BioMoti is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Keith Powell as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Keith joins us with significant experience in the Biotech arena. He started his career at GSK and ICI/Zeneca in genetics and molecular biology where he led several large groups including Discovery and finally Intellectual Property. He then worked on the West Coast of the USA at Maxygen, leading the small molecule group through the IPO and growing a business that eventually spun out as ‘Codexis’. Returning to the UK, Keith was entrepreneur-in-residence at the Bloomsbury BioSeed Fund and acted as CEO for several portfolio companies. He led Domainex through a merger with NCE to form a successful business in protein structure-based chemistry and Polytherics was built through organic growth since 2005 to a company of over 30 people. Keith is currently chairman of Domainex and has a range of other interests in the industry.

Dr Davidson Ateh, CEO of BioMoti, said: ‘We are truly delighted to welcome Keith to BioMoti. This significant appointment follows on from our successful grant supported proof-of-concept work within Queen Mary, University of London demonstrating the oncojan™ drug delivery platform for the treatment of cancer. Furthermore, recent independent and third party validation of our exciting technology platform justifies our move towards the clinical development of a lead ovarian cancer candidate and we look forward to working closely with Keith on this next and challenging stage of development.’

Dr Keith Powell added: ‘Davidson has done a great job of building the BioMoti technology on limited resources through innovative approaches. BioMoti has developed a unique delivery system which shows great promise in realistic animal models of cancer. This type of selective delivery has been a need for a long time; cytotoxic drugs can be used at much higher and hence more therapeutic doses if they can be delivered selectively. I am delighted to join the company and help the development of technology and partnering activities.

Dr Powell’s appointment follows the strengthening of the Business Advisory Board with the addition of Mr Gerry McGettigan a regulatory expert with experience of successful oncology drug delivery candidates, the formation of a Scientific Advisory Board including Prof Kam Leong, a drug delivery expert, Prof Iain McNeish, an ovarian cancer specialist and Prof Tony Cass, a chemical biologist. We also said goodbye, thanks and good luck to Dr Marcel de Matas as he joined AstraZeneca earlier this year as a Principal Scientist in Formulation Science stepping down from his advisory role at BioMoti.