Top talent fortifies board of Babraham commercial arm
Commercialisation of the Institute’s innovative life science research is central to its mission of improving lifelong health.
BIE manages, develops and commercialises the Institute's intellectual property portfolio. It additionally facilitates collaborations between the Institute and industry and coordinates access to the Institute's expertise, scientific facilities and services.
The company is managed by Commercialisation Manager Francois-Xavier Robert and is overseen by the BIE Board, chaired by Dr. Alan Watt. The new Directors are: Dr. Danielle Hoyle, Head of Research Operations at the Babraham Institute; Dr. Laura Parton, Senior Director of Project Management at Mission Therapeutics; Dr. Iain Thomas, Board Chair at Agaricus Robotics Ltd and Senior Advisor at the Medicines Discovery Catapult; and Matthew Wheeler, Chief Executive Officer of Hygenica MedTech.
Alan Watt said: “It’s wonderful to welcome Danielle, Laura, Iain and Matthew who bring a vast breadth of experience. Their insights and perspectives will be invaluable as we work together to support Institute researchers to best translate their discoveries for applications in research and healthcare.”
Dr Danielle Hoyle is Head of Research Operations and Deputy Director of Operations at the Babraham Institute. She holds a degree and PhD in Biochemistry, both from the University of Manchester and an MBA from the Open University.
She is responsible for developing and managing the performance of the Institute’s research operations, ensuring successful delivery of Institute science, including Institute Strategic Programme outcomes funded by BBSRC.
This includes being the operational lead for the Institute's science facilities, financial and corporate planning and reporting, coordinating science capital equipment, project management of onboarding and offboarding processes for research group leads and scientific facility heads, knowledge management of research outputs, and overseeing the research elements of the BBSRC Core Capability Grant (CCG).
Dr Laura Parton is the Senior Director of Project Management at Mission Therapeutics where she leads project portfolio management to drive preclinical and clinical drug discovery and development across multiple therapeutic areas.
With 20 years of experience spanning academia and the pharma/biotech industry, she has successfully advanced first-in-class clinical candidates from early discovery through to early-stage clinical trials in kidney disease and Parkinson’s disease. Before joining Mission, Laura held preclinical and project management roles at Takeda Cambridge and Abcam.
Dr Iain Thomas holds a PhD from the University of Sydney and an MBA from the University of Cambridge. He has worked in technology commercialisation since 2001, co-founded Apollo Therapeutics and CeresAgritech and is currently Board Chair at Agaricus Robotics Ltd. alongside working on an exciting new endeavour at the Medicines Discovery Catapult.
He was Head of Life Sciences at Cambridge Enterprise for 18 years where he and his team helped create start-ups, including XO1, Mission Therapeutics, Gyroscope Therapeutics, Cambridge Epigenetix (now BiModal) and NoBACZ, and licence technology in fields as varied as psychiatric assessment, human therapeutics, biomarkers, veterinary products, lab tools and agritech.
Matthew Wheeler is a molecular biophysicist and virologist by training, holding a BSc (Hons) in Molecular Biophysics from King’s College London and an MPhil in Medical Science from the University of Cambridge.
His commercial and strategic roles in leading life sciences companies over the last 20 years have equipped Matthew with a multidisciplinary expertise in developing and commercialising innovations across pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical devices. As Global Product Manager for GE Healthcare (now part of Danaher) he oversaw a portfolio enabling drug discovery, development, and production.
He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Hygenica MedTech, a venture-backed business addressing the global public health challenges of hospital-acquired infections and antimicrobial resistance.