The MBE course is based at and managed by faculty of the Institute of Biotechnology with the expert guidance of industry sector specialists, each of whom takes responsibility for the design of specific teaching topics Cambridge is the home of Europe's largest biotech cluster and the course draws heavily on the expertise of executives from local and national businesses, many of whom have strong interest in furthering the education of the next generation of life science business development talent and bio-entrepreneurs. Each year over 90 individuals from companies engage with the course, providing scientific, technical and managerial insights as well as a diversity of practical case examples and internship opportunities for MBE students. The course is further enhanced by specialist input from researchers and academics, many of whom have significant business experience, and by a close association with Judge Business School, which provides several management training elements.
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Professor Chris Lowe - Director of the Institute of Technology 
Professor Chris Lowe is Director of the Institute of Biotechnology and Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. He has overall responsible for the Master's in Bioscience Enterprise programme. The principal focus of his biotechnology research programme over the last 30 years has been the high value - low volume sectors of pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals and diagnostics. The work not only covers aspects of biochemistry, microbiology, chemistry, electrochemistry, physics, electronics and chemical engineering, but also the entire range from pure science to strategic applied science, some of which has significant commercial applications and had led to the establishment of 7 spin-out companies. He has 250 publications, 7 monographs and 40 patents. He is actively involved in many collaborations worldwide, is on the editorial boards of a number of academic journals, sits on a number of research council, grant awarding and government committees, and is active in various legal and entrepreneurial roles. In September 2006 Professor Lowe was awarded the accolade 'Most Entrepreneurial Scientist in the UK' by the UK Science Enterprise Centres and DTI, in recognition of his business achievements. Professor Lowe has supervised over 50 PhD students and won a number of prizes over the last two decades: the Pierce Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Affinity Chromatography and Related Techniques (1989); David Curnow Prize in Clinical Chemistry for work on biosensors (1991); Schlumberger Stichting Prize (1994); The Queen's Award for Technological Achievement (1996); The Jubilee Medal of the Chromatographic Society (2002); Elected Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (2002) and the Queen Anniversary Award 2007; BBSRC Commercial Innovator 2011 Award fro his work on SMART HOLOGRAMS. The Institute holds both the Queen Anniversary Award and the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement. |
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| Dr Linda Allan - Academic Director
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Dr William Bains - Senior Associate
Dr William Bains has a First Class Honours degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Warwick. He carried out postdoctoral research at Stanford on muscle gene expression and held a faculty post at the University of Bath. He worked with the PA Consulting Group for eight years and was Head of the Science team at the UK venture capital group Merlin Biosciences from 1996-2000, providing the principle scientific input into raising the €247M Merlin Biosciences Fund. In 2000 he founded Amedis Pharmaceuticals, a product-oriented drug discovery company with platform technologies in proprietary chemistry and artificial intelligence. Dr Bains is also the founder of Rufus Scientific, an advisory consultancy for those exploiting breakthrough science and Opal Drug Discovery, a pharmaceutical IP exploitation company. Dr Bains is the author of numerous patents, four books: Venture Capital and the European Biotechnology Industry; Genetic Engineering for Almost Anybody; Artificial Intelligence from A to Z; and Biotechnology from A to Z, now in its third edition and translated into several languages, as well as over 60 research articles. |
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Dr Ken Seamon - Senior Associate 
Dr Ken Seamon brings a wealth of experience of USA and European biotech to the MBE programme. Dr Seamon was until recently Vice President, Regulatory Affairs at Amgen Corporation, London, with responsibility for the Regulatory CMC Group and interactions with operations, as well as for developing policy for Follow on Biologics and Biosimilars. Prior to this Dr Seamon was Senior Vice President, Drug Development at Immunex Corporation, Seattle, Washington State. Earlier in his career Dr Seamon spent 13 years with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and served latterly as the Director of the Office of Therapeutics Research and Review and as Associate Director for Research at the Center for Biologics Research and Review at Bethesda, Maryland. |
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Keiron Sparrowhawk- Senior Associate 
