Led by a team of drug hunters and internationally renowned scientists with small molecule and ADC drug development experience and outstanding track records of commercial and academic successes.
Management Team
Robin Carr, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Robin Carr, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Robin joined Myricx in Nov 2019 as chief development officer and became CEO in August 2022.
Robin joined Myricx from GSK, where he held several research Exec roles (2007-2019), his final role was SVP Drug Design and Selection, with global responsibility for small molecule and biopharm discovery platforms. Robin served as a member of GSK’s Discovery Investment Board, Technology Investment Board and co-chaired the target selection committee.
Prior to GSK, Robin was VP of drug discovery at Astex Therapeutics (1999-2007), with responsibility for internal and partnered drug discovery programs.
Robin holds a chemistry degree from Imperial College London (1981) and completed his PhD studies in total synthesis at Northwestern University, Chicago (1984). Robin then returned to the UK to start his industrial research career at ICI agrochemicals before joining Glaxo in 1989 to focus on drug discovery.
Robin has co-authored and published 50 papers and patents and contributed to numerous discovery programs (cancer and respiratory) that have progressed into the clinic and two of which went on to become launched drugs.
Robin has a long-standing interest in novel drug discovery platforms that have the potential to reduce attrition rates and therefore increase R&D productivity.
Francesca Zammarchi, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Francesca Zammarchi, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Francesca joined Myricx in October 2023.
Francesca brings over two decades of cancer biology research experience, including developing Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs), gained while working in the biopharma industry and in academia.
Most recently she was Head of Preclinical Pharmacology at ADC Therapeutics SA (NYSE: ADCT). During her 10 years at ADC Therapeutics, she worked as a cancer biologist actively involved in the discovery and evaluation of new projects for the company’s portfolio. She was also responsible for preclinical pharmacology studies and progressed multiple ADCs with novel payloads through IND to BLA.
In her earlier academic career, she was a Research Associate at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, and Research Associate and Visiting Fellow at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Francesca gained her Ph.D. in experimental and molecular oncology and her B.Sc. in molecular biology from the University of Pisa, Italy.
Julie Mead
Chief Operating Officer /
Chief Financial Officer
Julie Mead
Chief Operating Officer / Chief Financial Officer
Julie has over 15 years experience as a pharma and biotech equity analyst for global investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and HSBC. She has covered some of the largest listed companies in European pharma and led the launch of HSBC's European biotech industry coverage.
She has also built operational capabilities and new client segments within global industry consultancies and financial services.
Julie has a Masters in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from Oxford University and investment examinations from the Securities Institute and CAIA.
Robert McLeod, MD
Vice President Clinical Development
Robert McLeod, MD
Vice President Clinical Development
Robert joined Myricx in September 2023.
Robert is a senior pharmaceutical physician with over 20 years drug development experience gained while working in the US and Europe.
Most recently Robert was Senior Director Clinical Development, Global Oncology R&D at Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. based in New York, where he was responsible for early phase R&D for several antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) across multiple solid tumour indications.
Previously, he spent eight years at Cancer Research UK as Clinical Research Physician, in its Centre for Drug Development, focused on translational medicine and early phase oncology trials across a range of solid and haematological malignancies.
He has also held several industry roles in the UK and Germany at Emergent BioSolutions, Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Chiron and Noxxon Pharma, after having trained and worked as a physician in both Australia and UK at the beginning of his career.
Robert gained his Degree in Medicine from the University of Melbourne, a Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine from The Royal College Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, London, and an MBA from the ESCP Business School, Paris.
Josephine Walton, PhD
Senior Research Scientist &
Post Doc, Ed Tate Lab,
Imperial College London
Josephine Walton, PhD
Senior Research Scientist & Post Doc, Ed Tate Lab, Imperial College London
Having worked across oncology research in pharma, biotech and academia, Josephine brings diverse experiences and novel insights towards creating unique tools and applying the latest technologies for cancer drug discovery.
Previously, Josephine was a Senior Scientist in Early Oncology at AstraZeneca, Cambridge where she worked for almost three years on multiple tumour and immune-oncology targets at the pre-clinical stage.
Prior to this, she was a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Glasgow and Cancer Research UK Student at Barts Cancer Institute. In her earlier career, before her PhD, Josephine worked as a Research Assistant at the biotech company CN Bio Innovations (previously known as Zyoxel). Josephine obtained a PhD from University of Glasgow and a BSc (Hons) from University of Manchester in Pharmacology.
Co-founders
Andrew Bell, PhD
Co-founder and Chemistry Consultant
Andrew Bell, PhD
Co-founder and Chemistry Consultant
As a one of the world’s leading medicinal chemists, Andy is a co-inventor of Sildenafil and a contributor to the development of Voriconazole; together these medicines have generated sales in excess of $40 billion.
