Speakers
Ricky Martin
John Garcia
Rachel Roberts
Caterina Minelli
Panel Session
This session showcases three SMMIP Grand Challenge projects as they present compelling business cases for technologies poised to reshape the UK’s medicines manufacturing landscape. Each consortium will demonstrate how its innovation is progressing from concept to credible, near‑deployment capability—highlighting innovation readiness, scalability, and sustainability adoption impact.
Ricky Martin is the Founder and CEO of Hyper Recruitment Solutions (HRS), a specialist life sciences recruitment company supporting the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical sectors across the UK, Europe, and the US. With a degree in Biochemistry from Cardiff University and nearly 20 years of industry experience, Ricky has built HRS into a recognised talent partner supporting organisations across bioprocessing, advanced therapies, manufacturing, and scientific leadership.
HRS was founded following investment from Lord Alan Sugar after Ricky appeared on BBC’s The Apprentice in 2012. A member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Ricky is passionate about supporting innovation, long term partnerships, and the growth of STEM careers across the life sciences industry.
Dr John K. Garcia is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of Novel Technologies within the UCL CAR T-cell GMP Manufacturing Team (Royal Free Hospital), part of the most comprehensive academic CAR T-cell programme in Europe. Since joining in 2020, John has driven technology transfer, process optimisation, and the initiation of new clinical trials, helping translate early-stage research into GMP-compliant cell therapies for patients across UCL's early phase trials. His work sits at the intersection of cleanroom manufacturing, novel process development, and regulatory delivery — experience he brings to the EcoCAR consortium of academic, industry and public health experts. John will showcase the project's mission to re-engineer viral vector design and consolidate CAR T cell manufacturing into a streamlined, sustainable "one-pot" process, reducing plastic waste and clean-room energy burden. This cutting-edge work will position the UK at the forefront of sustainable manufacturing of advanced therapies.
Rachel is a radiochemist and technical lead in the Health and Nuclear Medicine team at the United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL). Her work focuses on the recovery and production of alpha-emitting radionuclides from legacy UK nuclear materials for medical applications, with particular expertise in 212Pb derived from reprocessed uranium. She leads UKNNL's Core Science programme in medical radionuclides and previously led the organisation's contribution to the EU-funded SECURE project. Rachel is currently Principal Investigator for the UKRI-funded Project Alpha 10.6, which is the focus of this presentation.