Stephen was recently appointed as Chief Operating Officer of the Cell Therapy Catapult. He brings over 17 years of biological medicine research, development and manufacturing experience to the organisation. Stephen enjoys converting early research ideas into regulatory compliant products for patients and has developed and validated scaleable, commercial manufacturing processes for cell based medicinal products, vaccines and recombinant biologicals using Quality by Design principles. In addition, his recent interests have been in the use of multi-disciplinary commercial/academic programmes (early in the product lifecycle) to predict the effects of manufacturing stress upon cell-based therapies.His role at the Cell Therapy Catapult is to lead the process development, manufacturing and cell characterisation/analytical activity to drive novel cell therapies to commercial exit points. He is also responsible for managing the programme management portfolio, as well as the delivery and maintenance of 1200 square metres of state of the art lab and office space at Guy's Hospital Tower, London Bridge dedicated to the commercialisation of novel cell therapies.

A member of the Board and Executive management team working to develop the company's principal technology for the stabilisation of vaccines and biological materials, the intellectual property behind which has been protected worldwide. Stabilitech is working with vaccine and biologics innovators, manufacturers and global health organizations to develop stability solutions for many key issues in the vaccine industry.

Drive development and manufacture of novel whole cell cancer therapeutic vaccine pipeline to PhIIb clinical testing, and supporting R and D external collaborations.Key responsibilities:• Member of Executive Management Committee.• Management of product pipeline to GMP at several international CMO• Process Development, Process Optimisation, Process Understanding, Process Validation.• CTA and IND discussions with EMEA and FDA.• Manage all external Research and Development projects and Grants.• In-licence evaluation, Investor interaction and contract negotiation.

Process, Assay and Product development of recombinant Hep B core antigen delivery platform to develop therapeutic vaccines to treat chronic hepatitis C infection

Evaluation of the immunostimulatory effects of Clostridium difficile toxin A fragments, both mucosally and systemically, either alone or in combination with attenuated S. typhimurium delivery vehicle.