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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.