Stephen Kirk

Stephen Kirk joins ApconiX as a Consultant in Nonclinical Safety and Regulatory Strategy, bringing thirty years of expertise in drug development. Stephen provides design, oversight, and interpretation of nonclinical safety studies, along with regulatory documentation support including CTD Module 2, IND, CTA, and PIP/PSP authoring. An immunologist by training, Stephen has held senior roles at Covance (Labcorp), KalVista Pharmaceuticals, Allergy Therapeutics, and Scendea, specializing in immunotoxicology and regulatory submissions. He served as Interim Global Lead of Immunology/Immunotoxicology at Covance and earned a postgraduate certificate in Biopharmaceutical Drug Development from the University of Leeds. At ApconiX.

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Brandon Coke

PhD

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Simone Stahl

PhD

Dr Simone Stahl is joining the Safety Science Group as a Principal Scientist, supporting the Safety Sciences portfolio, streamlining processes, and mentoring junior team members. With nearly 19 years at AstraZeneca, Simone brings extensive expertise in tumour immunology, mechanistic and molecular toxicology, ADME sciences, and in vitro model development. She has contributed to liver toxicity screening, drug transporter research, discovery toxicology, and the development of novel tools across a wide range of drug modalities. Simone is excited to bring her deep industry experience to ApconiX and strengthen SSG’s expert toxicologist-led Target Safety Assessment and mechanistic toxicity services.

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Zac Murray

Placement Student

Zac is a Neuroscience student from the University of Warwick with hands-on experience in manual patch-clamp techniques. He is joining ApconiX as an industry placement student for one year as part of his BSc. He will work across both the Ion Channel Laboratory and Safety Science Group, contributing to project support. Zac is passionate about Neuroscience and is keen to learn more in the lab.

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Stanley Boamah

Placement student

Stanley is a microbiology student from the University of Nottingham with laboratory experience in molecular biology and microbiology. He is joining ApconiX for one year as an industry placement as part of his degree and will support both the Ion Channel Laboratory and Safety Science Group. Stanley is a jovial team player who likes to learn and is eager to broaden his horizon across both teams.

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Emma Bishop

PhD

Emma Bishop is a Senior Scientist within the immunotoxicology team at ApconiX. She holds a PhD from the university of Birmingham which was focused on the metabolic and function role of TNF-α signalling in T-cells in the context of health and autoimmune disease. Emma primarily is involved in the authoring of high quality target safety assessments, where her strong background in immunology is applied to scientific evaluation of primary target based risks. Emma also has practical experience with both small and large molecules and has been involved with in vitro assay development and interpretation, including for mechanistic toxicology application within an industrial setting. Emma ha a track record of providing a comprehensive and collaborative approach to advance research projects

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Daniel Forman

Msc

Daniel returns to the role at ApconiX as a data scientist with the Safety Science Group (SSG), where he’ll be at the forefront of data mining and engineering. He will be building powerful pipelines that extract, store, and showcase data critical for target safety assessments. Dan has a degree in physics where he studies the simulation of planetary bodies’ orbits, and a Master’s in computer science that had him focusing on autism diagnostic via the analysis of MRI scans of the brain. His forward thinking approach to data science makes Dan a great asset to SSG.

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James McDonagh

PhD

James McDonagh completed his PhD in Computational Chemistry and Chemical Informatics at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Following this, James joined the University of Manchester for a postdoctoral contract where he developed a novel chemistry algorithm to elucidate the nature of correlated electron interactions. James then moved to industry and worked at several companies over the years, gaining invaluable skills and knowledge in machine learning and AI methodologies. An experienced and skilled AI Scientist, James will further develop ApconiX’s capabilities and client offering and provide mentorship and training to our other Data science team members.

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Calum MacGregor

BSc

Calum MacGregor is a Senior Safety Scientist supporting ApconiX’s Target Safety Assessment and Weight-of-evidence provisions. He has over seven years of experience in early discovery safety and project toxicology in various toxicology CROs and Biotechs. Calum has worked across a range of different portfolios from MTD and DRF studies to IND-enabling packages and beyond in rodents and large animals. He is an active and sociable person who will empower our customers with actionable insights.

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Zara Farooq

PhD

Zara Farooq is joining the Safety Science Team and will help on an internal project with our in-house safety pharmacology and neurobiology teams. Zara brings valuable skills in computation chemistry and pharmacological modelling from her PhD in biochemistry at Queen Mary University of London. She has experience in drug design and chemistry and will strongly improve our in-house expertise. Zara is a keen scientist, she is looking forward to further develop and leverage her skills in the Safety Science group.

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