Our Team

Head of Scientific Operations

Melissa Barr

Melissa has an academic background in Biochemistry and Cancer Biology and was awarded the prestigious Royal Society of Biology Student of the Year award in 2019, highlighting her significant potential in the field. During her research, Melissa contributed to a peer-reviewed publication in Cell Death and Disease, which investigated phenotypic changes in metastatic prostate cancer using 3D spheroid models, particularly under hypoxic conditions. This work can be accessed here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41419-023-05818-9. Melissa’s research received attention from multiple mainstream media outlets, including The Independent, which highlighted its impact on advancing the understanding of tumour microenvironments. The article can be found here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/scientists-nottingham-trent-university-italy-b2363992.html In her industrial career, Melissa progressed to a Senior Scientist role at a leading Contract Research Organisation (CRO), where she developed and optimised biochemical and cell-based assays across the preclinical drug discovery pipeline, from hit identification to lead optimisation. Now, as Head of Scientific Operations at Inaphaea BioLabs, Melissa combines her academic insights and industrial expertise to oversee the lab’s cutting-edge oncology research, ensuring high-quality and innovative project delivery for both clients and internal stakeholders.

Senior Scientist

Dr Amelia Hatfield

Amelia has an academic background in Pharmacology and Oncology, with research focused on understanding the mechanisms of action of anti-cancer agents in colorectal cancer, particularly in the context of mutant KRAS. She earned her MSc in Oncology at the University of Nottingham, conducting research at the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre (CBTRC), where her work was presented at the International Symposium on Paediatric Neuro-Oncology (ISPNO) in 2020 and published as a poster abstract. This abstract can be found here: https://academic.oup.com/neuro-oncology/article/22/Supplement_3/iii472/6019356?login=false She then went on to complete her PhD at the same institution, presenting her findings at the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) in 2022, with her abstract available in the EACR 2022 Abstract Book EACR22-0112 found on: https://www.eacr.org/user_uploads/files/2022-Event-Websites/EACR_2022/EACR_2022_Abstract_Book.pdf

Head of Strategic Commercial Development

Andrew Carnegie

Dr Andrew Carnegie has been working in the area of business development since 2006, after finishing a Ph.D. in Cell & Molecular Biology and a PostDoc studying Dopamine Receptors. During his career, he has worked for companies in the R&D space, pre-clinical and biomarkers for clinical support, winning multiple back to back sales awards in several companies. Company history includes: Organovo for 3D cell technologies, Aptuit for pre-clinical services projects and Millipore for early-stage screening studies. Since moving into Business Development, Andrew has never lost his passion for science and science-based technologies, and that forms the basis of his approach when talking with project partners.

Director

Gerry Desler

Gerry is a chartered accountant, who qualified in 1968 with a City firm, before becoming a Partner (1970) and Senior Partner (1985). During his time in the City, he has specialised in consultancy work, much of it involving funding and venture capital. Gerry was previously the Finance Director of Premier Management Holdings plc, an AIM listed company and is on the board of a number of private companies.

Director

Dr Mark Eccleston

Dr Mark Eccleston is polymer chemist and biotechnology entrepreneur with over 30 years experience working in translation science in both drug and biomarker development. Mark is a former BBSRC Enterprise fellow and holds an MBA (Entrpreneurship). He is an inventor on over 30 patents ranging from peptide and CAR-T cell therapies to nucleosome enrichment as well as biodegradable chewing gum. Mark is the Managing Director of OncoLytika Ltd, a UK based technology consultancy company with a successful track record of securing grant funding, strategic business development and client project management. He serves on the Scientific and Commercial Advisory boards of ValiRx Plc whose focus is progressing early-stage assets through the value chain and also supports commercialisation activities for its parent company and translational Contract Research Organisation, Inaphaea. He is a scientific founder of several companies, including Volition, where he currently serves as an independent scientific advisor supporting Nu.Q®️ Discover. In addition to his commercial activities, Mark has supervised multiple PhD and Masters students at various universities, including the Open University, Greenwich University and DKFZ in Germany. He also serves as an external advisor to the Open University, contributing to modules focused on employability of biosciences graduates and employer expectations from graduates in terms of bioinformatics training.

Chief Scientific Officer

Cathy Tralau-Stewart

Cathy is an experienced therapeutics development scientist and pharmacologist. Working within some of the world’s leading pharma and academic research establishments she has developed a broad knowledge of drug discovery and the translation of early research innovation into developable drug discovery programs.

Preclinical Project Manager

Zai Ahmad

Zai has over 25 years experience in the life science industry. Originally in Neuroscience, looking at synaptic junctions associated with memory and neurotransmitter release and pathways associated with Parkinson’s Disease and cardiovascular regulation. Zai moved to oncology as an opportunity to be closer to patients and to have a direct impact on patient survival. Working at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) for 14 years, Zai established a specialism in xenograft and transgenic models for use in drug development.

Scientific Consultant

Gareth Griffiths

Dr Gareth Griffiths, holds a PhD in Immunology/oncology from the University of Birmingham and is now a scientific specialist in the isolation and growth of patient derived tumour cells. He has several years postdoctoral experience at the University of Manchester which was followed by a role as a specialist in high content imaging assay development at AstraZeneca. Following this, he cofounded Imagen Therapeutics, a company providing a CRO service to pharma and biotech. An entrepreneurial driven scientist, he developed Imagen successfully over a 14 year period. He has proven expertise at every level of developing a company, encompassing commercial activities all the way to scientific project delivery. Combining his knowledge of advanced cell image analysis, patient derived tumour development and expertise in Immunology, he is now working to support Inaphaea as a scientific consultant.