The Living Laboratory

Keynote Speaker - Tom Keith-Roach

President of AstraZeneca UK, the UK’s leading biopharmaceutical company

Tom joined AstraZeneca over 20 years ago and has held senior business unit, country, regional and global roles across Asia, Europe, and the US.  In his most recent role before becoming UK President, he led AstraZeneca's Global Respiratory & Immunology franchise across the Research & Development (R&D) and Commercial Functions. 

Prior to joining AZ, Tom spent a decade in Consulting and Venture Capital, and a year as an Officer in the British Army. He holds a degree in Economics from Cambridge University. 

Tom is passionate about the opportunity to make a positive difference to people’s lives through groundbreaking science and new medicines. Unleashing the potential of people and teams, and building external relationships and partnerships, to improve the health of the families and communities AZ serves is a focus for him. He is leading AZ’s efforts to put value creation at the centre of how we work with the NHS, through ambitious purpose-led partnerships and by working with constructive impatience to deliver better outcomes for patients and address inequalities at the population level. 

Professor Iain McInnes

Head of College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences, and Vice Principal, University of Glasgow

He also serves also as the Muirhead Professor of Medicine and Versus Arthritis Professor of Rheumatology in the University. He is Director of the Versus Arthritis Centre of Excellence for Inflammatory Arthritis, lead from the University of Glasgow that includes Universities of Oxford, Newcastle and Birmingham. He serves as a member of the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board. He is a Trustee on the Board of Versus Arthritis. He is past chairman of the Foreum (Foundation for European Rheumatology Research) Scientific Committee, lead the European Roadmap programme that is defining the research agenda for European rheumatology for the next decade and is Past-President of the European Alliance of Rheumatology Asssociations (EULAR).

Under these auspices he led the creation of the first pan-European Rheumatology Research Centre launched in 2021. His work is mainly focused upon the understanding of the pathogenesis of immune mediated inflammatory diseases and encompasses basic discovery immunology through phase 1 and proof of concept experimental medicine clinical trials to leadership of pivotal phase 3 trials in the area of immune biology.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2019 by HM Queen Elizabeth II. 

Professor David Lowe

Honorary Professor and Director of Clinical Innovation at the University of Glasgow | Emergency Medicine Consultant at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital
 
Having led on the development of a wide range of solutions within the digital health space, including Lenus COPD and Trauma App, David has a wealth of experience in creating the infrastructure and conditions needed to transform projects into viable healthcare products. He established the EmQuire research group, through which he plays a vital role in coordinating and supporting quality improvement, innovation, research and education at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and its Emergency Department. 
 
David is currently also active as the lead for the Living Laboratory’s Digital Health Validation Lab (DHVL), where he advances the development of innovative technologies by helping innovators to generate evidence across the product development cycle. 

Steve Bagshaw

Grand Challenge Lead at CPI

Steve is responsible for Digital Health at CPI. His expertise lies in the commercialisation of medical devices and their integration with digital technologies. Steve has overseen and delivered on a number of successful public and private programmes at CPI, helping new research ideas develop from prototype and through to commercial deployment. Clients include industries such as automotive, aerospace, defence, packaging and MedTech in particular.

These projects involve working with companies of all sizes from both the public and private sector ranging from large device companies, innovative SMEs, academia and the NHS. Previously Steve has held Business Development, Marketing and Strategy roles at CPI. Prior to joining CPI in 2008, Steve studied Business Studies at Northumbria University and holds an Executive MBA (with distinction) from Warwick Business School. 

Dr Derrick Khor

Clinical oncology registrar currently working in the Beatson Cancer Centre

Dr Derrick Khor is also the founder of Adopt-A-Doc, an organisation that specialises in connecting healthtech companies with healthcare professionals. Dr Khor has been extensively involved with the healthtech startup ecosystem and have advised many healthcare startups and connected over 100 clinicians to healthtech clinical consulting work. 

Professor Kathleen A Boyd

Professor in Health Economics | Director of Research School Health & Wellbeing 

Kathleen is a Professor in the Health Economics for Health Technology Assessment (HEHTA) group, and Director of Research for the School of Health & Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow. She leads the Economic Evaluation alongside Clinical Trials theme for HEHTA, collaborating throughout the UK and internationally on health care research projects, spanning a wide range of funders from charities, research councils, the Scottish Government and Industry.  Kathleen specialises in trial design for economic evaluations alongside clinical trials, incorporating decision modelling and economic analyses of complex clinical and public health interventions.  Her research spans a wide range of clinical and health care areas including smoking cessation, oncology, obstetrics, early years interventions, mental health and different types of health technologies including pharmacological treatments, medical devices, diagnostic tests and public health and social care interventions. Kathleen is also a lead Health Economics Reviewer for the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), reviewing and presenting to the SMC New Drugs Committee, which directly informs decision making policy in Scotland.  

