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Meet the Alumni: Dr Julie Barnes & Dr Mary Kerr, Careers in Life Sciences

Date and time
Wednesday 13 October 2021, 18:30 BST to 20:00 BST
Attendance and participation
This is an online only event.
Dr Julie Barnes and Dr Mary Kerr, Alumni

About this webinar

This 'Meet the Alumni' event welcomes Dr Julie Barnes, CEO and CSO of Abcodia, and Dr Mary Kerr, CEO of NeRRe Therapeutics, to share their stories of studying Pharmacology together at Bradford, through to their careers in life sciences as leaders of prominent UK biotech companies.

The event will be hosted by Professor Sherif El-Khamisy, Director of the Institute of Cancer Therapeutics at the University of Bradford, who will explore the successes and challenges along the way of their respective journeys in biotech, and gain an insight into two Bradford graduates innovating in ground-breaking medical technology.

The audience will also be invited to submit questions.

About Dr Julie Barnes:

Dr Julie Barnes is currently the founding Chief Executive and Scientific Officer of Abcodia Ltd. She has more than 30 years’ experience as an entrepreneur and business leader in small and large UK healthcare companies. Previous roles include Chief Scientific Officer at BioWisdom Ltd, a healthcare technology company (2011-2019), later sold to Instem, and prior to that, Head of Neuroscience at GlaxoWellcome / GlaxoSmithKline (1996-2011).

Julie is recognised for her breadth of experience in translational research, in both pharmaceutical and diagnostic/medical devices sectors. She has led many early development projects, regulatory and economic evaluations of new innovative healthcare technologies and implemented business strategies for early-stage growth. In 2013, she won the WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) Award for Enterprise and Innovation.

Julie was awarded a first class BSc in Pharmacology (1980-1984) and a PhD in Neuropharmacology (1984-1987) from the University of Bradford. She serves on several scientific advisory boards, including that of the Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center at the Knight Cancer Institute, USA.

About Dr Mary Kerr:

Dr Mary Kerr has served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NeRRe Therapeutics, a privately funded UK Biotech since 2015, and a non-executive independent director at Galapagos NV since 2016. In 2017 Mary co-founded and was CEO of KaNDy Therapeutics until the company was acquired by Bayer in September 2020 for an upfront consideration of $425 million and additional potential development, regulatory and sales milestone payments.

Before her career in Biotech, Mary held a range of senior leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline and heritage companies for more than 20 years, including Senior Vice President and Global Franchise leader for the Immuno-inflammation and Infectious Diseases franchise. Mary was a founding member and on the Corporate Executive team of ViiV Healthcare. She has spent most of her career on the R&D commercial interface in global strategy and regional operational roles, predominantly in the specialty and orphan space.

Mary gained a BSc and Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of Bradford, did post-doctoral research at the Michigan Cancer Foundation in Detroit, and has an MBA from the University of Kingston.

About the event series: Our Meet the Alumni series features close-up conversations with Bradford alumni from different disciplines and backgrounds providing great insights into the industries they work in and their personal and professional journeys.