Natalie works in the field of early oncology R&D at AstraZeneca, with a focus on the discovery and development of immuno-oncology agents, in particular T cell engagers. She has extensive expertise in the use of humanised mouse models to advance the translational impact of this work. Previously, Natalie spent ten years in hypoxia research at the University of Cambridge. Her research focused on how oxygen-sensing through the Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) modulates B cells. Using transgenic mice as a key tool, she discovered that dynamic regulation of HIF is essential for B cell development and that hypoxia limits B cell immunity in COVID-19 (Nat Immunol 2020, EBioMedicine 2022). Natalie also worked on the therapeutic targeting of hypoxic cancer cells through their altered metabolism (Sci Rep 2016) and contributed to studies on lymphoid transformation (Nat Cell Biol 2017), and the epigenetic regulation of HIF (Nat Genet 2021). She holds an MSc in Pharmacology from the University of Bristol and worked at GlaxoSmithKline, USA, before completing a PhD at the University of Manchester.

Christina joined AstraZeneca (Cambridge, UK) in 2020 as a drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) scientist and DMPK project lead. Christina is an in vitro assays specialist with wide ranging experience in ADME (absorption, distriibution, metabolism, elimination) and pharmacokinetics (PK), and currently serves as a DMPK expert on oncology project teams facilitating candidate selection in early discovery and is responsible for nonclinical DMPK aspects. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, she obtained her BSc, Master of Research and PhD from The University of Liverpool investigating system parameters for predictions of drug-drug interactions. After graduation, Christina worked as a postdoctoral research assistant at the Women’s Department of Reproductive Health at the University of Oxford, investigating immunological mechanisms in HIV-infected pregnant women, before making the transition into industry, where she worked as a DMPK project representative and in vitro ADME screening scientist at Evotec, UK for over 2 years.

Sarah completed her degree in Biotechnology at the University of Aberdeen, achieving a 1st Class (Hons), then gained her PhD from the University Medical Center Utrecht in Molecular Cancer Research. After obtaining her PhD, Sarah gained experience in a pharmaceutical company and a medical consulting firm. Prior to joining AZ, her work as a PostDoctoral Fellow at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge aimed at identifying putative new oncology targets and novel opportunities for drug repurposing using patient-derived organoid models. At AZ, Sarah has been helping the pre-clinical and early clinical development of next-generation cell therapies.

Dominic is a Senior Director in the in vivo bioscience department of the Early Respiratory and Immunology therapeutic area at AstraZeneca. He has spent more than 30 years working in preclinical pharmacology, and has worked across a wide range of indications, supporting novel drug discovery and development of biologic and small molecule agents. In his current role he supports teams of in vivo pharmacologists operating at three global sites, who perform key decision making studies in support of the portfolio.

Jayne is a toxicologist, pathologist and veterinarian with over 20 years' experience in non-clinical safety assessment. After qualifying from the University of Cambridge in 2000, Jayne spent 3 years in mixed general practice in the Peak District, UK before taking a position as a anatomic pathologist with Syngenta. She transitioned to pharmaceutical development in 2007 joining Astrazeneca as a Project Pathologist. More recent focus of her career has been in toxicology overseeing the study monitoring group for non-clinical safety then leading the Reproductive Toxicology team for AZ. In 2022 Jayne was appointed Executive Director Regulatory Toxicology and Safety Pharmacology. Key to her current role is the smooth and effective execution of non-clinical toxicology programs to support drug development for the entire AZ portfolio.

Richard is the Founder and Director of RosettaPath, a science-based pathology consultancy providing research and toxicologic pathology expertise for biotech, pharmaceutical, contract research organisations, software vendors and academia. He has a keen interest in assessing the translational relevance and predictivity of nonclinical models for both efficacy and safety endpoints to enable effective decision making within medicine development projects. Prior to RosettaPath, Richard led the Global Pathology team within Clinical Pharmacology & Safety Sciences at AstraZeneca which provides pathology expertise to assess nonclinical efficacy and safety of projects across a range of therapeutic modalities and diverse disease indications. Richard qualified in Veterinary medicine from the University of Cambridge, completed a DPhil at Oxford in experimental pathology and immunology, was Head of the UK Pathology department at GSK from 2014 to 2022 and is board certified in pathology (FRCPath, DipECVP) and toxicology (DABT).

