Engitix Therapeutics strengthens management team with new directors for fibrosis and computational biology
- Company is on expansion curve with two new appointments and recent move to larger facilities
London, UK – 23 Feb, 2021 – Engitix Ltd (‘Engitix’), a biotechnology company developing a portfolio of programmes in fibrosis and solid tumours and with two significant partnerships based on its pioneering proprietary human extracellular matrix (ECM) drug discovery platform, today announced that it has appointed Dr Alan Holmes as Senior Director, Fibrosis and Dr John Prime as Director, Computational Biology.
Dr Gino Van Heeke, Engitix’s CSO said: “We are delighted to have attracted such high calibre individuals with a wealth of experience and expertise. Our management team is now ideally set up to further our internal therapeutic pipeline, partnered programmes, as well as develop our ambitious further plans in drug discovery and development.”
Dr Holmes joins from UCB where he was Director, Drug Target Identification. Before this, he was Director within GSK’s Pulmonary Vascular Injury and Fibrosis DPU. Between 2011 and 2017 he worked at UCL, latterly as Head of Biology in the Drug Discovery, Translational Research Office and previously as a Group leader and Arthritis Research UK fellow in tissue remodelling and fibrosis . Prior to this, Alan was group leader at Novartis. He was awarded his PhD from UCL in 2007.
Dr Prime has over 10 years bioinformatics experience and has worked across the biotech/pharma, academic and public sectors. He joins from Horizon Discovery, where he was senior bioinformatician. Prior to that, he was Head of Oncology Research Biomics with MedImmune for six years, and with KuDOS Pharmaceuticals for seven years, where he rose to be Head of Biomics. He received his PhD in liver cancer genetics from Oxford Brookes in 2000.
In addition to its internal programmes, Engitix also has ongoing collaborations with Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Morphic Therapeutic, driving the expansion of the company. Engitix recently moved to a larger office and lab space in the new emerging biotech hub in WestWorks, White City Place.
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About Engitix Ltd
Engitix is developing a portfolio of programmes in fibrosis and solid tumours using its pioneering human extracellular matrix (ECM) drug discovery platform. The use of more physiologically relevant human in vitro models is transforming our ability to identify new targets, to develop more advanced treatments and to enable a more accurate prediction of the efficacy of therapeutic candidates.
Engitix was founded in 2016 to commercialise cutting-edge research at the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, Division of Medicine, University College London (UCL). The company is headquartered in Westworks, White City Place, London, UK.
For more information, please visit www.engitix.com.
For more information:
Engitix Ltd
Gino Van Heeke
E: gino.vanheeke@engitix.com
Instinctif Partners (media enquiries)
Agnes Stephens / Katie Duffell
T: +44 (0)20 7457 2013
E: engitix@instinctif.com