In addition to his role as a chemistry consultant at Myricx, Andy is Chief Research Officer at Exscientia.
He had a 30 year career in research at Pfizer, followed by seven years as a Research Fellow at Imperial College London, where he led the medicinal chemistry effort on a project to discover novel inhibitors of N-myristoyltransferase for the treatment of parasitic infections.
Andy was awarded the Technical Achievement Award in Organic Chemistry by the American Chemical Society in recognition for his contributions to medicinal chemistry.
Andy obtained a PhD in Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Imperial College London and a BA from the University of York.
Ed Tate, PhD
Co-founder and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board
Ed Tate, PhD
Co-founder and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board
With over 20 years of research at the interface between organic chemistry, the life sciences and medicine, Ed is the world leader in the biology and chemistry of N-myristoyltransferase (NMT), a novel and emerging drug target for a wide range of oncology and viral indications.
Ed was previously the CSO at Myricx and is now Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board. He is the GSK Chair of Chemical Biology at Imperial College London and a Satellite Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute.
His academic research programme in drug target discovery and validation focuses on protein post-translational modifications. Working in close collaboration with a worldwide network of scientists, his research team was the first to validate N-myristoyltransferase (NMT) as a pharmacological target in malaria and antiviral indications and his team has developed the most potent and efficacious inhibitors of human NMT reported to date.
He established an independent group at Imperial College in 2006 and was promoted to full Professor in 2014. Ed has raised > £20 million in research funding to date, and his group of over 50 scientists and researchers is supported by grants and awards from the UK government, industry, the European Union, Cancer Research UK, and charitable foundations.
Ed is the recipient of multiple prizes recognising his work in chemical biology and drug discovery including the the RSC Corday-Morgan Prize, Sir David Cooksey Prize in Translation, the CRUK Programme Foundation Award, the RSC Norman Heatley Award, the Medimmune Protein and Peptide Science Award, the Wain Medal, the BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship, and the 1851 Research Fellowship.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and of Biology (FRSB) and sits on several Scientific Advisory Boards in the UK and internationally.
Earlier in in his career Ed was a postdoctoral fellow at the Ecole Polytechnique and the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France.
Ed obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Roberto Solari, PhD
Co-founder, founding CEO and Biology Consultant
Roberto Solari, PhD
Co-founder, founding CEO and Biology Consultant
A cell biologist and biotech entrepreneur, Roberto brings to Myricx unique perspectives that align science and business with the operations required for start-ups.
Roberto was previously Head of Biology and Chairman at Myricx having served as Myricx’s CEO from its foundation until August 2022. He is a member of the Translation Advisory Board of the Francis Crick Institute.
Previously, he was Vice President and Head of Biology in the respiratory therapy area at GlaxoSmithKline, UK. He spent four years as CEO of MRC Technology (now LifeArc), the technology transfer arm of the MRC, where he helped the creation of spinout companies including Heptares. Before this he was an Advisor to Apax Partners, London and an Entrepreneur in Residence with Abingworth Management where he helped start a number of companies including Astex Pharmaceuticals.
He has served on the board of several biotechnology companies and is currently a Venture Partner with Brandon Capital Partners.
As an academic researcher, his earlier career included positions at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and the University of Liverpool UK.
Roberto obtained a BSc and a PhD from the University of Nottingham, UK.
NMTi Scientific Advisers
Francesco Falciani, PhD
Bioinformatics consultant
Francesco Falciani, PhD
Bioinformatics consultant
With over 30 years of experience working in both academia and industry, Francesco is a specialist in developing novel computational approaches in systems biology and the application of these techniques to complex biological systems.
Francesco holds an Honorary Professorship in integrative Systems Biology at the University of Liverpool where until 2021 he served as a Director of the University’s Computational Biology facility.
Before establishing his career in academia, Francesco worked at GlaxoWellcome as Bioinformatics Group Leader and was Head of Target Discovery at Lorantis Ltd.
Francesco was a pioneer in the development and application of computational methods for inferring the structure of gene regulatory networks from observational data. He has led systems biology projects in the areas of toxicology, environmental toxicology, and biomedicine.
Francesco has a degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Florence, Italy and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Genetics Department at the University Cambridge, UK.
Mark Graham, BSc, PhD, FABT
Consultant Toxicologist
Mark Graham, BSc, PhD, FABT
Consultant Toxicologist
Mark spent 28 years in the Pharmaceutical Industry working in Preclinical Drug Discovery, the last 19 years of which were in AstraZeneca where he had a number of senior scientific leadership roles in Global Safety Assessment.
