works with a number of companies with technology platforms that are targeted towards solving some of the outstanding problems in gene and cell therapy. He was most recently the Chief Technology Officer at Sana Biotech­nology, where he led teams focused on targeted cellular delivery, genome engineering, compu­ta­tional biology and genomics. Prior to Sana, Andy was one of the first scientific leaders at the CZ Biohub, where he built a Genome Engineering platform, focusing on the design and engineering of cells and biological devices as diagnostics and ther­a­peu­tics, DNA repair mechanisms in genome editing, and large-scale single-cell sequencing experiments. Andy was also the Chief Scientific Officer at Caribou Biosciences. He was a co-founder and served on the Board of Directors at Intellia Ther­a­peu­tics. Earlier in his career, Andy developed commercial products for single-cell sequencing, cell-free DNA sequencing, HLA-typing and structural proteomics at Fluidigm Corporation, and worked in drug discovery teams at Thios Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals and Signature Biosciences.

Andy was a Wellcome Trust Inter­na­tional Post­doc­toral Fellow in the Department of Structural Biology at Stanford University, having received his D.Phil. in Molecular Biophysics and a B.A. in Chemistry at the University of Oxford. He has published widely in leading scientific journals, and is an inventor on over 100 patents and patent applications.