Management
Chris Torrance, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Chris Torrance has a total of twelve years oncology research and development experience, including six years as a senior manager at Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company, Vernalis. His principle expertise lies is cancer cell biology and drug discovery. In this field, he has led project teams taking drug targets from inception through to hit identification, lead optimisation and into preclinical studies.
Chris is the co-inventor on a patent describing the use of “isogenic” X-MAN cell-lines to directly screen for agents that affect specific cancer pathways. As a result of this work, he has developed considerable expertise in the generation of X-MAN cell-lines and their application to drug discovery.
Chris is a co-author on nine, high-impact, peer-reviewed papers in the field of oncology and cancer drug discovery. Chris holds a PhD from East Carolina University, U.S.A. and completed a Post-Doctoral position in the world renowned oncology lab of Professor Bert Vogelstein (Johns Hopkins University). Chris is married with two sons and is the principle founder of Horizon Discovery.
Darrin M Disley, PhD
Executive Chairman / Commercial Director
Dr Darrin M Disley is responsible for corporate development, general operations and investor relations for Horizon Discovery.
Darrin is a serial business entrepreneur and has been involved in the start-up and growth of seven high-tech business ventures. He is an experienced general manager with a track-record for raising investment for and managing the growth of early-stage technology companies.
Darrin holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Cambridge; has been the author of six papers, 7 patent applications and 26 conference abstracts and; has been an advisor on biotech commercialisation strategies to key technology centres in Europe, USA, India and Africa.
Paul Morrill, PhD
Business Development
Dr Paul R Morrill is responsible for global business development activities for Horizon Discovery.
Paul was Commercial Director of Acumen Bioscience Limited (ABL). He had previously held positions of Director of Marketing at ABL and Business Development Manager at The Technology Partnership.
Over the past 18 years, Paul has developed a strong track record in business and commercial development including the closing of multi-million pound capital equipment & reagent deals with premier pharmaceutical and diagnostic industry players. He holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Cambridge. Dr Morrill is married with a son and daughter.
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Rob Howes, PhD
R&D Director
Dr Rob Howes has over 10 years experience in Oncology research, genetics and drug development. Most recently he has led a project team developing inhibitors of an important Oncology-targeted kinase. This drug candidate was taken from target identification through to its current phase of preclinical development.
Rob holds a PhD in Biology from the University of Cambridge and held post-doc positions at Stanford University, California and University of Cambridge, UK. He joined Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company Vernalis in 2001 where he headed the screening department whose activities covered biochemical and cell-based screening, as well as in-vitro ADME.
Rob is the author of 15 peer-reviewed papers, many of which were on small molecule drug discovery and has spoken at many international conferences with a focus on novel oncology targets and cutting-edge ‘high-content’ assay technologies. Rob is married with a son and expecting another child shortly.
Advisors
Alberto Bardelli, PhD
Principle Scientific Advisor
Prof. Alberto Bardelli and his laboratory at the Institute for Cancer research and Treatment (IRCC) in Turin, Italy, have pioneered the generation of human X-MAN cell-lines harbouring subtle kinase mutations and their ability to accurately predict responses to appropriately targeted agents in patients.
Recent work from Alberto’s lab has had a transforming effect on current clinical practice in the field of personalised medicine. Prof. Bardelli and colleagues discovered that secondary K-Ras or B-Raf mutations in colon cancer impart resistance to novel EGFR-targeted therapies and now the EMEA (and soon the FDA) are mandating the compulsory genetic testing of all colon cancer patients prior to receiving such therapies.
A future focus of his lab is to define other resistance mechanisms in patients and find appropriately tailored drug combinations that target them. Prof. Bardelli is married with a son and daughter and is the principle scientific advisor to Horizon Discovery.
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Ben Ho Park, PhD
Scientific and Clinical Advisor
Prof. Ben Ho Park is Associate Professor of Oncology and Associate Director of the Medical Oncology Fellowship Training Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Center at Johns Hopkins University.
Ben’s career blends a powerful mix of both basic and translational research in the field of cancer genetics; plus an active and distinguished role in patient care that is having a dramatic effect in the search for novel ‘targeted’ and ‘personalised’ cancer treatments.
Prof. Park and his colleagues recently studied the inner biochemical workings of isogenic (X-MAN) human cell-lines containing either a normal or mutant version of ‘PI3K’ and identified a novel therapeutic target called GSK3beta that is modulated by this mutant cancer gene in a significant subset of breast cancers.
Ben’s lab then found that an already approved drug to this target; called Lithium Chloride, which is used to treat bi-polar depression, also impairs the growth of human tumours containing mutant PI3K. Ben is now pioneering this ‘re-profiled’ drug into breast cancer clinical trials. The focus of his laboratory continues to define other mutated or altered genes responsible for breast cancer initiation and progression, as well as mutant genes that lead to chemo- and hormonal drug resistance.
Prof. Park is married with a daughter and was recently appointed as a key scientific and clinical advisor to Horizon Discovery.
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Execute Technologies Inc.
Business Development
Execute is engaged in consulting and new venture activities in the Life Sciences field and is a founding shareholder in four new ventures. It is also a minor shareholder in a number of other biotech businesses including Horizon Discovery.
The Execute team combines management experience in the areas of technical innovation, scientific research, product development and manufacturing, sales, strategic marketing, marketing communications, technology distribution and corporate finance.
Execute is providing Horizon Discovery with ‘hands-on’ operational, sales, marketing and business development interim management services.
For more information about Execute Technologies, visit www.executetechnologies.com
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