Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board

Prof Chas Bountra OBE

Chas is Pro-Vice Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Oxford, Professor of Translational Medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Director of the Centre for Medicines Discovery, and Professorial Fellow at Keble College, Oxford. Prior to returning to Oxford in 2008, Chas was Vice President and Head of Biology at GlaxoSmithKline.

Chas is an invited expert on several government and charitable research funding bodies, and an advisor for many academic, biotech and pharma drug discovery programmes. In 2012 he was voted one of the “top innovators in the industry”, in 2014 received the “Rita and John Cornforth Award” from the Royal Society of Chemistry, in 2017 and 2018 was voted “Master of the Bench” from the Medicine Maker Power List, and in 2018 was awarded the “Order of the British Empire” in the New Years Honours List.

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Prof Dame Kay Davies CBE DBE FRS FMedSci

Kay is Dr Lee’s Professor of Anatomy Emeritus the University of Oxford Oxford with an international reputation for work on Duchenne muscular dystrophy paving the way for several nucleic acid related therapies. Prof Davies is a co-founder and co-Director of the MDUK Oxford Neuromuscular Centre, and co-founded Summit Therapeutics plc which translated her work on DMD into late-stage clinical trials.

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Prof Laurent Servais MD PhD

Laurent directs the Specialised Translational Research Oxford Neuromuscular Group as Professor of Paediatric Neuromuscular Disease at the University of Oxford, and he is Professor of Child Neurology at the University of Liège. He brings a wealth of experience to the Scientific Advisory Board having led many clinical trials as principal investigator for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy treatments.

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Dr Bernd C Schwahn MD PhD FRCPCH

Bernd is Consultant in Paediatric Metabolic Medicine at the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in Genomic Medicine, also joins the board. Dr Schwahn’s scientific interest focuses on disorders of sulfur amino acid metabolism and has been involved as principal and chief investigator in clinical trials for the treatment of molybdenum cofactor deficiency, lysosomal storage disorders and disorders of intermediary metabolism.