Following a veterinary degree at Cambridge, Matt undertook an anatomic pathology residency at Cornell University, obtaining board certification with the American College of Veterinary Pathologists in 2000. Matt returned to the UK and was a senior and then Chief pathologist at Syngenta’s Central Toxicology Laboratory where he supported a wide range of regulatory toxicology and investigative toxicology studies for Syngenta agrochemicals. He took a particular interest in neurotoxicity and developmental neurotoxicity studies. Matt then joined the Safety Assessment Department of AstraZeneca at Alderley Park in the UK as a senior pathologist, supporting oncology, infection and respiratory and Inflammation therapy areas. He was then appointed Director of the clinical pathology and biomarker group in the UK which provided support for routine preclinical toxicology studies, as well as Phase I clinical trials in man. Having managed the biomarker group at AstraZeneca for a number of years, Matt remained at AZ, where he was interim Global Head of Pathology, Head of European Pathology, and is currently a Senior Director in the Pathology department, and therapy area Pathology lead for vaccines and immune therapy. He also has accountability for drafting responses to regulatory authorities, and has remained an active project pathologist involved in the assessment of early safety and efficacy studies, as well as peer review of outsourced toxicology studies to include rodent carcinogenicity.

Jen is an Associate Director in the Early Oncology In Vivo Bioscience team at AstraZeneca, working on the development of novel small molecule cancer therapies. She has extensive experience using pre-clinical rodent models for drug development, including cell line xenografts, PDX models, syngeneic models, orthotopic models and inducible GEMMs. As part of her PhD in Pharmacology (University of Alberta) and postdoc (AstraZeneca) positions, she investigated novel nanomedicines for cancer therapy and how heterogeneous tumour microenvironments influence the accumulation, distribution and retention of nanomedicines within the tumour. This research resulted in multiple publications, including a highly cited review (ADDR 2017) and an exciting paper highlighting the importance of vessels and macrophages in nanomedicine accumulation in tumours (Nat BME 2024). Jen is the PPL holder for her department and also spent many years developing her skills as a PIL delivering oncology studies

Kainat is Associate Director in Clinical Pharmacology and Safety Sciences In AstraZeneca. Kainat leads the development and integration of bone marrow microphysiological system (BM MPS) to improve the human-translation of pre-clinical safety assessment. After joining AZ in 2017, Kainat was associated with the development of a bone marrow MPS for improved pre-clinical safety assessment and is now responsible for leading the application of model for risk assessment of several new modalities.

Dr Kevin Moreau Director, Safety Innovation and PROTAC Science Lead Clinical Pharmacology & Safety Sciences AstraZeneca Kevin Moreau is a Director of Safety Innovation and Multi-OMICs Team Leader. He is supporting the AstraZeneca effort to accelerate drug discovery through the use of Imaging and Multi-OMICs to drive Toxicity prediction in vitro using advanced human models.

Stuart Naylor attained a degree in veterinary medicine and surgery at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh. During an intercalated year he completed an honours degree in veterinary molecular pathology. After completing the degree in veterinary medicine and surgery in 1999 he commenced a PhD on the molecular basis of the persistence and pathology of E. coli O157:H7 in cattle. After gaining his PhD in 2003 he took a research post in the Scottish Agricultural College, developing interests in other aspects of bacterial diseases of livestock including vaccine development. He was recruited to the Pathology Department of Charles River Edinburgh in 2008 and gained Royal College of Pathology boards in 2012. He has experience of pathological evaluation in toxicological safety assessment of an extensive range of test items, study designs and species. He has published 30 papers in peer reviewed journals in the fields of toxicological pathology and infectious disease, co-authored the chapter on the haematolymphoid system in the textbook Spontaneous Pathology of the Laboratory Non-human Primate, and has presented at a number of scientific conferences. His interests include toxicology/pathology of biologics, carcinogenicity studies and digital pathology. He is a senior examiner for the Royal College of Pathologists.

Andrzej Nowojewski is a machine learning expert with a PhD in Physics from Harvard University. He focuses on applying the most recent AI research in innovative ways in the drug development process ranging from predicting safety issues of new compounds using pre-clinical data, automating ways to find population pharmacokinetics models in Phase 1 trials, building tools that aid patient recruitment in Phase 2 trials and developing predictive models for patient adherence in Phase 3 trials. In over six years in AstraZeneca, he worked in Data Science & AI, Digital Health and now in Clinical Pharmacology and Safety Sciences departments and he is based in Cambridge, UK.

Federica joined AstraZeneca in 2022 as a Senior Scientist within the Renal Bioscience In Vivo Team. In this role, she focuses on developing and utilizing animal models to investigate the pathophysiology and mechanisms underlying kidney diseases, emphasizing innovation and technology application. Federica earned her PhD in Translational Nephrology in Italy, where she concentrated extensively on chronic and rare kidney diseases. Following her doctorate, she conducted a four-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Biomedicine in Denmark, where she explored molecular mechanisms driving the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and engaged in RNA sequencing data analysis. Federica's research has led to several publications in high-impact journals, and she is an active contributor to the dissemination of her findings at prestigious international conferences, including the Italian Society of Nephrology (ISN), the European Renal Association–European Dialysis and Transplantation Association (ERA-EDTA), the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), and UK Kidney Week (UKKW).

