Bio

Summary of me: Multiple co-founder, CEO, university professor, dad. Summary of my interests: Regenerative medicine, advanced therapies, cultivated meat, virtual reality training for GMP operators and life science students, net zero, jobs creation. I am a scientist and entrepreneur on a mission to make a difference to our radically changing world by developing radical technology innovations for education, medicines manufacturing, food security and environmental sustainability, in the process supporting jobs creation and workforce growth. I have a PhD in cell and molecular biology and an MBA. I was a full time academic, initially at UCL (London, UK - 2009-2017), then Aston University (Birmingham, UK - 2017-2022). My research focussed on translation of regenerative medicine, cell and gene therapy from petri dish to industrially scalable systems and I built successful research teams, published 70 papers and won over £5M in grant funding. In 2020 I made a decision to think harder about how to achieve real impact from my research and educational activities. With covid and social distancing as a catalyst, FourPlus was born. FourPlus make virtual reality for skills, training and outreach and we have wider plans currently in development. FourPlus aims to provide hands on training in life sciences (for universities and medicines manufacturing industry) without the environmental impact of waste streams from single-use plastics, chemicals, energy, water. In 2021 an opportunity came to establish Quest Meat, a commercial enterprise to address cultivated meat with a close colleague / co-founder. Cultivated meat had interested me for a few years and I saw striking parallels with my efforts in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Working with my co-founder, who incidentally is the most talented bioprocess engineer in the whole sector, made it an easy decision. Quest Meat is doing exciting work in future food security, addressing technology innovations for cost-effective scale up of its first meat products. The cultivated meat approach uses 95% less land, produces 92% less carbon and uses 78% less water than current industrial farming. I now work mostly in a commercial setting, leading and growing these companies. I have a small position at University of Birmingham as Professor of Regenerative Medicine. But my passion lies in startups where I can work fast and make the most impact. We have only one world and it continues to look more precarious for my children - this for me is a catalyst to act fast.