The team
Board
Rosa Biotech's board combines extensive experience of driving commercialisation of novel chemistries, pharmaceuticals, software and AI, and medical devices.
Dr Mark Street-Docherty
CEO
Mark is a seasoned, scientifically-focused IVD commercial executive with extensive experience in bringing innovative products into the clinical market and growing a global footprint. He joined Rosa Biotech in 2022, having previously spent a number of years as CEO leading the award-winning VC backed Elucigene Diagnostics business, culminating in its successful sale and merger to the Yourgene Health Group Plc in 2019. Mark also supports a number of other UK life sciences businesses including GenoME Diagnostics and MicrosensDx. Mark holds a PhD in Molecular Immunology and Mammalian Cell Biology from the University of Sheffield and an Executive MBA.
Prof. Chris Jones
NED
Chris has over 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and is currently a Director at the Centre for Therapeutic Innovation at the University of Bath. From 2009-16, Chris led Global Pharmaceutical Development in AstraZeneca and was responsible for designing and developing new medicines from discovery through development to post launch optimisation. In this role, he led pharmaceutical scientists across the UK, US, Sweden, Germany, India & China, and was a member of the R&D and Commercial Operations Investment Committees. He earned his degree and PhD from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Bath, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Bath in 2015. He was recently appointed Honorary Professor. Chris is a member of the University of Bath Ventures Board and was until recently a Director of Alderley Park Ventures Ltd.
Prof. Dek Woolfson
CSO
World leader in protein design with extensive track record of commercial partnerships. In 2011 and 2014 Dek’s group published landmark papers in Nature Chemical Biology and Science describing a new protein structure, which they called alpha helical barrels. These have central channels that allow binding and fluorescence change upon binding by analytes or complex mixtures. This provides the basis for the Pandra technology. Dek is the founding Director of BrisSynBio – a £13 million Synthetic Biology Research Centre – and the Bristol BioDesign Institute at the University of Bristol. His work has been featured in Nature Chemistry (cover story), Nature Chemical Biology and Science. He is the recipient of multiple science awards from bodies including the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Laurence Ede
NED
Laurence is the former Managing Director and co-owner of Tocris Bioscience, a specialist life science reagent business providing bioactive chemicals, peptides and antibodies to researchers worldwide. During his time with the business Laurence set-up and ran Tocris’ wholly owned US subsidiary and had overall responsibility for Tocris’ product development, marketing, sales and distribution activities. In 2006 Laurence led a $40m Management Buyout from the founder shareholders and subsequently oversaw the sale of Tocris to Techne Corporation in 2011 for $124m. Since leaving Tocris in 2013, Laurence has invested in and advised a number of of start-up and early stage businesses and is currently a Non Executive Director on the boards of Ubiquigent Limited and DeepMatter PLC. Laurence has a BSc in Chemistry from Reading University and an MBA from the University of Bath.
Jon Craton
Chairman
Jon is a founder investor in Rosa, and a non-executive member of the leadership team. He brings to the business over 30 years of experience covering a variety of software and hardware industries. His technical background, combined with extensive experience of sales, marketing and general management, allows him to make a substantial contribution to Rosa’s success. In 1996 Jon co-founded Cramer and was CEO of the business for 6 years, leading the company through two stages of VC financing that raised over $27 million of capital for the business. Thereafter he was a senior executive with the company until its sale to Amdocs in 2006 for $425m in cash. Since then Jon has been a founding or early stage investor in a variety of start-ups - including Creo Medical (surgical technology), SwiftKey (artificial intelligence) and Zynstra (cloud computing). In 2020, Jon co-founded Science Creates Ventures in Bristol and became its cornerstone investor for its first EIS fund.
University
Observer
Bristol is one of the most popular and successful universities in the UK and was ranked within the top 5% of universities in the world in the QS World University Rankings 2019. The School of Chemistry is internationally recognised for the breadth, creativity and high quality of its research and was rated in the top four UK Chemistry Departments in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (RAE2014)
Scientific team
Our multidisciplinary research team bring together expertise in chemistry, biochemistry, materials and data science.
Dr Arne Scott
Chief Technical Officer
Arne is a co-inventor of the Pandra technology, which he helped develop during his PhD in the Woolfson lab. After joining Rosa as a scientist in 2019, he led the demonstration of the technology in our first clinical indication, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Arne now leads our technical strategy.
Dr Ulrike Obst
Senior Scientist, Clinical Lead
Ulrike is leading the translation of Rosa's technology into clinical applications. She is a specialist in high-throughput technologies for synthetic biology and brings international experience from top research institutes (e.g. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, TU Munich) and industrial R&D settings (DSM).
Dr Jordan Fletcher
Principal Scientist
Jordan brings over 10 years of experience as a peptide chemist, over which time he has authored several high impact publications, including in Science and JACS. Prior to joining Rosa, Jordan helped develop the science behind the company's technology. He is heading up our research and development operations at Rosa.
Dr Kathryn Watt
Scientist
Kathryn is our scientist working on research and development of our platform. Prior to joining Rosa, Kathryn undertook an Integrated Masters degree in Chemistry at the University of St Andrews, followed by a PhD at the University of Bath developing peptides for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
Tania LaGambina
Senior Data Scientist
Tania leads all things data science at Rosa. Since joining the business in 2019, she has led development of our data architecture and AI & analysis pipelines. She brings a background in Physics with an MSc from the University of Nottingham and experience in developing AI for biotech applications at other startups.