Unparalleled gene therapy and rare disease expertise

Incorporated in August 2021 and launched in October 2022, we are a spin-out from University College London (UCL), emerging from the world-leading gene therapy and rare diseases expertise of our academic founders, Prof Paul Gissen, Prof Manju Kurian, Prof Ahad Rahim and Prof Simon Waddington. Our £5 million Seed funding round was led by UCL Technology Fund, which is managed by AlbionVC, one of the largest independent venture capital investors in the UK, in collaboration with UCL Business.

Our team

We have assembled a lean team of industry veterans with preclinical, clinical, regulatory, manufacturing and commercial experience in rare diseases and gene therapy, supported by a network of trusted advisors and consultants.

Adrien Lemoine

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Leigh Shaw

SVP Regulatory Affairs & Non-Clinical GLP

Dr. Simon Eaglestone

Director Program Management

Julia Li

Associate Director Business Operations & Development

Our Team

We are assembling a lean team of industry veterans with preclinical, clinical, regulatory, manufacturing and commercial experience in rare diseases and gene therapy, supported by a network of trusted advisors and consultants.

Simon Eaglestone

Director Program Management

Simon Eaglestone

Director Program Management

Simon joined Bloomsbury Genetic Therapies having spent six years supporting translational research at University College London (UCL). Throughout that time, he worked closely with Bloomsbury Genetic Therapies' academic founders, facilitating the progression of eight preclinical and clinical gene therapy programs, including the four that comprise the company’s current portfolio. His previous experience managing emergency medicine research in the NHS and a decade of early drug development at Pfizer has encompassed the successful nurturing and management of collaborative ventures with academic, defence and industrial partners throughout the UK and internationally. Simon holds a PhD in Biochemistry (studying Prion Proteins), as well as an MPhil in Biochemistry (Recombinant Vaccines) both from the University of Kent, and a BSc in Biological Chemistry from the University of Leicester.

John Ilett

Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer

John Ilett

Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer

John has over 30 years of experience in pharma and biotech both in private practice at Stringer Saul Solicitors (now Faskens) and working in-house at British Biotech, Oxford GlycoSciences, Cephalon, BioMarin, LGC, Synageva, Consort Medical and, most recently, at Orchard Therapeutics. His responsibilities have included the building and leading of legal, intellectual property and corporate compliance functions as well as the management of human resources, quality, security and facilities functions. John’s experience includes private and public fundraisings, IPOs and secondary listings, international mergers and acquisitions, complex commercial and patent litigation (including the seminal Medeva v Biogen case), rare disease product launches and the in-licensing and out-licensing of a number of gene therapy products. John holds a Business Law degree from City of London, a post-graduate diploma in EC Competition Law from King’s College, London, a post-graduate diploma in IP Law from Queen Mary and Westfield College, London and is a qualified solicitor.

Adrien Lemoine

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Adrien Lemoine

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Adrien has been involved with Bloomsbury Genetic Therapies since October 2020, when he was engaged by AlbionVC/UCL Technology Fund (UCLTF) to evaluate the potential to form a new company around the four academic founders and their programs. He has since spearheaded the company's creation and its strategic and operational activities. Adrien has over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Following roles of increasing responsibility in commercial analysis, strategy, operations, business & corporate development at GSK and AstraZeneca, Adrien’s previous role was Chief Business Officer of Orchard Therapeutics. At Orchard, he led business development, set-up Orchard’s discovery research efforts and the program management function that contributed to the approval of Libmeldy™ in Europe. He played a leading part in Orchard’s fundraising efforts (Series B, Series C, NASDAQ IPO and follow-on financing) which raised over $750M as well as led a $75 million debt facility. Adrien holds an Engineering Degree from CentraleSupélec (Paris, France) and an MSc in Engineering and Physical Science in Medicine from Imperial College London.

Giulia Leoni

Associate Director Program Management and Leadership

Giulia Leoni

Associate Director Program Management and Leadership

Giulia has over 10 years of industrial and academic experience in gene and cell therapy focusing on the development and delivery of preclinical and translational research programs. Prior to joining Bloomsbury, she spent three years at Orchard Therapeutics where she started as a preclinical scientist leading some of the early-stage programs in collaboration with academic partners. She then transitioned into program leadership and research management roles coordinating cross-functional teams and supporting the elaboration and delivery of integrated program plans and strategies, budget exercises and clinical development scenarios evaluation. During her time at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, she gained significant experience in managing nonclinical programs for a wide range of advanced therapies, supporting academic groups and companies with product-specific safety assessments and facilitating regulatory interactions. Giulia holds an MSc in Industrial Biotechnologies from the University of Padua and a PhD in Molecular Medicine from Imperial College London.