Keiron Sparrowhawk has over 30 years of industry and consulting experience and is recognised as a global expert in drug pricing, reimbursement and market access strategy and is often called upon to write and present on the industry. Keiron co-founded PriceSpective in 2003 and established the company’s London office. He is responsible for the growth of the company in Europe, leading over 100 projects across a wide range of therapy and policy areas and in building client relationships with over 50 Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Biotech companies. PriceSpective was sold to ICON plc in February 2012. Before founding PriceSpective Keiron worked with major international pharmaceutical companies, culminating with GSK in 2003 where he was Group Director, Global Pricing and Reimbursement Strategy. During this time he was the industry representative on the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD. Keiron has worked closely with US, European and International countries on operational issues) and on the implementation of regional policies and strategies. His career began in R&D and in turn went through Project Management, Global Marketing and Global Finance before starting a pricing role in 1990. Keiron has a BSc Hons, an MSc, a Diploma in Management Studies, an MBA and a Certificate in Health Economics. He has several publications to his name, including the 2005 Nature article, ‘Pricing Medicines: Theory and Practice, Challenges and Opportunities’. |
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Sabine Bahn- Senior Associate 
Professor Sabine Bahn is a practising psychiatrist, leading research scientist, Director of the Cambridge Centre for Neuropsychiatric Research at Cambridge University and Chair in Translational Neuropsychiatry at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, NL. Her main research interests are to understand the molecular basis of neuropsychiatric disorders, with a focus on schizophrenia and mood disorders. Professor Bahn has published numerous articles in high impact journals over the last years. In 2005, she co-founded Psynova Neurotech Ltd., which, together with Rules Based Medicine (RBM) has launched the first blood test aiding in the early diagnosis of Schizophrenia. In 2011 Psynova Neurotech and RBM have been acquired by Myriad Genetics, a NASDAQ listed company. Professor Bahn continues to be director and chief scientific officer for Psynova Neurotech as well as Senior Medical Director for Neuropsychiatric Disorders for Myriad RBM and Myriad Genetics.
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 Dr Amber Batata - MBE Programme Associate
Dr Batata is currently a Director of Pricing & Reimbursement (P&R) in the PCBU MAx (Market Access) team. She focuses on the Alzheimer’s therapeutic area, and supports Pfizer France, Norway & Denmark on pricing-related issues. Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr Batata was a research fellow in health economics at Cambridge University in the UK, studying the nurse labor shortage in their National Health Service. Previous research focused on risk selection into Medicare managed care plans (i.e. Medicare beneficiaries joining Medicare’s managed care plans tend to be healthier than those remaining in the traditional fee-for-service program). Dr Batata earned her PhD in Health Policy (Economics concentration) from Harvard University, working with Professors David Cutler, Joseph Newhouse and Douglas Staiger. |
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Dr Karl Keegan - MBE Programme Associate Dr Keegan, is an Irish national who has worked in the healthcare industry for over 15 years. Karl is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Pharming Group NV, a Dutch publicly listed biotech company. Karl has a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Cambridge and a Masters degree in Finance from the London Business School. Following postdoctoral research work at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, Karl joined SmithKline Beecham as a bench scientist and later moved to a strategic commercial role within the Neuroscience Strategic Product Development team. Upon leaving the pharmaceutical industry, Karl became one of the leading financial analysts covering the biotechnology industry on a global basis. His most recent analyst role was at Canaccord Adams, as Managing Director, UK Head of Equity Research and Global Head of Life Sciences Research. Karl left the investment world in 2009 to join Minster Pharmaceuticals. Karl also held an interim role at e-Therapeutics before joining Pharming in September 2010. |
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Catherine Kirby - MBE Programme Administrator
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Tim Allsopp - MBE Programme Associate
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Dr Fiona Marshall - MBE Programme Associate 
