Zara Farooq

PhD

Zara Farooq is joining the Safety Science Team and will help on an internal project with our in-house safety pharmacology and neurobiology teams. Zara brings valuable skills in computation chemistry and pharmacological modelling from her PhD in biochemistry at Queen Mary University of London. She has experience in drug design and chemistry and will strongly improve our in-house expertise. Zara is a keen scientist, she is looking forward to further develop and leverage her skills in the Safety Science group.

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Ken Page

MSc

Ken has worked in the pharmaceutical industry, both in large companies (Astra Zeneca and Rhône Poulenc [now Sanofi]), small biotech (RedX), and CROs for many decades. During this time, Ken has either managed or been part of many teams including bioanalysis, P450 inhibition, in vitro permeability, metabolic stability, ADME, in vivo pharmacokinetics & PK modelling, helping identify new drugs effective in several disease areas including Oncology, Cardiovascular, Asthma & Inflammation and Anti-bacterial agents. Ken has a keen interest in human PK prediction and using it as early as possible to identify potential drug candidates. Ken has a BSc in Biochemistry and an MSc degree in Biopharmacy.

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Olga King

PhD

Dr Olga King is joining the Project Toxicology Team at ApconiX and will be designing and reviewing nonclinical toxicology studies among other responsibilities. Olga has a PhD in Veterinary Toxicology & Pharmacology from Ulyanovsk Agricultural University in Russia. Olga has previously worked as a Study Director at Sequani and LabCorp. She is a curious scientist who is looking forward to using her veterinary background and diverse study director experience in her new role.

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Josh Wright

Josh Wright is joining ApconiX as an industrial placement placement student and will be working as a Business Development Assistant with the Marketing and Business Development Team. Josh is studying for his Bachelor’s degree in Business, Management and Economics at Nottingham Trent University. He is the point of contact for clients interested in ApconiX’s Ion Channel Laboratory services. Josh has proven to be very versatile and became a valuable member of the team.

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Jessica Ferguson

Jessica Ferguson is joining the Safety Science Team and will help improving and streamlining the TSA framework to ensure efficiency in operations. Jess brings valuable technical talent with an MSc in Biology from the University of Manchester where, as well as industry experience from her previous position at Pebble Biotechnology Laboratories, a pre-clinical CRO specialising in ex vivo research. , Jess is a thoughtful and collaborative team member, bringing both enthusiasm and a proactive mindset to every challenge.

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Lindsey Talecki

MSc

Lindsey Talecki has over 17 years of experience at GSK in safety pharmacology, non-clinical and investigative safety and has written Target Safety Reviews throughout her career. Working with cardiovascular and central nervous system related ion channel non-clinical safety, Lindsey is looking forward to sharing her knowledge with the laboratory team. Living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she is supporting business development as our presence grows in the US. Lindsey’s enthusiasm and extensive experience is an invaluable addition to the business overall.

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Sophia Tomlinson

Sophia Tomlinson is joining ApconiX as an industrial placement student for a year and will be using human stem-cells models to further validate our seizure liability assay. Studying for her integrated MSci in Biological Science – Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool, Sophia has experience in cell-culture among other laboratory skills. Bright and focused, Sophia is keen to learn and will enjoy a great placement year at ApconiX.

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Dr Louisa Zolkiewski

PhD

Dr Louisa Zolkiewski is part of the Ion Channel Laboratory at ApconiX, optimising and validating in vitro MEA assays to detect alternative liabilities in addition to seizure. Louisa used in silico, in vitro and in vivo models during her PhD in mammalian genetics from the University of Oxford. She also has experience in writing plans and reports for clients thanks to her previous position as GLP Principal Investigator at Gentronix. Louisa is a driven scientist, passionate about developing new methodologies that could improve preclinical screening strategies.

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Dr Katie Newman

PhD

Dr Katie Newman has a background in neuroscience and cell-based in vitro models. After working on a rat model of hyperglycaemia during her MSc Katie developed a strong wish to reduce the use of animals in research. Her PhD  involved investigating the causes of genetic small vessel disease (SVD) by developing an alternative in vitro approach with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and CRISPR gene editing technology. Katie is a great team-player who wants to contribute to bringing life-saving drugs on the market.

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Dr Hannah Dixon

PhD

Hannah graduated with a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester and completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham. She used a wide-ranging set of bioinformatic, computational and laboratory approaches to her doctoral research expanding on the role of the RNA helicase UPF1.  A native speaker of Spanish and Catalan, Hannah is a dedicated bioinformatician who is applying her advanced computational skills to realise the potential of data science to innovate drug safety and drug discovery.