Julia Li

Associate Director Business Operations and Development

Julia Li

Associate Director Business Operations and Development

Julia has over five years of management consulting experience in the life sciences industry, where she advised pharma multinational corporations and biotechs across functional areas including market access, sales & marketing, insights & analytics. She specialised in commercial and operational launch readiness of advanced therapies, including CAR-T. Julia also has experience in venture capital, where she performed deal sourcing and due diligence on early stage healthtech and biotech startups. Julia holds a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from Imperial College London and an MBA from INSEAD.

Leigh Shaw

Senior Vice President Regulatory Affairs and Non-Clinical GLP Safety/Tox

Leigh Shaw

Senior Vice President Regulatory Affairs & Non-Clinical GLP Safety/Tox

Leigh has over 30 years industry experience in the development of gene therapies and therapeutic vaccines for a range of neurological and orphan indications, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple System Atrophy and Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. He started his career in R & D with Cantab Pharmaceuticals developing live viral vaccines and cancer gene therapies from preclinical to Phase 2. He then worked at Huntingdon Life Sciences, designing and managing pre-clinical toxicology programs to transition both small and large molecules from research to the clinic. He moved into regulatory affairs with Gregory Fryer Associates (GFA), an international consultancy providing regulatory affairs, clinical operations, quality assurance and pharmacovigilance services and held roles of increasing responsibility. He has held senior positions at Nightstar, United Neuroscience and GenSight Biologics where he played a leading role in the successful transition of products from research into the clinic, end of Phase 2 negotiations with US FDA and EMA, and Marketing Authorisation Application in the EU. Over the years he has managed applications at all stages of development in all major markets including the EU, UK, US, Canada, Australia and Japan. Leigh holds a BSc in Microbiology and Virology from the University of Warwick, an MSc in Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology from the University of Salford and an MBA from the Open University.

Joanne Broadhead (Consultant)

Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control Consultant

Joanne Broadhead

CMC Consultant

Joanne has over 25 years’ experience in the biopharmaceutical industry including over a decade at AstraZeneca in various product development and clinical manufacturing roles, specialising in parenteral products. After leaving AstraZeneca, Joanne spent over four years as a consultant, primarily supporting a Danish company with the late-stage development of a modified vaccinia virus ankara viral vector vaccine. Prior to establishing her consulting company (BioCMC Consulting) in January 2022, Joanne spent over five years at Freeline, most recently as Vice President, CMC Project Delivery with responsibility for strategic leadership of the CMC aspects of Freeline’s adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy portfolio. Her responsibilities also included CMO oversight and CMC regulatory submissions and health authority interactions. Joanne trained as a Pharmacist and has a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Our Board

Our Board has a wealth of experience in building and leading innovative biotech companies through all stages of growth, with deep sector-based expertise in gene therapy and rare diseases.

Frank Armstrong

Independent Chairman

Frank Armstrong

Chairman

Frank has held Chief Executive roles with five biotechnology companies, both public and private, including Fulcrum Pharma,CuraGen, Bioaccelerate, Provensis and Phoqus. He led Medical Science and Innovation at Merck Serono, and was previously Executive Vice President of Product Development at Bayer and Senior Vice President of Medical Research and Communications at Zeneca. Frank is currently the Chair of BioCaptiva, Faron Pharmaceuticals, and of Newcells Biotech and a Non-Executive Director of ECO Animal Health Group, as well as a member of the Senior Advisory Board at Healthcare Royalty Partners. He is a physician, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and a member of the University of Edinburgh’s governing body, the University Court.

Leigh Brody

Director

Leigh Brody

Director

Leigh is an Investment Manager at AlbionVC/UCL Technology Fund (UCLTF) life sciences team, where she focuses on transformative technologies and therapeutics opportunities emerging from UCL. Leigh boasts over a decade of experience as a startup founder and operator. Before joining AlbionVC, Leigh led a spin-out that was based around her own novel technology and helped to build several early-stage life science companies, including Desktop Genetics and Quell Therapeutics. Leigh gained her PhD in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and BSc in Biochemistry from Simmons University, Boston, MA.

Michael Diem

Independent Director

Michael Diem

Independent Director

Michael is Chief Business Officer at Century Therapeutics. Before joining Century, Mike was Senior Vice President of Business and Corporate Development at Amicus Therapeutics and prior to that, he held a similar role at Aevi Genomic Medicine. Earlier in his career, he was the Global Head of Corporate Strategy and Corporate Development at AstraZeneca, where he was responsible for mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, and managed the company’s strategic investment activities and MedImmune Ventures. At GSK, he led business development for the company’s rare disease business unit. He was also a partner in GSK’s corporate venture firm, SR One, Limited. Mike holds a BA in biological sciences from Rutgers University, an MD from the Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University. He completed his medical training at Duke University, Durham, NC and is a Kauffman Fellow. He currently serves as a board director at Venatorx Pharmaceuticals.

