TechBio UK

Chris Gibson

Co-Founder and CEO, Recursion

Chris Gibson, PhD, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Recursion, a leading clinical stage TechBio company leveraging the latest in automation and AI to decode biology to radically improve lives. Chris developed the technology behind Recursion’s approach as part of his graduate work in the lab of Dr. Dean Li (currently President of Merck Research Labs) at the University of Utah and launched the company in 2013. Now, he has built Recursion into a global AI drug discovery powerhouse with offices in Salt Lake City, New York City, London, Oxford, Toronto, Montreal and the Bay Area; an industry-leading proprietary biological and chemical dataset; the most powerful supercomputer in pharma; active partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies like Sanofi and Roche and Genentech; and a robust pipeline of clinical-stage assets in oncology and rare disease.    

Chris ‍is dedicated to supporting the next generation of founders. He serves on the Board of BioHive, the public-private partnership driving expansion of Utah's life-science ecosystem. In 2020, he established Altitude Lab, an incubator for healthcare startups, and serves on Altitude’s Board. In 2025, he launched the Chris and Summer Gibson Fellowship to support underrepresented and first-time founders as they transition from academia to entrepreneurship, and the Altitude Lab Fund, a pre-seed venture fund dedicated to supporting the highest impact ideas transitioning from basic research to industry. He is also active as an advisor and mentor, both formally and informally, to many biotech founders.

Chris is a graduate of Rice University with degrees in bioengineering and management. 

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Pierre Arsène

Founder & CEO, Mursla Bio

Pierre is an experienced biotech entrepreneur and former investment banker with multidisciplinary expertise spanning the full product lifecycle of innovative life sciences technologies. His expertise encompasses roles as a founder, inventor, operator, and advisor, guiding innovations from concept through development to market, securing financing, and contributing to successful exits.

While conducting postgraduate research in biophysics, nanoelectronics, and extracellular vesicles (EVs) at the University of Cambridge, he founded Mursla Bio, pioneering a novel model for spinning out university research while retaining intellectual property. He is the author and inventor of several patents and publications in nanoelectronics and EV characterisation and has received multiple innovation awards, including recognition as a German-French Young Leader under President Macron’s patronage.

Previously, Pierre spent a decade in healthcare investment banking at J.P. Morgan, closing over $70 billion in transactions and becoming the first representative sent to Japan to support global M&A initiatives. His contributions earned him recognition by eFinancialCareers as one of the most impressive Vice Presidents in investment banking.

He holds a Master in Management from HEC Paris and a classe préparatoire specializing in mathematics from Saint-Jean de Douai (equivalent to the undergraduate level).

Jenny Barnett

Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Monument Tx

Jenny brings a unique blend of commercial and scientific expertise to drive Monument’s mission to transform neuroscience through precision medicine. Previously Chief Scientific Officer at Cambridge Cognition, Jenny played a pivotal role in establishing Monument Tx as a successful spin-out, securing substantial funding to support its innovative solutions.

Jenny holds an MA in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University and a PhD in Schizophrenia Epidemiology from the University of Cambridge, followed by postdoctoral work at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. She has published over 70 papers, holds six patents, and is an honorary member of Cambridge’s Department of Psychiatry.

Jamie Bignal

Director, Life Sciences & Healthcare, HSBC Innovation Banking

Jamie is a Director in HSBC Innovation Bank’s Life Science & Healthcare team. HSBC Innovation Banking provides commercial banking services, expertise and insights to the technology, life science and healthcare, private equity and venture capital industries. HSBC Innovation Banking UK is a subsidiary of HSBC Group, benefiting from its stability, strong credit rating and international reach to help fuel its growth

Davide Bommarito

Director, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Early Stage Banking, HSBC Innovation Banking

Davide heads the Life Sciences & Healthcare early-stage vertical at HSBC Innovation Banking in London. He joined HSBC Innovation Banking to expand the bank's healthcare footprint in the UK and to provide commercial banking services to disruptive Biotech, Biopharma and Tech Bio companies at different growth stages (pre-seed, seed & series A). Prior, Davide was a Vice President in the SVB UK Early-Stage Healthcare division. Davide is a former scientist with advanced degrees (Ph.D. in Immunology & M.Sc. in Medical Biotechnology) and experience in both the financial/banking sector and medical research sector including roles at world-leading research institutions such as King's College London (KCL) and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI)/Harvard.

 

Olivia Cavlan

Chief Corporate Development & Strategy Officer, Alchemab Therapeutics

Olivia Cavlan is a founding team member and Chief Corporate Development and Strategy Officer at Alchemab Therapeutics. Prior to Alchemab Olivia was an Investment Principal at SV Health Investors and a Partner with McKinsey & Company where she was part of the leadership team in the Healthcare Private Equity and Pharmaceutical practices. Alongside her role as a Non-Executive Director for the UK BioIndustry Association, Olivia is a member of the Investment Committee for Cancer Research UK’s (CRUK) Seed fund. She also co-founded and sits on the Board of Directors of Sevenless Therapeutics, a small molecule pain company. Olivia is a medic originally, holding an MBChB in Medicine and a BSc in Pharmacology from Bristol University.

