Christian Hoyer Millar MA, Hons (Oxon)
Chairman

Christian was awarded a scholarship to read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Lincoln College, Oxford. His career started at the Boston Consulting Group where he worked both in Europe and USA. He then moved to the UK Holding Company of the German/Dutch Conglomerate, Hoogovens, as a director of a number of the subsidiaries in the UK, winning the Queen’s award for exports.

Hoyer Millar then became a Vice President of Fox Pitt Kelton, where he worked on the mergers and acquisitions of US Regional Banks until the company went public at which point he was head-hunted to run a venture capital firm in conjunction with Ensign Trust PLC, owned by the Merchant Navy Pension Fund.

Since then Hoyer Millar has worked in venture capital including as a founder of an Ofex listed company and a founding shareholder in an AIM listed company. He is additionally CEO of Oxford Biodynamics Limited, an Oxford University spin-out diagnostic company, and has extensive commercial experience in the USA and Asia.

Dr. Huw Jones PhD
Chief Executive Officer

Huw holds a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Birmingham, UK and has over twenty years experience in the pharmaceutical sector. He has supervised over fifteen product launches in Europe and has completed numerous product and company acquisitions and divestments.

Most recently Huw has been working with Atlantic Pharmaceuticals to lead growth of Atlantic Healthcare’s therapeutics division. Huw was a director of Ardana plc and was previously President, Europe for CV Therapeutics Inc, a NASDAQ-quoted pharmaceutical company recently acquired by Gilead Sciences Inc. for US$1.4bn. Other appointments include Senior Vice President, Northern Europe, for Elan Pharmaceuticals where he helped build the European operations from a start-up into a 600 person division and UK marketing director for SmithKlineBeecham Pharmaceuticals, now part of GlaxoSmithKline plc.

Dr. Michael Moore Phd, DSc, FRCpath
Non-Executive Director

Michael Moore began his career at the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research and Manchester University, where he was Reader in Experimental Oncology and Immunology and sometime Editor-in Chief of the British Journal of Cancer.

He entered the UK Biotechnology industry in 1989, subsequently becoming a director of Xenova Group which went public on NASDAQ (1994) and LSE (1996). He facilitated the divestment of the Group’s drug discovery division, assisted in the consolidation of Xenova as an oncology-focussed business and played a major role in the acquisition and integration of the biologics company Cantab Pharmaceuticals (2000) in the capacity of Chief Scientific Officer.

In 2002, Dr Moore became Chief Executive Officer of Piramed Limited, a private UK-based biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of small molecule inhibitors of PI 3-kinases. Piramed is credited with bringing this new class of drug to clinical trial on behalf of Cancer Research UK, Institute of Cancer Research and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Piramed entered into collaboration with Genentech in 2005 with a headline valuation of $230 million and was subsequently acquired by Roche in 2008.

Dr Moore practises as a biopharmaceutical consultant and business angel with a portfolio of non-executive directorships, including Chairman of Trillium Therapeutics Inc, a private Toronto-based biologics company, Myotec, a speciality pharma company spun out of Imperial College London and Charité University, Berlin and Oxford BioTherapeutics, a cancer antibody therapy-based company. He is also a Professor Associate in the Department of Cancer Genetics and Pharmacogenomics in the Brunel Institute.

Martin Diggle MA (Oxon)
Non-Executive Director

Martin is a founder of Vulpes Investment Management, a Cayman Fund Manager which currently manages five funds including the Vulpes Life Sciences Fund; Chronos Therapeutics’ largest shareholder. An investment professional with over 29 years’ experience in investment banking and fund management, Martin has extensive, first-hand knowledge of the global financial markets.

Martin has been an investor in life sciences and biotechnology since 1999 and has developed a passionate interest in the sector having worked closely with several companies as a stakeholder over the past decade.