Sara Garcia Gomez

Director

Sara Garcia Gomez

Director

Sara is a Senior Business Manager at UCLB, the commercialisation company of University College London (UCL), where she is responsible for the commercial exploitation of UCL intellectual property across the life science sector. Prior to joining UCLB, Sara held a position on the Translation Team at the Francis Crick Institute where she was assisting on IP assessment, set up of translational projects and mediating industry collaborations. She has extensive experience as a scientist on Molecular Biology, Cancer Biology and DNA damage Repair. Sara has a PhD from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Adrien Lemoine

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Adrien Lemoine

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Andrea Spezzi

Independent Director

Andrea Spezzi

Independent Director

Andrea is an international executive with over 20 years of industry experience. She is the Co-Founder, President and CEO of the US discovery stage start-up, Rejuvitas Inc.. She co-founded and was Chief Medical Officer of Orchard Therapeutics, where she led the development and registration of an ex vivo gene therapy medicine Libmeldy™, for metachromatic leukodystrophy. She was VP and Medicine Development Leader at the GSK Rare Diseases Unit, leading the metabolic pipeline and the Pulmonary Artery Hypertension pipeline. She was the physician expert for the development of Strimvelis®, an ex vivo gene therapy for adenosine deaminase severe combined immunodeficiency (ADA-SCID). She also worked as global medical director at Takeda R&D in the metabolic and cardiovascular unit and as a Research Physician at Hammersmith Medicine Research. Andrea is an MD, Paediatrician and Fellow in Paediatric Clinical Immunology from University of Buenos Aires, Specialist in Pharmaceutical Medicine from University of Basel, and Fellow and Member of the Board of Examiners of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, London.

Our Academic Founders

Our academic founders are long-term collaborators and world-leaders in their respective fields. Together, their expertise spans discovery, translation and clinical insights, and forms our unique and integrated research & development core.

Professor Paul Gissen

Prof. Paul Gissen

Paul Gissen is a Professor of Paediatric Metabolic Diseases at University College London (UCL) and an Honorary Consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and a National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator. He leads the Gene, Stem and Cellular Therapies Theme at GOSH and the GOS ICH Biomedical Research Centre. Paul has previously held research fellowships from GSK and the Wellcome Trust. He has published more than 170 peer reviewed papers and book chapters and is involved in several filed patents. Professor Gissen has been involved in industry funded clinical trials since 2005 and is currently a UK Chief Investigator for several clinical trials in Niemann Pick Type C and Batten Diseases and leads specialist clinics for patients with these disorders at GOSH. He is the clinical lead for NICE managed access agreement for cerliponase alfa and acted as a clinical expert for NICE assessments of several drugs for rare metabolic disorders.

Professor Manju Kurian

Prof. Manju Kurian

Manju Kurian is Professor of Neurogenetics at University College London (UCL) and National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Professor. She is the Head of Molecular Neurosciences at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (GOS ICH) and leads the Accelerating Novel Therapies theme at GOS ICH Biomedical Research Council. Professor Kurian holds the Sir Jules Thorn Award for Biomedical Research and is an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Neurology at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She is a clinician with over 15 years’ experience in paediatric neurology, running a unique, internationally renowned UK specialist service for genetic movement disorders in children, including the development of clinical trials.

Professor Ahad Rahim

Prof. Ahad Rahim

Ahad Rahim is Professor of Translational Neuroscience at University College London (UCL), Wellcome Chair in Pharmacology and the Head of Pharmacology Department at the UCL School of Pharmacy. He has over 20 years of experience in the gene therapy field, has filed a number of patents and has published extensively on the use of both viral and non-viral delivery platforms. Professor Rahim is also a co-founder of the UCL GTxNeuro Viral Vector Core Facility that facilitates progression of academic gene therapy programs. He leads a research team that focuses on studying paediatric and adult neurometabolic disorders and developing novel therapies. His laboratory is involved in the development and preclinical testing of various biologics and advanced medicinal therapeutic products to treat these conditions including gene therapy, exosomes and neuroprotective peptide therapies.

Professor Simon Waddington

Prof. Simon Waddington

Simon Waddington is Professor of Gene Therapy at University College London (UCL) and is an expert in preclinical models of gene & stem cell transfer for perinatal gene delivery for early onset, debilitating and lethal diseases. He chairs the UCL Cell and Gene Therapy Therapeutic Innovation Network. Professor Waddington has a wealth of research experience in gene therapy and has acted as consultant for several companies in the industry.

Our mission is to bring potentially curative treatments to patients suffering from rare neurological and metabolic diseases based on clinically proven gene therapy technologies.

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