For the last 12 years Mark has worked as an independent consultant providing expert preclinical safety support to Biotech companies working in most therapeutic areas (Oncology, Inflammation, Gastrointestinal and Neuroscience) at all stages of drug discovery and development. In addition to founding MG Toxicology Consulting Ltd, Mark founded 448 Therapeutics Ltd (which transitioned into JAGUAHR Therapeutics), a virtual immune-oncology drug discovery company, and successfully delivered a novel small molecule immuno-oncology candidate drug in 2023.
As well as a career in Pharmaceutical R&D, Mark maintained activity in research via collaborations with several UK Universities involving the supervision of PhD students and Post-Doctoral scientists resulting in many peer-reviewed publications. Mark was also a visiting Professor (Toxicology) at the University of Surrey and is currently a visiting Professor at the University of Birmingham.
Mark served for 9 years as a member of the Committee on Toxicology (COT), advising the UK Government on all aspects of chemical toxicology. In 2008, Mark was awarded a Fellowship of the British Toxicology Society for his contributions to the science of Toxicology.
ADC Scientific Advisers
John Lambert, PhD
Independent Biotechnology Consultant, Former EVP Research and CSO, ImmunoGen Inc
John Lambert, PhD
Independent Biotechnology Consultant, Former EVP Research and CSO, ImmunoGen Inc
John is an experienced Independent Biotechnology Consultant with a track record of cancer drug development success. He is an expert in antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).
John held a variety of leadership roles at ImmunoGen Inc. including most recently as Executive Vice President, Research and Chief Scientific Officer, where he played a pivotal role in translating the technology of ImmunoGen into ADC clinical development programmes. These efforts ultimately led to Genentech/Roche Kadcyla®, one of the first ADCs that was approved by the FDA for treating HER2+ breast cancer. He was also involved in supporting many additional ADC programmes that continue to be developed by ImmunoGen and its partners.
Prior to joining ImmunoGen, John served as Assistant Professor of Pathology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of the Harvard Medical School. He completed his postdoctoral work at the University of California, Davis and Glasgow University, Scotland.
He is the author/co-author of more than 125 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
John is an elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and an Honorary Professor of Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK.
John holds a Natural Science degree and a PhD in Biochemistry from University of Cambridge, UK .
Simon Chivers, PhD
Toxicology advisor, ex-head of Toxicology at ADC Therapeutics, and ex-Global Head of Safety Assessment at Novartis
Simon Chivers, PhD
Toxicology advisor, ex-head of Toxicology at ADC Therapeutics, and ex-Global Head of Safety Assessment at Novartis
Simon is co-director and consultant toxicologist, at Integrated Biologix GmbH. He has over 20 years’ experience in non-clinical drug development, with a focus on biological products across a wide range of modalities.
Simon has extensive expertise in ADC toxicology. He previously held the role of Head of Toxicology at ADC Therapeutics, where he was responsible for the non-clinical safety assessment of the company’s antibody-drug conjugates, non-antibody-drug conjugates and conjugate toxins, which resulted in multiple successful IND submissions and active clinical trials.
He has also held numerous industry leadership roles, including Global Head of Biologics Safety Assessment at the Novartis Institute of BioMedical Research and Senior Safety Assessment Expert at AstraZeneca / MedImmune, and Senior Toxicologist at Syngenta Biopharma.
He is an active member of the British Toxicology Society and British Pharmacological Society and serves as a Reviewer of articles for the Journal of Applied Toxicology. He actively supports relevant BioSafe committees including the Antibody Drug Conjugate group.
Simon has a PhD in Applied Pharmacology from Imperial College London and a BSc in Pharmacology from UCL.
Mike Sun, PhD
CMC Adviser, ex-SVP CMC at Seattle Genetics
Mike Sun PhD
CMC Adviser, ex-SVP CMC at Seattle Genetics
Mike is a Senior Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) CMC consultant with almost 20 years of experience from pre-IND to commercial.
He has held leadership positions in development, manufacturing, and CMC strategy, including most recently as Senior Vice President, CMC at VelosBio Inc (acquired by Merck).
Previously he was VP, Manufacturing at Silverback Therapeutics (acquired by ARS Pharmaceuticals).
Earlier he was at Seattle Genetics, where he held roles as Senior Director and Head of Clinical Manufacturing, and Director and Head of Purification and Conjugation Process Development. At Seattle Genetics he played a pivotal part in the development of multiple ADC programmes, including as the CMC lead for ADCETRIS®, an ADC now marketed for certain CD30-expressing lymphomas.
Mike holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington.
