ApconiX Welcomes Tiago Marques Pedro
ApconiX is delighted to Welcome Tiago Marques Pedro in the Safety Science Group. Tiago is joining as a Target Safety Assessment (TSA) author, strengthening the expertise in molecular and mechanistic toxicology. He will be working with Dr Simone Stahl, Principal Scientist in SSG.
Academic Career
Tiago did his undergraduate degree in biomedical science at the University of Surrey, a 4-year degree with an industrial placement. For this placement, Tiago got the opportunity to work in a toxicology lab at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, United States. He enjoyed his first experience of working in a research lab, his project focusing on identifying a link between TCDD, a highly toxic industrial byproduct, and thymus involution in chicken embryos via dysfunction of glycolysis, an engaging introduction into toxicology.
This first experience led Tiago to continue with a global toxicology MSc at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. He mentioned liking the teaching style there, saying it was very linear with the modules which allowed students to really focus on one module at a time and absorb all the knowledge and skills taught. As part of the Masters, students had to do a final year project, with Tiago carrying his out at the Cancer Research Centre of Lyon, France. Tiago really enjoyed his time in the lab and the science he learned during his project on cancer drug resistance and synthetic lethality.
Wanting to continue down the toxicology path, Tiago saw a role advertised at the University of Cambridge for a PhD in mitochondrial toxicity involving some machine learning elements. His research involved developing machine learning models to predict mitochondrial toxicity and integrating AI and experimental validation to identify novel inhibitors of respiratory Complex I. Alongside his project, Tiago also supervised MSc students and enjoyed presenting his findings at domestic and international conferences. In the meantime, Tiago undertook part-time work for an occupational toxicology consultancy e.g. workers’ safety in drug manufacturing plants, allowing him to apply his knowledge to real-world scenarios.
Working at ApconiX
Tiago first heard of ApconiX at the start of his PhD, meeting Ruth, Nic, and other members of the Safety Science Group (SSG) at various conferences, e.g. BTS and Eurotox. After seeing the same faces every year and getting along well with those contacts, Tiago reached out to ApconiX at the end of his PhD and joined the SSG team.
Within the Safety Science Group, Tiago will start with writing TSAs for new and existing clients. His knowledge in liver and mitochondria toxicology will be a great expertise to add to the team. In the future, he hopes to keep developing his computational skills and contribute to projects in that field.
Simone commented: “It’s great to have Tiago on the team, he has already tackled some tricky targets since joining us. Tiago will further strengthen our discipline expertise in molecular and mechanistic toxicology which will feed into the delivery of Target Safety Assessments. I am also confident that Tiago’s varied background will be an asset contributing to other domain expertise within the Safety Sciences group such as machine learning, AI integration, and other bespoke products.”
Interests Outside of Work
Tiago has been training in general weightlifting for over 10 years and focused on powerlifting early on. He started competing in the latter when he joined the University team in 2024. He has competed in National University competitions, but also regional ones like the East-midlands division, which Cambridge is part of. Tiago also enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking and camping, which he gives credit to his partner for, joking “I was a complete city-boy until I met her!”. He enjoys quieter hobbies as well and is a real film enthusiast.