Alexandre Akoulitchev MA, Hons (Oxon), PhD, FRSM
Scientific Director

Sasha read mathematics, physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In 1989, he was selected by the George Soros Foundation to study for a year at the University of Oxford along with other 20 top Soviet graduate students. In 1994 he obtained his PhD in cell biology from University College London (with his research based at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund). Sasha spent six years at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, NJ, USA as a research assistant funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Upon his return to England in 2001, he was awarded with The Wellcome Trust Carrier Development Fellowship and has established a research laboratory at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, with the focus on biochemistry of transcriptional mechanisms, non-coding regulatory RNAs and early epigenetic events. The research of the lab was supported by Cancer Research UK, Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Its results were widely publicized.

Before moving full-time to Oxford BioDynamics as a Company Director in 2007, Sasha was a University Academic Fellow (Research Council UK) and a Senior Fellow of Exeter College.

Professor Jane Mellor PhD University of Oxford
Research Director

Jane read bacteriology and virology at the University of Manchester and got her PhD from the University of Reading (with his research based at the Institute for Animal Health). She started her career as a post doctoral research scientist at the University of Oxford. She then moved on to become a research fellow at Wolfson and Exeter colleges, Oxford University. In 1989, she became a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in basic biomedical sciences. Her teaching career started in 1991 and to date she has tutored and supervised more than 20 graduate students gaining their DPhil degrees. Jane has published more than 70 articles in peer reviewed journals and in 2008 was made the first Professor of Epigenetics at the University of Oxford.

Dr. Nigel Crockett PhD
International Business Development Director

Nigel has more than 17 years of commercial experience in the pharma-biotech sector, spanning Europe, the US and Asia, with particular expertise in small molecule and biologicals, in–licensing and out-licensing, early-stage R&D collaborations, medical devices, company financing and acquisitions and a highly respected worldwide network of industry and academic contacts.

Nigel is a founding partner of Tukan Partners and was formerly VP Business Development at Astex Therapeutics, securing 13 major collaboration and licensing agreements for the company during its first 4 years of operation, and Commercial Director at Cantab Pharmaceuticals, the immunotherapeutics company. Nigel held a postdoctoral position at the Institute of Biotechnology, Cambridge University, having obtained his PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University in 1989 and a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Manchester in 1986.

Tanya Palmer
Clinical Development Director

Tanya has over 20 years experience of managing and overseeing European and International clinical programmes having worked with Amgen Ltd, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, Hospira, Sophiris Bio Corp, Almac Discovery, Dermira and Constella Group.

Dr. David Eckland PhD, FRCP
Chief Medical Officer

David is a highly experienced pharmaceutical and biotechnology physician. After extensive experience in hospital practice and academic medicine, he worked in both large and small pharmaceutical companies, successfully developing small molecules as well as biotechnology products.

David obtained degrees in Biochemistry and Medicine from the University of London, after which he specialised in Endocrinology, Diabetes and General (Internal) Medicine. He has a PhD in Neuroendocrinology, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London. In 1990, David joined Glaxosmithklein Research & Development, initially in Phase 1, later becoming International Director of Metabolic Disease Clinical Research, responsible for Phase 2and 3 studies. He was also international project leader for a major metabolic disease product, taking this to its first regulatory approval. In 1997 he joined Takeda Europe R&D, initially in Frankfurt, then in London. David started as European Development Director, before becoming Managing Director. He was responsible for all areas of Clinical Research at Takeda. In 2005 he moved to Ark Therapeutics, a small biotechnology company, as R&D director. David has presented on many occasions to regulators, including European Medicines Agency (CHMP, BWP, GTWP, SWP), FDA (biologics and small molecules), as well as numerous national agencies in Europe.

Dr. Michael Youdell Phd
Chief Operating Officer

Michael read Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at The University of Oxford. He attained his masters in 2005 and went on to study for a PhD in yeast genetics and epigenetics. In 2009 Michael became Chief Operating Officer for Chronos Therapeutics.

Professor Leonard P. Guarente PhD (Harvard), Novartis Professor, MIT
Scientific Advisor

Dr. Guarente is the Novartis Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Guarente’s lab identified SIR2 as the key gene regulating life span in yeast and C. elegans – an extra copy of SIR2 significantly increases the life span of both organisms. Notably, his lab first discovered the novel biochemical activity of the SIR2 gene product – NAD-dependent deacetylase. This activity suggested that SIR2 might be involved in linking diet to the regulation of aging, addressing the longstanding question of how calorie restriction (CR) might slow aging.

