Established in-house Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) facility employing the latest technologies to provide high quality transcriptomic data for AI enabled drug discovery programs, replacing an initial outsourcing strategy.• Achieved buy in from various stakeholder groups including senior leadership, project leaders and finance to gain support for the proposal to bring RNA-seq in-house.• Implemented a plan to evaluate equipment, negotiate prices and prepare site for instrument installations (including the Illumina NextSeq 1000 sequencer).• Co-ordinated input from a multi-disciplinary group, including legal, IT security, data management specialists, bioinformaticians and lab scientists to achieve objectives within timelines.• Developed and validated RNA-seq protocols followed by scale-up and automation (Hamilton NGS Star).• Worked cross-functionally as a product owner for end-to-end RNA-seq sample and data management workflow, including generation of a bespoke electronic lab notebook (ELN) to capture omics sample metadata. • Played a key role in defining and testing the minimal viable product, identifying bottlenecks and communicating feedback from the lab scientists to the developers.• Led the resourcing of workflow requests across the company to deliver key project data.• Performed data QC and differential gene analysis.• Communicated results to colleagues across the company in both written and presentation formats.• Organised RNA-seq sample outsourcing as needed.

Molecular biology, assay development and screening support for numerous drug discovery programs.• Transfection, clone selection and qPCR expression analysis to produce stable cell lines used in compound screening assays.• Developed robust cell-based compound screening assays for a range of targets, including GPCRs, cytokines and enzymes. Advanced multiple programmes to candidate drug nomination stage.• Introduced CRISPR/cas9 gene editing technology at Proximagen to generate knock-out cell lines.• Cultured and characterised native cell lines and iPSC-derived cell types to determine suitability for use in assays.• Presented at project team and wider company meetings.• Managed tissue culture facility. • Member of GMO and Biosafety committees.• Captured data in ELNs, wrote SOPs, guidance documents, and risk assessments, liaised with legal team to implement CDAs and MSAs, coordinated sample shipments.

Proximagen Ltd. was acquired by BenevolentAI in 2018Molecular biology, assay development and screening support for numerous scientific programmes as described for BenevolentAI above.

Designed and maintained web sites using HTML, CSS, and basic PHP coding to modern W3C Web Standards.

Identified and validated novel drug targets to support exploratory projects in multiple therapeutic areas.• Led the setup of microarray capabilities in the lab. • Constructed and screened a 4000 gene microarray containing a combination of known genes and clones from subtracted libraries.• Evaluated and screened commercial microarray slides with probes generated from numerous diseased tissues. • Generated key differential gene expression validation data for multiple novel targets which entered the company portfolio.• Developed screening assays for novel drug targets identified in-house and transferred to medium throughput screening platforms. • Validated hit compounds in functional and selectivity cell based assays.

Validated drug targets using a range of molecular biology techniques including quantitative PCR, Western blotting and in situ hybridisation.

Identified differentially expressed genes in the lumbar spinal cord of streptozotocin treated hyperalgesic tissue using Suppression Subtractive Hybridisation. Generated subtracted libraries followed by large-scale sequencing and validation of differential expression by qPCR and in situ hybridisation.