Meet the Team

Sir Pete Downes, OBE, FRSE, FMedSci, FSB is an academically distinguished biochemist and highly cited researcher. His career combines international scientific achievement, academic leadership, and political influence. Sir Pete Downes has 11 years’ experience in drug discovery research in the pharmaceutical industry initially with ICI Pharmaceuticals (now AstraZeneca) and later with Smith Kline and French (now GSK). With his colleague, Professor Sir Philip Cohen, he helped to broker an open innovation consortium involving six of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies to create the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy (DSTT) based in Dundee. The collaboration raised more than £50 million of inward investment and is widely regarded as a pioneering best practice model of how universities and industry should interact. As a researcher Pete maintained a position within the world’s top 1% of scientists in his field and his research raised more than £60 million of competitive external funding for Dundee. He discovered fundamental mechanisms contributing to understanding of the basis of important diseases including diabetes and cancer, fuelling drug discovery programmes with collaborating pharmaceutical companies. His contributions have been recognised with national and international prizes for research and by his election to the Fellowships of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Academy of Medical Sciences. During his 29 years in academic leadership at the University of Dundee including 10 years as Principal and Vice Chancellor, the School of Life Sciences at Dundee became a global centre of excellence, renowned for fundamental research. Under his leadership, Life Sciences at the University of Dundee rose to number one in the UK for research with a significant on the understanding and treatment of major diseases including diabetes and cancer. Pete brings an exceptional combination of academic knowledge and commercial leadership skills to the position of Chair of the Board of Directors.

Angus is a world leading biochemist specialising in quantitative analyses of gene expression in human cells and model organisms. He is a Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Platinum Informatics. The Lamond Laboratory research how the expression of genes is controlled in human cells and it was in the Lamond Laboratory that Platinum Informatics was born. A Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Dundee since 1995, Angus has authored over 250 peer reviewed publications in major scientific journals. Angus is a distinguished speaker who is regularly invited to present his work at international conferences and seminars. He has served on numerous national and international review committees and scientific advisory boards and chaired important funding and appointment committees. After graduating with a degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Glasgow, Angus obtained his PhD in Cambridge at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at Christ’s College. Angus next moved to the USA as a postdoctoral fellow, working at M.I.T. with the Nobel Prize Winner Phillip Sharp, where he studied the mechanism of pre-mRNA splicing in mammalian cells. He then moved to Germany, where he worked for 8 years as a Group Leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg. In Heidelberg, while Angus continued to study the mechanism of pre-mRNA splicing in human cells, he also started using mass spectrometry-based proteomics methods to analyse gene expression. Angus has 30 years’ experience in directing a multidisciplinary life sciences research laboratory, combining molecular cell biology with mass spectrometry and computational approaches, where he was an early adopter of ‘Big Data’ technologies. His research techniques have uncovered regulatory pathways that affect gene expression in the context of both health and disease, with a major current focus on studying human stem cells.

Rob is a software developer, system engineer and relentless problem solver with a passion for innovating solutions to previously unsolvable problems. Through his collaboration with scientists in the Lamond Laboratory, the Platinum Desimal software suite was established. He is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Platinum Informatics. Graduating with distinction in Master of Engineering – Robotics and Cybertronics, Rob has 10 years’ experience in the aerospace and research sectors, delivering complex development projects. Achieving an honours award for the design and build of large-scale test and training systems for military aircraft at BAE, Rob later joined the Lamond Laboratory in Dundee as Senior Software Developer. Fervent about unlocking the insights that are held within big data, Rob delivered innovative software to support scientists conducting world class Proteomics research. This collaboration produced a software suite that unlocked scientific possibilities. Developing unique ways to integrate scientific data platforms, process vast records produced by mass spectrometry and visualise results across multiple laboratory instruments, became the springboard for Platinum Informatics.

Julia joined Platinum Informatics following a career in the life sciences industry and in economic development. Most recently she was responsible for leading the work of Scottish Enterprise to support the High Value Manufacturing and Health sectors. She worked closely with companies, Government and the Higher Education sector to drive business growth and investment in innovation, particularly in life sciences. Prior to this she spent 20 years designing and managing non clinical and clinical development programmes for a range of global biomedical companies. She led the transition of a novel biotech from bench to late stage clinical testing and eventual outlicensing (PPL Therapeutics). She co-founded a CRO (Pleiad) that advised young companies and research groups on healthcare product development planning and successfully expanded its operations into the USA. Julia is currently a non exec director of U.K. Knowledge Transfer Network; The Rock Trust and The Scottish Refugee Council. She is an advisor to Cumulus Oncology.

Ken has 40 years’ experience of the life sciences sector accumulated through working in the pharmaceutical industry in sales and marketing roles, in investment research of the sector and related corporate finance, and as a member of the management group at PA Consulting Group. At PA his activities emphasised business strategy, new product development and commercialisation, business performance improvement and organisational development. At PA Ken worked across the range of companies in the sector – Big Pharma, SMEs / Specialists and start-ups. Most recently Ken has worked independently as a consultant, collaborated with several providers of specialist services to the life sciences sector, and has joined the boards of start-up life sciences companies where his capabilities and experience have provided support to the management teams as they develop their strategies and crucially engage with new investors to secure the funds required to progress their businesses In summer 2016 Ken joined the board of MGB Biopharma as non-exec director and chairman of the board. MGB is focused on the development of innovative anti-infective drugs discovered at the University of Strathclyde. The lead drug is in Phase II clinical testing in North America against Clostridium difficile associated disease.

Steve is a qualified Chartered Accountant bringing 40 years’ of business knowledge and financial management to his role as Non-Executive Director for Platinum Informatics. As a previous Partner at MHA Henderson Loggie for 32 years Steve has experience across a wide variety of businesses and sectors, bringing together deep knowledge of systems, strategy, planning and continuous business improvements. During his time as Partner, Steve was Head of the firm’s Digital and Interactive Media Sector, created the Business Growth Solutions team, was lead client Partner on the firm’s largest client, a Dundee based publishing business with Turnover in excess of £200m, and as an accredited facilitator he also chaired Business Leadership Groups.