Dr. Guarente’s lab also studies the mammalian orthologue of SIR2 – SIRT1. Dr. Guarente’s findings show that extension of healthy life span by CR is not a passive event, but results from the activation of SIRT1, which then impacts on cellular and organismal processes to deliver the benefits. Dr. Guarente received his B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph. D. at Harvard, under the supervision of Jon Beckwith. He trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard with Mark Ptashne and has been on the faculty of MIT since 1981. His book Ageless Quest (Cold Spring Harbor Press, 2003) describes the pathway of discovery of SIR2 as a key regulator of life span in response to diet.

Professor Richard Eastell MD, FRCP, FRCPI, FRCPEdin, FRCPath, FMedSci
Osteoporosis Clinical Consultant

Richard received a clinical fellowship from the Medical Research Council to study osteoporosis at the University of Edinburgh in 1978 and furthered his clinical research training by working at the Mayo Clinic developing a number of new approaches for studying osteoporosis. After training in endocrinology and diabetes at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow and the Mayo Clinic he joined the Department of Human Metabolism and Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Sheffield in 1989 as a Senior Research Fellow. Richard set up a metabolic bone service at the Northern General Hospital where he is an Honorary NHS Consultant. Richard became Professor of Bone Metabolism in 1995 and received funding from the Arthritis Research Campaign to use biochemical tests of bone turnover to better understand the way in which older men and women develop osteoporosis and propensity to fracture. Richard is currently Director of the Mellanby Centre based at the University of Sheffield and became a NIHR Senior Investigator in 2009. Richard has published over 320 research papers; key papers describing new treatments for osteoporosis, such as tibolone, zoledronic acid, denosumab and lasofoxifene as well as addressing issues about safety of medications and provide diagnosis guidelines.

Professor Graham Russell PhD, DM, FRCP, FRCPath, FRS
Osteoporosis Clinical Consultant

Graham graduated with First Class Honours in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge in 1962 and subsequently gained his PhD on pyrophosphate metabolism from the MRC Mineral Metabolism Unit at the University of Leeds. In 1965, he joined Dr Herbert Fleisch’s Medical Research Institute in Davos, Switzerland, and their collaborative work led to the discovery of the biological effects of bisphosphonates. He then moved to Oxford University, where he continued research based at the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Working with Roger Smith, this led to the first and successful clinical applications of bisphosphonates in Paget’s disease of bone. Concurrently, he completed his medical degree with distinction in 1971. He held the Medical Research Fellowship at St Peter’s College from 1972-76. He was awarded his DM at Oxford in 1976, and also gained Membership and then the Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Pathology. Graham is now Professor of Musculoskeletal Pharmacology and continues his research within the Botnar Research Centre, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedic Surgery (now NDORMS), and also in the Mellanby Centre for Bone Research at Sheffield University. Graham has published extensively in the field of osteoporosis and has been Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Association for Pagets Disease (UK), and of several Research Committees including the MRC, Research into Ageing, and the Arthritis Research UK (formerly ARC). Graham was one of the founding members of the National Osteoporosis Society.

Professor Jane Mellor PhD University of Oxford
Research Director

Jane read bacteriology and virology at the University of Manchester and got her PhD from the University of Reading (with his research based at the Institute for Animal Health). She started her career as a post doctoral research scientist at the University of Oxford. She then moved on to become a research fellow at Wolfson and Exeter colleges, Oxford University. In 1989, she became a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in basic biomedical sciences. Her teaching career started in 1991 and to date she has tutored and supervised more than 20 graduate students gaining their DPhil degrees. Jane has published more than 70 articles in peer reviewed journals and in 2008 was made the first Professor of Epigenetics at the University of Oxford.

Ian Fraser
Pharmacokinetics Consultant

Ian has more than 20 years experience in the field of Pharmacokinetics. Before joining Chronos Ian was Head of Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics at Arrow Therapeutics. Ian has also held positions as Head of LC-MS Services at ABS Laboratories Ltd and Principle Scientist DMPK at GlaxoSmithKline.