The Stratified Medicine Scotland - Innovation Centre (SMS-IC) has appointed Dr Mark Beggs as Chief Executive.

The SMS-IC brings together experts from academia, industry and the NHS to rapidly develop safer, more effective therapies and diagnostic tools for chronic diseases. The World Economic Forum estimates the global economic market for chronic disease treatments could reach $47 trillion over the next 20 years.

The  £20m centre, developed by Health Science Scotland (HSS) – a consortium comprising the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Grampian, NHS Lothian and NHS Tayside – received £8m from the Scottish Funding Council and is working with industry partners including Aridhia Informatics and ThermoFisher Scientific.

Dr Beggs has been serving as Chief Operating Officer for SMS-IC for the last year. He holds a degree and a PhD in Biochemistry from Oxford University and has over 25 year years’ pharmaceuticals experience working in GlaxoSmithKline, Astra Zeneca, Johnson and Johnson, TAP Biosystems and Pfizer in various discovery and academic industry NHS collaboration roles. 

He has authored in excess of 25 primary and review publications, is a named inventor on two patents and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Biomolecular Screening.

Dr Beggs said: “I am delighted and proud to accept the CEO role. I have been working closely with the team from across NHS Scotland, the Universities and Industrial Partners for the past year and look forward to moving SMS-IC through its next steps.

“Ultimately we aim to become the partner of choice for companies wishing to tackle the global issue of managing chronic disease through the application of stratified medicine.  In the end this will result in better delivery of treatment for patients suffering from chronic diseases and an improved outcome for their condition.”

Dr U’Prichard, Executive Chair of SMS-IC said: “I am pleased to welcome Mark to the CEO role. I have worked closely with him over the last year at SMS-IC but also in a previous industry post.  I know he appreciates the challenge of working in a complex science, IT and collaboration structure and has previously delivered highly-innovative solutions in the Pharmaceutical Industry.  I look forward to working with him going forward.”

SMS-IC is currently located on the Thermo Fisher Scientific site at Inchinnan and will relocate to the new South Glasgow University Hospital, due to open in 2015. This location, at the heart of the hospital campus, whilst connected to the entire NHS Scotland and medical research infrastructure, will provide unique access to sequenced human genomes linked to clinical data.

This will support pioneering research in stratified medicine for chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, and respiratory disease. In addition, the co-location of industry with academic researchers and clinicians will act as an accelerator for new developments in genomics, biomarker and companion diagnostics and bioinformatics products.

SMS-IC is investing in developing a centre of excellence in Stratified Medicine, next generation sequencing, high performance computing and Industry/NHS/HEI collaboration management to support healthcare organisations wishing to develop solutions for the management of chronic disease.  SMS-IC is additionally providing industry-led post-graduate courses in Applied Genomics and Bioinformatics.

 

Media enquiries: stuart.forsyth@glasgow.ac.uk / 0141 330 4831

 

First published: 29 October 2014

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