We are delighted to welcome Dr Andy Pearce, GSK as an Expert in Residence in Drug Discovery and Development.

Andy will sit within the Target Discovery Institute (TDI), Nuffield Department of Medicine, NDM Research Building on various dates during 2018/19 and be available to have non-confidential discussions and provide advice on:

- Drug discovery spanning target identification and validation through to early clinical development

- Routes to progress drug discovery and translational projects

- Career development for early career researchers.

In his role at GSK, Andy leads drug discovery projects from target validation through hit-finding and to the delivery of high quality clinical candidates, across broad disease areas, in collaboration with world-leading academic partners. Prior to joining GSK Andy worked in the Respiratory Therapy Area at Novartis, leading multidisciplinary teams and drug discovery projects delivering multiple novel targets into the portfolio and clinical candidates.

Andy has experience of programs of all major target classes, of localised and oral drug delivery and both small molecule and biopharmaceutical modalities. With over 18 years of experience in target and drug discovery in academia and Pharma companies spanning target identification to early clinical development Andy is well placed to provide advice and guidance on translational research, target validation, assay development, lead optimisation and early preclinical and clinical development.

A biochemist and cell biologist by training, Andy received his undergraduate degree and DPhil from the University of Oxford and undertook postdoctoral studies at the University of Birmingham, identifying and studying novel membrane receptors and their signal transduction pathways. Andy is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, occasionally lectures at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and participates in career panels and workshops for scientists.