Carmen Pin is a mathematical modeller working in the Systems Medicine team in AstraZeneca. After studying Veterinary Medicine, she earned her PhD in Veterinary Science and completed undergraduate degrees in Statistics (BSc) and Mathematical Statistics (MSc). Prior to joining AstraZeneca in 2018, she led the computational gastrointestinal biology group at the Quadram Institute Bioscience in Norwich, UK. She has co-authored some 100 scientific pre-reviewed articles and led some substantial scientific research projects funded by the EU and UK Research Councils.

Dr Rhiannon David is Director, Microphysiological Systems (MPS) in Clinical Pharmacology and Safety Sciences at AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK. Rhiannon is responsible for devising and delivering a strategic plan for the development and integration of advanced cell models, including spheroids and MPS, to achieve quantitative human-translation of pre-clinical safety assessment with 3Rs impact. She is Chair of the IQ MPS Affiliate and a member of several advisory boards, including the Industrial Advisory Board for the European Organ-on-a-Chip Society (EUROoCS).

Wolfram Schultz is a graduate in medicine from the University of Heidelberg. After postdoctoral work in Germany, USA and Sweden, and a faculty position in Switzerland, he is now at the University of Cambridge. He combines behavioural, neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques to investigate the neural mechanisms of learning, goal-directed behaviour and economic decision making. He uses behavioural concepts from animal learning theory and economic decision theories to study the neurophysiology and neuroimaging of reward and risk in individual neurons and in specific brain regions, including the dopamine system, striatum, orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala.

Jonathan Sheard is an Application Scientist and Technical Specialist at UPM Biomedicals, where he leads customer support, product demonstrations, and distributor training for Nanofibrillar Cellulose (NFC) hydrogels. His work focuses on translating complex biomaterial technologies into practical applications for 3D cell culture, regenerative medicine, and drug discovery. Jonathan develops technical documentation, application notes, and sales strategies, helping researchers and industry professionals integrate NFC-based solutions into their workflows. He is passionate about bridging the gap between scientific innovation and commercial adoption and regularly presents at conferences and industry events.

A PhD veterinarian with a wealth of knowledge in preclinical translational research, currently working as the Named Veterinary Surgeon and Reader   (Associate Professor) in Animal Welfare and Science at the London and Barts Medical School at Queen Mary University London, UK. He is a holds a PhD in Reproductive Biology from Utrecht University, an MSc in Bioethics & Law from the University of Barcelona, MSc in Higher Education for QMUL, diplomate specialist of the European College of Laboratory Animal Medicine and a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona . He is Trustee, Council Exec member and Chair Scientific Meetings for Laboratory Animas Science Association (LASA), member of the management team at Laboratory Animals Ltd., member of LAVA Council and Editor-in- Chief for Laboratory Animals. His research brings together complex models of trauma, haemorrhage, shock, and central nervous injury utilizing imaging and automatic behaviour tools to facilitate the full translation of preclinical work into clinical practice while ensuring best refinements in animal care and welfare. https://www.c4ts.qmul.ac.uk/staff/dr-jordi-lopez-tremoleda

Dominic joined AstraZeneca in 2014 and is Senior Director within Clinical Pharmacology & Safety Science (CPSS, Cambridge UK), the Preclinical Hepatic Target Organ Lead. DW redesigned AZ’s Hepatic Safety Strategy with weighted assays in a Bayesian machine learning format, incorporating new visualisations communicating data uncertainty from in vitro models. The Bayesian model has been used for all CDID/ESPC since 2017, without any Phase 1 drug attrition due to hepatic safety & is the first example of predictive hepatic safety using ML models. Industrial firsts of using 3D hepatic spheroids, Bayesian modelling and liver-on-a-chip applied to +150 projects across the AZ pipeline. DW recently received the Kevin Park Memorial Award from the British Toxicology Society He was the co-ordinator of the IMI1 consortium, MIP-DILI, and has been part of other EU initiatives (SAFE-T, SafeSciMET). Prior to joining AZ, Dominic has 15 years of academic experience in translational hepatic drug safety from within the UK’s only MRC funded Centre for Drug Safety Science, at the University of Liverpool and secured funding of over £16M. Dominic led a research group and trained & developed 14 PhD and 6 Master’s students, some of whom are current employees of AstraZeneca.