Amir Hasan

Chief Operating Officer , Ultromics

Amir has had a number of roles at Philips Healthcare ranging from marketing, business development, R&D and product management over the past 20 years. In his last role before joining Ultromics he was a Business Unit General Manager, leading a 300 person global team in Cardiology Informatics. 
Ultromics is a disruptive startup that utilizes AI to diagnose heart disease from Echocardiographic scans of the heart. They recently partnered with both J&J Innovative Medicine and Pfizer to bring a new diagnostic to the market for the detection of Amyloidosis for which both companies have a therapeutic. His experience in both large and small companies gives him a unique perspective on how to collaborate to drive innovation. 

Trevor Howe

Janssen Fellow, Director and Head of Translational Genomics, Johnson & Johnson Innovation

Trevor is a Janssen Fellow and Head of Translational Genomics for Johnson & Johnson Innovation. He is responsible for identifying and validating drug targets or pathways from human genetic signatures though internal and external collaborations.
He joined Janssen in 2003 where he formed the Molecular Informatics group to focus on structural biology, biophysics & computational methods for ligand identification and optimisation in all phases of pre-clinical drug discovery process.

Prior to Trevor’s current Johnson & Johnson/Janssen career, he headed the worldwide Computational Chemistry Council for Novartis from 1997 – 2003. He also led several immunology projects which resulted in successful clinical candidates for the respiratory disease therapeutic area. From 1990 – 1997 Trevor worked for Lilly establishing their computational chemistry department in the UK, developing Bayesian analysis methods. He was simultaneously a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford with Prof Graham Richards.
Trevor’s first degree was in Chemistry at the University of Exeter which was followed by a PhD at the University of East Anglia on small molecule conformation. From 1988 – 1990 he was a postdoctoral researcher at SUNY, Buffalo, USA studying glucosidase inhibition for applications to HIV.

Trevor serves on several UK Research Council scientific advisory bodies particularly in the area of genomics. He has been a visiting Industrial Fellow at Bristol University was a co-founder of the Phenotypic Discovery Initiative (http://npsc.ac.uk/consortia) which he established with the Universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and Dundee. In 2019 he was the J&J scientific lead for a consortium which executed the world’s biggest whole genome sequencing project on the 500,000 samples in the UK BioBank. He is the scientific lead for J&J’s involvement in Our Future Health (OFH, https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk) and represents all industry members on the Scientific Advisory Board to OFH. He has led J&J partnerships in utilisation of genomic data particularly in the area of non-coding variants.

Agata Nyga

CEO and Founder, SynLaia Innovations,

Dr Agata Nyga, CEO and Founder of SynLaia Innovations, an academic-turned-entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in bioengineering and mechanobiology. She has led research projects at leading international institutions and authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications. Alongside her academic work, Agata has delivered industry-led R&D initiatives and helped establish operations within emerging life sciences companies.

In January 2025, she founded SynLaia to bring mechanomics into the drug discovery space - developing a first-in-class platform for mapping and modulating the mechanical states of cells and tissues across health and disease.

Agata is also actively involved in science policy. Between 2020 and 2024, she led strategic initiatives at the Polonium Foundation as Research & Policy Team Lead and now serves on its Advisory Board. She is also a board member of the Connects-UK project, supporting international collaboration in science and innovation.

Michalis Papadakis

CEO and Co-founder, Brainomix

Dr Michalis Papadakis is the CEO and co-founder of Brainomix. He leads the management team, commercial strategy, fund raising, and corporate partnerships. He has grown the company from the ground up, building the company’s global presence and has raised more than £30 million of private investment and public funding. When he founded Brainomix he was the Scientific Director of the preclinical stroke lab at the University of Oxford. He has a BSc Honours in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a PhD in neurosciences from UCL School of Pharmacy. He has been an invited speaker at international scientific and innovation conferences.

Brainomix specializes in the creation of AI-powered software for better treatment decisions in stroke and lung fibrosis. With origins as a spin-out from the University of Oxford, Brainomix is an expanding commercial-stage company that has innovated award-winning software solutions used in more than 30 countries worldwide. Its Brainomix 360 platform, provides clinicians with the most comprehensive stroke imaging solution, driving increased treatment rates, and improving outcomes for patients.

Russ Tucker

Co-founder and CEO , twig

Russ is co-founder and CEO at twig, a bioengineering start-up combining AI, robotics and biology, driving a global transition to bio-fermented ingredients in a way that benefits everyone – people, producers, and the planet. 

In addition to twig, Russ co-founded and led cultivated meat pioneer Ivy Farm, a spin-out from the University of Oxford that created the first cultivated meat sausage and scotch egg, and has grown to a team of over 60. 

Prior to starting companies, Russ worked as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group.  He holds a D.Phil. in Biomedical Engineering from Oxford, a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Loughborough and is a Fellow Chartered Accountant.