Peter Symonds Email & Phone Number

England, United Kingdom

Oxford, Gb

Laboratory Manager co-ordinating between Scancell Ltd and the University of Nottingham. Scancell's R&D division is based within the University of Nottingham Biodiscovery Institute. I'm a member of the BDI safety committee and Scancell GMO safety committee. Recent challenges have included facilitating the return of our lab team after the initial lockdown in 2020 and ensuring research continuity with the problems to supply lines caused by Covid-19 and Brexit. I'm our Biological Safety officer and Radiation protection officer for the Nottingham labs, responsible for drafting risk assessments, GM safety risk assessments and Laboratory protocols.Experimentally I specialise in DNA vaccine delivery techniques. I supervise a small technical team who aid me in conducting our in vivo immunisations. This area of our work requires liaison between management at the University of Nottingham & University of Nottingham Trent staff. I'm the deputy PPL licence holder at Scancell responsible for overseeing the documentation of T-cell studies prior to commencing experimental work. Within the lab I conduct ex-vivo T-cell assays primarily for our Covid-19 vaccine programme and DNA / peptide based cancer vaccine programmes. This requires working with a wide range of national and international collaborators both within academia and industry.

Oxford, Gb

Primary responsibility in developing & managing the transfection and modification of new tumour models for in vivo therapeutic anti-tumour models. Also responsible for in vivo immunisations, ex-vivo T-cell assays and liaison between Nottingham university & University of Nottingham Trent staff. Responsible for overseeing the documentation of T-cell studies prior to commencing experimental work.Also responsible for biological, GM and radiological safety which requires extensive liaison with University of Nottingham senior management. Extensive lab management experience in getting our staff back to work safely during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Oxford, Gb

Responsible for conducting the majority of in-vivo vaccinations and tumour studies, molecular biology, in vitro immunological cell assays, preparation of primary cell lines, DNA transfection, preparation of vaccines (bacterial transfection, mini-prep, sequencing, maxi-prep then dilution/adjuvant prep). Responsible for maintaining Home Office required paperwork & experimental report writing. Supporting a phase 1/2 clinical trial of our first melanoma vaccine

Nottingham, Gb

Senior Research Technician, Cancer Immunology group, Dept of Oncology Nottingham city hospital campus. Responsible for two main projects: screening colorectal cell lines for defects in the IFNy pathway, identifying the mutation and comparing this to 1400 pathological samples on tumour microarray slides and producing diagnostic and potentially therapeutic monoclonal antibodies against MRSA for Prof Richard James, one of the worlds experts in the disease. Responsible for much of the health & safety admin within the department including training & induction of all new staff and students.

Nottingham, Gb

Proteomics Research Technician, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham Sutton Bonnington Campus. I was responsible for the day-to-day management of the three laboratories comprising the proteomics unit. I specialised in the use of 1 & 2D gel techniques to identify and isolate proteins for subsequent sequencing by mass spectrometry. We supported research into embryology, cloning and reproduction and also did contract proteomic work for commercial clients. My administrative duties included writing COSHH & risk assessments on all new chemicals, preparing standard operating procedures for lab techniques, quality control of reagents and billing customers for work carried out within the unit.

Research Technician. CRUK Tumour Cytokine Biology Group, University of Nottingham. Conducted independent research into the actions of Endothelial Monocyte Activating Polypeptide II (EMAP-II), a novel tumour derived pro-inflammatory cytokine capable of inducing apoptosis in T-cells. I’ve also conducted research into the clinical significance of VEGF-D in colorectal cancer and demonstrated the inflammatory effect of PM-10 particles in endothelial cells. I supervised several MSc & BmedSci project students and was responsible for advising our four PhD students on experimental design strategy. I was also responsible for placing all our group’s orders onto the AGRESSO finance system as well as the day to day administration & non-scientific management of my research group.

Pgdip Clinical Biochemistry, Genetics

Bachelor Of Science (Bsc) Hons Genetics, Genetics