David is the CEO and Co-Founder of DJS Antibodies. He loves discovery, and so is motivated by the pursuit of developing totally novel therapeutics. David has more than 10 years’ experience in evolutionary immunology, antibody characterisation and myeloid cell biology, and he leads the team in our pursuit to create world changing antibody therapeutics.

Having originally come from the sunny shores of Australia, David came to the UK to complete a PhD at the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute supported by a Rhodes Scholarship. While studying he co-founded and led the Good Lad Initiative, an organisation promoting positive masculinity and gender equality amongst groups of young men. David remains committed to promoting values of equality and diversity throughout DJS and more broadly.

In a past life, David was a competitive kayaker, most often found half way down a waterfall, though now is more likely to be found watching water fall onto his struggling vegetable garden.

Before joining DJS Lara completed an MRes in Biomedical Research at Imperial College. Throughout her studies, she developed an interest in disease biology and practical laboratory science. Lara likes a challenge, and so is keen to apply her skills to the field of drug discovery. She thrives in fast-paced environments and working in a close-knit team.

As a research associate at DJS, Lara is responsible for performing a wide variety of lab tasks including cell culture, protein expression and purification, cell-based assays, and data analysis.

While not at work she is likely to be doing some sort of exercise (probably running) or be napping alongside one of her dogs.

Graeme is a Pharmaceutical industry veteran with 25+ years of direct engagement in therapeutic R&D, and a further 15 years’ experience in Pharma corporate venture. He cut his drug discovery teeth in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Professor Sir James Black at the Wellcome Research Laboratories, subsequently working under the direction of Sir Salvador Moncada on serotonin receptor biology, which led to two IND candidate molecules, one of which - Zolmitriptan (Zomig®) – was launched in 1997 for migraine acute treatment. Graeme then moved to the USA joining Roche Bioscience as the Head of Molecular Pharmacology and VP of CNS R&D, participating in the advancement of two further molecules through IND. In 2003, he joined Takeda Pharmaceutical Company where he built Takeda Ventures, Inc. (TVI), one of the first truly strategic Pharma corporate venture capital units. He retired as President & CEO of TVI in 2017 and now maintains a portfolio of advisory and non-executive Board roles in early stage biotech in USA, Europe and Japan. Chief among these is his involvement with DJS where, since 2015, he has shared with the founding team the inevitable thrills and spills of innovating new medicines.

When he is not helping to navigate the choppy waters of R&D strategy and fund raising, Graeme is most likely to be found on the water casting flies at rising trout, walking the countryside in pursuit of Finnegan the English Setter or learning new woodworking skills in his quest to make order out of chaos.

Richard is a co-founder of Sedgwick Yard, which is a Greater China-based venture capital firm dedicated to cross-border life science investments. Previously, Richard worked at Goldman Sachs and UBS in London and Hong Kong for more than a decade, engaging in various capital raising and M&A transactions both regionally and globally.

Having lost some family members to cancer and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Richard was appalled by how inadequate the existing treatment options were, and this acted as the catalyst to venture into new drug discovery. His mission is to allocate capital to finance the most cutting-edge scientific discoveries, particularly those incubated out of prestigious universities / research institutes, which can potentially bring about innovative drugs / therapies to patients globally in a more equitable way.

In his spare time, Richard enjoys travelling, sports and cooking / gourmet food tasting. Richard studied at King’s College, Cambridge, and in the spirit of life long learning, is now pursuing a Master’s degree in relation to new drug discovery at Oxford University.

Megan is motivated to pursue a career in drug discovery due to the opportunity to make a positive impact in science, and to be part of an innovative industry aiming to develop new medicines. Working at DJS Antibodies has allowed her to fulfil her aspirations as a scientist whilst also enjoying the team spirit, and dynamic, fast-paced environment that working in a small company offers.

After graduating from Newcastle University with a BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology and a MRes in Neuroscience, Megan joined DJS Antibodies as a Research Assistant. Working in the lab full-time has allowed her to expand her knowledge, develop her skill set and build up a large repertoire of lab skills and experimental techniques. She currently contributes towards the day-to-day running of the lab, development of new assays and management of our high-throughput antibody screening programmes.

When she is not working, Megan enjoys walking in the countryside with her springer spaniel, cycling, skiing, painting and baking.

Amanda has a passion for developing positive business cultures and has a track record of combining this with improving efficiency in administrative systems and processes. Having worked in a number of businesses large and small in both the UK and the US, Amanda saw the potential to make a significant contribution with DJS Antibodies. She is excited now to meet the challenges of our growing business. Outside of work, Amanda is a committed runner (albeit a little slow) foodie and loves to travel.

David joined DJS Antibodies after working in antibody research for nearly 14 years at UCB and Immunocore. He has been involved in antibody engineering and discovery programs for a range of targets and indications across oncology, autoimmunity, infectious diseases and the central nervous system. At DJS he now applies his skills to the difficult task of engineering antibodies to GPCRs, and is critical to helping build on the success of the team. David holds a Master’s degree in Biochemistry from University of Bath and also did academic placements in the USA.

Outside of the lab, David spends his spare time playing with his son Billy either in the park or with various train sets. He also likes baking sourdough bread, walking in countryside, playing squash and enjoying a film with his wife Debs.

Uciane joined OSI as a Principal in December 2019. She was previously an investor and EIR at the US-based fund, Atlas Venture, where she focussed on company creation, early-stage investing, and operations within Atlas portfolio companies. She was involved in the launch of two companies, Quench Bio and Dyne Therapeutics, and served on several boards including Navitor, Quench, and Dyne. She also operated within the cell and gene therapy companies Korro Bio and AVROBIO [Nasdaq: AVRO], where she supported/co-led operations and financing, scientific, and commercial strategies. Prior to joining Atlas, Uciane was the Director of BD and Strategy at Compass Therapeutics, a US-based clinical stage I-O/immunology company which launched in 2015 with a $132M Series A led by F-Prime and Orbimed. Prior to Compass, she spent 5 years working with large-small cap biopharma companies in Boston as a commercial strategy consultant.

Uciane holds a PhD in cancer immunology from Dartmouth College. In addition to working with DJS, Uciane currently represents OSI on the boards of PepGen, Scenic, MiroBio, and Dark Blue Therapeutics.

Pauline is an Investment Principal in LifeArc’s Seed Fund. LifeArc is an independent charity advancing medical research towards patient treatments and diagnostics addressing diseases where there is high unmet medical need. Following a PhD at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and post-doctoral research at Stanford University she has had a career in technology transfer with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and LifeArc gaining over 27 years’ experience in identifying and facilitating the translation of early stage research into patient benefit. She is passionate about supporting early stage companies to develop novel and transformative technology into new drugs to tackle disease, and DJS Antibodies is an excellent example with the expertise and drive to achieve this. She sits on the Board of the Infex Therapeutics, GyreOx Therapeutics and Avvinity Therapeutics as well as DJS Antibodies as a Non-Executive Director.

Outside of work she is a keen gardener and music enthusiast.