Dr Marshall is a molecular pharmacologist with 20 years experience in pharmaceutical research, particularly in the field of progressing novel genomic targets through to drug discovery. She is founder and CSO of Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, a drug discovery company spun-out from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, that applies structural knowledge of G-protein coupled receptors to the design and development of drug molecules. In February 2009 the company raised £21m in series 'A' funding. Dr Marshall was previously Director of Pharmacology, Europe, for Millennium Pharmaceuticals and spent 12 years at GlaxoSmithKline, where she held a number of senior positions, including Head of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Head of G-Protein Coupled Receptor Research. Dr Marshall acts as an independent scientific consultant to biotech and venture capital companies, serving on several Boards and Scientific Advisory Boards. She was chair of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Biochemistry and Cell Biology committee and has served as a member of the UK Medical Research Council Cross Board and the Advisory board to the European Commission in the area of Biotechnology. She is currently an advisor to the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK in the area of translational research. |
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Dr Geraldine Rodgers - MBE Programme Associate
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| Dr David R. Hampton - Senior Associate
Dr. Hampton is currently a Senior Associate at the University of Cambridge leading the Medical Diagnostics and Devices course in the Institute for Biotechnology. His academic background includes a business / biotechnology degree, with distinction, from Cambridge, certificate in management science from Stanford University, doctorate and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University, and a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, in physics and applied mathematics from Vanderbilt University. He is founder and CEO of CamStent Ltd, and a managing partner at T4Analytics LLC and Stone Bridge Biomedical BV. An American citizen with Dutch and British residence permits, Dr. Hampton is also a founding member of the medical design partnership bioMRC and a non-exec director of DiagNodus Ltd. He was previously a Research Director at Medtronic and a Fellow at the Bakken Research Center in Maastricht. |
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Dr Swapu Banerjee - MBE Programme Associate Dr Swapu Banerjee is a Board Member and head of development Consulting at Pope Woodhead & Associates, a well-known pharmaceutical and biotechnology benefit –risk and process consultancy, based just outside Cambridge, and who have hosted many MPhil dissertation student projects since 2007. Swapu has extensive clinical development, risk management and regulatory experience, and many years in US and European clinical practice. Swapu has over 12 years’ experience in pharmaceutical marketing and clinical development and more than 25 years’ healthcare experience. Prior to joining PW, he was a global drug safety physician with Roche and a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. Swapu studied at the Universities of London, Harvard and Nottingham, is medically qualified, has a research doctorate and is an MRCP(UK), FRCS( Gen Surg), FSB and MFPM, as well as having separate MSc degrees in Pharmaceutical Medicine/Epidemiology and Biochemistry/Molecular Biology as well as an MBA. He is a practising surgical oncologist has published extensively in pharmaceutical medicine and is currently authoring a textbook in the therapeutic risk management of medicines, due out in 2012.
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Following PhD and postdoctoral studies at the University of Cambridge and several years spent in the USA, Dr Allan returned to Cambridge and before joining the MBE team in 2005 was responsible for the organisation of the Cambridge Enterprise Conference and other technology business and executive education activities.
Catherine joined the MBE course as MBE Programme Administrator in December 2011, she holds a degree in Information Technology and Computing. Prior to this role she worked as a Database Administrator and Web Designer for cintelliq ltd and an information analyst at the Royal Marsden Hospital.
Tim Allsopp is Head of Cell Improve Outreach Programme at Neusentis, a Pfizer Research unit. Tim has extensive experience in the biotech sector, founding, building, resourcing and managing change in small to medium sized enterprises, and in leveraging public sector opportunities to resource product development strategies. He has developed experimental strategies and managed discovery to innovation, putting into practice the delivery of products from the biology of human cells. Tim holds a B.Sc. in Zoology and PhD in Biophysics, Cell & Molecular Biology from the University of London.
Dr Rodgers has a first degree in Microbiology, a PhD in Biochemistry and holds the FSA full Investment Management Certificate. She has ten years industrial experience in the food, pharmaceutical and agbiotechnology sectors in both multinational and start up companies. Dr Rodgers joined the University of Cambridge in 1994, working first at the Institute of Biotechnology and later as Head of Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds, with responsibilty for managing investments in new ventures from Cambridge University and an investment portfolio of over 30 companies.
David R. Hampton is a biomedical research scientist and entrepreneur in medical device innovation and global business development.