Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based Director operating in the Genetics space. If you think a Director is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Ilaria Grizzi
Director, System Integration of Illumina
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About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Clive G. Brown
Directorships of Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Clive is Chief Technology Officer at Oxford Nanopore. On the Executive team, he is responsible for all of the Company’s product development activities. Clive leads the specification and design of the Company’s nanopore based sensing platform, including strand DNA/RNA sequencing and protein sensing applications with a strong focus on scientific excellence and successful adoption by the scientific community. Clive joined Oxford Nanopore from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Cambridge, UK) where he played a key role in the adoption and exploitation of ‘next generation’ DNA sequencing platforms. This involved helping to set up the world’s largest single installation of Illumina (formerly Solexa) Genome Analyzers in a production sequencing environment, initially used to pioneer the 1000 genomes project. From early 2003 he was Director of Computational Biology & IT at Solexa Ltd, where he was central to the development and commercialisation of the Genome Analyzer (GA). Solexa was sold to Illumina for $650M in early 2007 after the successful placement and adoption of 12 instruments. The Solexa technology, now commercialised by Illumina, is the market leading DNA sequencing technology driving the renaissance in DNA based discovery. He has a strong background in computer science and genetics/molecular biology and manages interdisciplinary teams including mechanical engineering, electronics, physics, surface chemistry, electrophysiology, software engineering and applications (of the technology). Clive applies modern agile management techniques to the entire product development lifecycle. Clive has also held various management and consulting positions at GlaxoWellcome, Oxford Glycosciences and other EU- and US-based organisations. He has worked at the interface between computing and science, ranging from genetics to proteomics. He holds degrees in Genetics and Computational Biology from the University of York.
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About Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Solexa: Oxford Nanopore Technologies develops nanopore-based electronic systems for analyzing single molecules, including DNA, RNA, and proteins.
Chris Wood
Non Executive Director of MiNA Therapeutics
Chris Wood has more than 20 years of experience in the biotechnology sector, having founded, managed and successfully exited 4 companies. Chris is Executive Chairman and Medical Director of NuCana. He was co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Bioenvision Inc from 1999, and under his leadership Bioenvision grew from a modest entrepreneurial venture to a leading biotech company (NASDAQ: BIV), with a market capitalisation of $345 million. Bioenvision was acquired by Genzyme Corporation in October 2007. Chris was co-founder of Medirace Ltd, a start up biotechnology company, which later became Medeva PLC, traded on the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, and was acquired by Celltech Group PLC (now UCB) for £554 million. Chris Wood is an honorary Professor at Imperial College London, holds an M.D. from the University of Wales School of Medicine and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Chris Wood’s specialty interests are Cancer and Molecular Biology and he has acquired an international reputation for his published work in these areas.
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About Medannex Ltd, NuCana BioMed: MiNA Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing therapeutic medicines to harness gene activation mechanisms.
Alan Barrell
Non-Executive Director of Eagle Genomics
Alan Barrell has spent almost 30 years in senior executive positions in technology based industries and has become one of Cambridge’s most articulate promoters of entrepreneurship. He was a founder shareholder in Library House Ltd, and is now Entrepreneur in Residence at the University’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning and Visiting Professor of Enterprise at the University of Bedfordshire School of Graduate Business Studies. He is also Distinguished Guest Professor at Xiamen University, Visiting Professor at Shanghai College of Science and Technology and at the Fujian International School of Economics and Business, Fuzhou, all in China. He has taught at Tsinghua University Beijing and Minjiang University, Fuzhou City. Other appointments include Senior Enterprise Fellow, University of Essex, International Fellow, Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge, and International Fellow, Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki.
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About Cambridge Associates, Eagle Genomics: Eagle Genomics is a enterprise software solutions company to enable the management, orchestration and exploitation of life sciences data.
Richard Durbin
Informatics Director of Congenica
Richard is a Group Leader of the Human Genetics Programme at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Member of EMBO. A pioneer in the industry, he has developed sequence data analysis tools that are now standards in the field. His current research focuses on human genetic variation by large scale genome-wide re-sequencing. Richard has led the international 1000 Genomes Project and the UK10K Genome Project, and has made significant contributions to the Ensembl resource for vertebrate genome annotation, and the TreeFam and Pfam databases.
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About Congenica: Congenica is a biotechnology company that provides a diagnostic decision support platform.
Matthew Hurles
Scientific Director of Congenica
Matt is Senior Group Leader at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and a leader in the Deciphering Developmental Disorders, 1000 Genomes and UK10K projects. He has pioneered the analysis of whole exomes in clinically relevant disorders that previously failed diagnostic methods, and has led an initiative to characterise structural variation in the human genome, and integrate this knowledge into disease and population genetic studies. Matt has been awarded the Balfour Lecture by the Genetics Society and the Crick Lecture prize for accomplishments in genetics by the Royal Society.
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About Congenica: Congenica is a biotechnology company that provides a diagnostic decision support platform.
Philip Beales
Medical Director of Congenica
Phil is a consultant physician and Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics at the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH), an NIHR Senior Investigator, an Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and the lead on Personalised Medicine for UCL. He is an internationally recognized expert in the genetics and pathogenesis of ciliopathies and pioneering use of next generation sequencing in mapping disease genes in this area.
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About Congenica: Congenica is a biotechnology company that provides a diagnostic decision support platform.
Gil McVean
Co Founder & Director of Genomics
Gil McVean is Professor of Statistical Genetics at the University of Oxford and Head of Bioinformatics and Statistical Genetics at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. After an undergraduate training in Zoology, he obtained a PhD with Laurence Hurst in Cambridge and worked with Brian and Deborah Charlesworth in Edinburgh before joining Oxford in 2000. His research focuses on understanding the molecular and evolutionary processes that shape genetic variation in populations and the relationship between genetic variation and phenotype. He has made contributions to our understanding of areas including recombination hotspots, historical patterns of natural selection, the male mutation rate, human genetic variation, the role of HLA in complex disease and genealogical processes. He has played a leading role in the HapMap and 1000 Genomes Projects and currently works on organisms from HIV to malaria.
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About Genomics: Genomics plc aiming to lead the genomic transformation of healthcare.
Susan Searle
Non-Executive Director of Horizon Discovery
Susan Searle is Chief Executive Officer of Imperial Innovations Group plc, an AIM listed company founded by Imperial College. Imperial Innovations is an integrated business combining the activities of technology transfer, incubation and investment across healthcare, engineering, environment and IT sectors. Susan has been instrumental in growing the business since joining the Ltd company in 1994. Previously she worked at Montech (Australia), Signet Group plc, Bank of Nova Scotia and Shell Chemicals Limited in the UK and internationally in a variety of business development and commercial roles. She has served on the boards of 15 spin-out companies including TurboGenset Inc. and sits on the boards of Thiakis Limited, EVO Electric Limited and i2india Holdings Limited. She has an MA in Chemistry from Exeter College, Oxford University.
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About : Horizon is a gene editing company that designs & engineers genetically-modified cells, applying them to advance human health.
Alison Armstrong
Senior Director, Development Services of BioReliance
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About BioReliance, BioReliance, BioReliance: BioReliance is a leading CRO providing nonclinical testing and contract manufacturing services.
