Ian joined Amphista Therapeutics as Chief Scientific Officer in 2020 where he leads a portfolio of projects focused on the development of next generation approaches to targeted protein degradation. Ian was one of the pioneers of the application of targeted protein degradation to drug discovery as Head of the Protein Degradation Discovery Performance Unit at GSK from 2012 including an extensive collaboration with Prof Craig Crews (Yale). Ian built a team which demonstrated the viability of the VHL-recruiting PROTAC strategy and advanced a portfolio of projects from early proof of degradation through to clinic-enabling studies. During a career in pharma at Merck & GSK, Ian led a range of discovery projects across many therapy areas from target validation through to lead optimisation and clinical entry as well as a number of applications of novel technology to drug discovery. More recently, Ian was SVP Drug Discovery at artificial intelligence biotech BenevolentAI where his team applied novel AI methods to tackling a series of drug discovery challenges across a portfolio of target identification and chemical optimisation projects.
Ian holds an MA and D.Phil. in Chemistry from the University of Oxford where he was also Visiting Professor in the Department of Chemistry.