Biomarker specialist Activiomics appoints Dr Trevor Nicholls as Non-Executive Chairman

Dr Nicholls has over 30 years’ experience of building international businesses in the life science industry. Currently he is CEO of CABI, a not-for-profit inter-governmental organisation owned by 46 member countries worldwide and is Non-Executive Chairman of Oxford Nanopore Technologies, which is developing the GridION system, a new generation of electronic molecular analysis system for use in scientific research, personalised medicine, crop science, and security/defence. His previous board roles include Chief Commercial Officer of Affymetrix Inc, based in California and, prior to that, CEO of Oxagen, a UK biotech company where he raised £50m over three venture-backed financing rounds and secured major commercial partnerships and academic collaborations.

Welcoming Dr Nicholls to the board, Dr Mark Warne, CEO of Activiomics, said: “I am confident that Trevor’s broad background in leading companies as they develop commercially will be invaluable to Activiomics as we move to the next phase of our development. He brings both a depth of international experience in commercial markets as well as a proven ability in raising finance for early-stage companies.”

Activiomics has developed innovative technologies using mass spectrometry to interrogate and interpret the activity of whole cell signalling pathways. This technology is well-positioned to support personalised medicine initiatives, which are influencing increasing numbers of therapeutic programs.

The Company has recently met internal milestones resulting in a second tranche of funding from IP Group plc, (LSE: ipo) (“IP Group”), the developer of intellectual property based businesses. This follows an initial investment by IP Group in 2011.

Commenting on his appointment, Dr Nicholls said: “The unique nature of Activiomics’ approach to identifying robust biomarkers has already been validated by a number of partnerships with large pharmas, including with GlaxoSmithKline, UCB and Genentech, and the Company is well placed to take advantage of the rapidly growing personalised medicine market. I am delighted to be joining the Board at a time when it has received a financing injection on the back of this success and look forward to helping the company in its next stage of development.”