Professor Jesse Dawson

Professor of Stroke Medicine at School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health at the University of Glasgow

Professor Dawson is a Consultant Physician in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow. He is a member of the European Stroke Organization Executive Committee. He has research interests in clinical trials on prevention and rehabilitation in stroke survivors, with special focus on improving long-term outcomes.

Russell Overend

Chief Operating Officer (COO) for MR CoilTech Ltd

MR CoilTech Ltd is a small and rapidly growing company which make MRI Coils for the head and other body regions for the world's most powerful MRI scanners. Russell was previously a founder and CEO of Wideblue Ltd, a leading Scottish product design engineering firm specialising in medical devices, optical products, consumer products, industrial products and instrumentation. After its acquisition by Pivot International in 2022, Wideblue became part of a global design and manufacturing network.

Russell’s career also includes a physics degree from the University of Glasgow and roles at Polaroid, Barr and Stroud (now Thales).

Professor Ross Cagan

Regius Professor of Precision Medicine | Royal Society Wohl Fellow | Scientific Director of the Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre at University of Glasgow

Dr Cagan's laboratory has been at the forefront of developing complex, whole-animal models for studying cancer and genetic diseases, contributing to the approval of the first FDA-approved treatment for Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma. He also led the Center for Personalized Cancer Therapeutics team, which developed a personalised fly-to-bedside, open label clinical trial for thyroid and colorectal cancer patients.

As a leading expert in personalised treatment, Dr Cagan serves as the Academic Lead of the Living Laboratory programme. He is integral to the large-scale effort to develop a thriving healthcare innovation ecosystem in Glasgow, focusing on expanding the city’s existing leadership and infrastructure in precision medicine.

Professor Nigel Jamieson

Professor of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery at the University of Glasgow School of Cancer Sciences | Consultant HPB surgeon at Glasgow Royal Infirmary

Nigel Jamieson manages the Jamieson Spatial Laboratory, a spatial transcriptomic facility in the UofG characterising multiple malignancies, premalignant lesions, and inflammatory conditions across an international collaborative network deploying various regional and single-cell spatial technologies on large academic and industry led projects. Within the Living Lab he coordinates the CYGNUS project, deploying spatial biology technologies across a number of health condition. 

Professor Kevin Blyth

Professor of Respiratory Medicine in the School of Cancer Sciences at the University of Glasgow

Professor Blyth splits his time between the Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre, the CRUK Scotland Institute and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where he leads the Glasgow Pleural Disease Unit. He founded the Macmillan Scottish Mesothelioma Network, which coordinates care and access to clinical trials for patients across Scotland and is National Clinical Lead for Mesothelioma. He leads a translational research program focused on mesothelioma. He is Chief Investigator of the PREDICT-Meso International Accelerator Network, which currently comprises 142 investigators from 84 institutions across 15 countries. He is Academic Lead for the Living Lab Radiogenomics Project. 

Dr Yumi Kasai

Head of Cancer Genomics, Genomics Innovation Alliance at University of Glasgow

Dr Yumi Kasai is the Head of Cancer Genomics, Genomics Innovation Alliance, University of Glasgow where she promotes the clinical accreditation of complex molecular assays. She is an experienced scientist with expertise in clinical molecular genomics, genomic technologies including next-generation sequencing and the utilization of all this for precision medicine. She is board certified in clinical molecular genetics and genomics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics. Previous roles include molecular lab director at the Mount Sinai Genetic Testing Laboratory, the New York Genome Center, Eurofins NTD and the more recently as clinical quality director of the Lighthouse Laboratory in Glasgow (LLIG), University of Glasgow. 

Bevan McWilliam

Director of Business (Life Science) at Kadans Science Partner

Bevan, originally from New Zealand, began his career in microbiology before transitioning to technology transfer. The last two decades in the UK have seen Bevan working across the field of tech transfer - in environmental, engineering, agritech and medical technologies - where he saw scientific research commercialised through the creation of licensing deals, fee-for-service arrangements, and high technology spin-out businesses.

Bevan has a well-developed skillset in scientific partnering and business development, especially in preclinical contract research. He has also been involved in promoting laboratory space from central London to support research initiatives. His work is centred on bridging the gap between scientific discovery and commercial application, facilitating the growth of innovative solutions in the biotech sector.