Illuminate Dundee is an event designed to shine a light on the thriving life sciences community based in and around Dundee. This event will focus on bringing together local life sciences organisations, creating a platform for attendees to meet industry peers, exchange ideas and collaborate.
Taking place on Wednesday 1 March, the event will begin with an online ‘Lunch and Learn’ session including:
Speaker presentations
A panel discussion with local life sciences professionals
Networking opportunities
This will be followed by an in-person networking event at The Street in the School of Life Sciences, the University of Dundee from 5.30pm - 7.30pm.
Speakers
Professor Derek Stewart, Director of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre at the James Hutton Institute
Derek is Director of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre (APGC), part of the £62m Tay Cities deal regional development project at The James Hutton Institute. He also has the Chair of Plant and Food Chemistry at Heriot Watt University. For over 30 years Derek has worked at the industry-academia interface and has led multiple (inter)national multiparter projects that, to date, total ~£300M. As director of the APGC he oversees the novel research, development and innovation around crops grown ‘under cover’ and post-harvest storage facilities. Within this green biotechnology features heavily. Allied to the APGC, Derek is also on the board of two companies; 1. Bloom Biotechnology ltd, a joint venture in crop biotechnology, between the James Hutton Ltd and Epigentica Ltd, 2. Upcycled Plant Protein, a start-up harvesting sustainable food protein from unharvested crop biomass. Derek current runs several projects and publishes widely on the crop utility, quality and bioactivity.
Fiona Bellot, Sales Director at Cellexus
After graduating from the University of Glasgow with an honours degree in Anatomy, Fiona joined the MRC Human Reproductive Sciences Unit in Edinburgh as a research assistant. Following 2 years in the lab, Fiona moved into commercial roles with consumable and equipment manufacturers.
Most recently she has been with RoslinCT and Proteintech and has brought to Cellexus her knowledge of advanced therapies, recombinant proteins and antibodies and the importance of robust manufacturing in scaling up and scaling out.
Fiona joined Cellexus in 2022 to lead the sales team in a growth phase and to enter new markets.
Dr Morag Martin, Biomedical Cluster Manager at the University of Dundee
Dr Morag Martin is currently Biomedical Cluster Manager at the University of Dundee. Her role is to maximise impact from the University’s biomedical research portfolio and support the growth of the regional life sciences cluster. Morag joined the University in 2010 with responsibility for supporting research strategy in the School of Life Sciences before recently being seconded into Research Innovation Services. Morag has previously held research roles at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute and the University of Dundee. She has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and first degree from the University of Glasgow.
Helen Donald-Simpson, Med-Tech Project Manager, School of Medicine, University of Dundee
With experience in commercial R & D, clinical trials, and pre-clinical testing, Helen is a registered nurse with a solid foundation in MedTech. Previous roles as research scientist in a MedTech SME and clinical trials coordinator provide an unusual blend of pre-clinical research and clinical knowledge. At the University of Dundee, Helen was instrumental in the development of Thiel embalmed cadavers for preclinical research and training, incorporating advanced imaging technologies for preclinical testing and training. She is now the MedTech project manager for the University of Dundee, driving the Tayside Innovation MedTech Ecosystem (TIME) project to bring innovative new technologies to healthcare.
Professor Alessio Ciulli, Founder and Director, Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation (CeTPD), University of Dundee
Alessio Ciulli studied chemistry in Florence and obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2006. After postdoctoral fellowship and a brief visit at Yale University, he returned to Cambridge in 2009 to start his independent laboratory. In 2013, he moved to the Dundee where he was promoted to full professor in 2016. He has received numerous awards, including the 2022 Prous Institute – Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery. He is cofounder of Amphista therapeutics, a targeted protein degradation company spin out of his laboratory, and the founder and director of Dundee’s new Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation which opened in January 2023.
Dr Charlotte Green, Head of Business Development for Dundee University's Drug Discovery Unit (DDU)
Charlotte Green, PhD is the Head of Business Development for Dundee University's Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) responsible for developing new business opportunities and relationships with various stakeholders to drive drug discovery projects towards the clinic. She leads the development and implementation of the Business Development strategy for the DDU across all its portfolios. Charlotte took over this role in 2022 from her previous role within the unit as Scientific Liaison, responsible for scouting the academic sector for novel drug targets and building these into drug discovery programmes with our collaborators.
And more speakers still to be announced.
To register for the event:
Online: https://lnkd.in/ef5WukwX
In-person: https://lnkd.in/emVCRF2t
We can’t wait to see you there!
This event is hosted by Ambit, in collaboration with BioDundee and the University of Dundee.
Ambit is an AMICULUM agency. Click here to view the AMICULUM virtual event privacy policy for more information about how your data is handled.