David Jones

MSc, EurBiol, CBiol, FRSB, ERT, FBTS

David is a European Registered Toxicologist and a Fellow of the British Toxicology Society, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. David has over 45 years’ experience as a Toxicologist, both in the pharmaceutical industry and as a Regulator.  In his 25 years at the MHRA, the UK’s Regulatory Agency, he was responsible for assessing the nonclinical data for Clinical Trial Authorisation Applications and Marketing Authorisation Applications.  He also chaired over a hundred scientific advice meetings every year on behalf of the Agency’s Clinical Trials Unit.  While the UK was a member of the EU, David represented the MHRA in a number of working parties, including the Safety Working Party and the nonclinical group supporting the Paediatric Committee.  David represented the EU at ICH for many years and had input to most ICH Safety guidelines. His many years of experience at the MHRA provide invaluable insight to clients looking to take drugs into clinical trials.

Magali-Anne Maizières

MSc

Magali joined ApconiX in 2021 as an electrophysiologist to work both on manual and automated patch-clamp for client work. She completed 2 Bachelor of Science Degrees in Life Science and Biotechnology in Paris, France where she is from, before gaining a MSc in Pharmaceutical Science from the University in Bordeaux, France. After 3 years of laboratory experience at Sanofi in manual and automated patch-clamp, she spent 2 years in Cambridge working on cell-line engineering and neuroscience. Magali decided to go back to electrophysiology and joined ApconiX where she brings her love for ion channels, especially sodium channels, and her passion for patch-clamp.

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Nicholas Coltman

PhD ERT

Nicholas Coltman completed his PhD in vitro pre-clinical toxicological research through a BBSRC iCASE Scholarship at the University of Birmingham. Nicholas has extensive industrial experience, having previously worked as a scientist for both Harlan Laboratories and Sygnature Discovery. Now at ApconiX, Nicholas is the Deputy Head of Safety Science and provides support across multiple industries — for both discovery and regulatory toxicology. Nicholas enjoys translating toxicological mechanisms and DMPK into human-relevant results for risk assessment — particularly for genotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, and DART. He leads a multidisciplinary team of safety scientists and developing toxicologists and has a strong track record in mechanistic safety assessment, scientific risk evaluation and client-focused consultancy.

Peter Cotton

Peter is an expert clinical pathologist specialist with over 30 years of experience in big pharma.  Until recently Peter was the Chairperson of the Association for Comparative Clinical Pathology and associate editor of the Journal for Comparative Clinical Pathology.  Keeping up the tradition of many of the ApconiX team, Peter is a lecturer on the MSc Toxicology courses at the University of Birmingham and the University of Surrey.  With an excellent understanding of non-clinical study design and interpretation, Pete can propose solutions in response to complex data sets to ensure good outcomes.

Pauline Garner

Pauline is an experienced Genetic Toxicologist with over 24 years in non-clinical safety at a medium-sized CRO. Specialising in Programme Management for the last 9 years, Pauline combines a passion for science and pharmaceutical development, with the knowledge of project and commercial needs. Pauline has a strong reputation in communication and an eye for detail. She particularly enjoys building enduring customer relationships to support optimum delivery of non-clinical safety programmes.

Emily Johnson

PhD

After completing her BSc Neuroscience (1^st class, Hons), Emily studied the role of T-type Ca²⁺ channels in proliferative cardiovascular disease for her PhD (University of Leeds). Having cemented a love for electrophysiology, she spent 5 years working as a post-doctoral Research Fellow, utilising her expertise with patch-clamp electrophysiology, optogenetics and 2-photon Ca²⁺ imaging, to address novel Neuroscience research questions.  A natural problem solver and collaborative researcher, Emily has a tenacious attitude useful for acquiring high-quality, reproducible data.

Helen Garside

PhD

Helen has over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry focused on predictive and mechanistic toxicology. Before this, Helen was awarded her PhD that focussed on the role of glucocorticoid receptors in asthma cell biology (BBSRC iCASE Studentship, University of Manchester and GlaxoSmithKline). Here at ApconiX, Helen works as a Senior Toxicologist in the Safety Science Group. She is responsible for the development of target and modality safety assessments across a broad range of disease areas and contributes to carcinogenicity Weight of Evidence (WoE) assessments.

Louisa Lake

Louisa has worked for over 18 years in a customer facing role.  A natural relationship builder, Louisa is process driven, communicative, supportive, and thorough.  She is a great addition to the expanding ApconiX team.

Sean Hammond

PhD

Sean is the Immunotoxicology Lead at ApconiX, and is involved in the identification and mitigation of immune safety issues at all stages of drug development. He has discovery, project and investigative toxicology experience across multiple drug modalities including small molecules, biologicals and advanced/novel therapies, and is an expert in delivering project and drug pipeline strategies. His areas of specialty are IO agents, novel/challenging modalities, immunogenicity and hypersensitivity reactions. He is also as an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool where he conceptualises and supervises immunotoxicology research.

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