Shift Bioscience onboards Lord Prior and Sir Tony Kouzarides to back growth strategy

Both will provide crucial support to advance Shift’s therapeutic pipeline, helping to foster new industry partnerships and broaden awareness of the company’s long-term mission to treat disease by targeting underlying cellular ageing.

Lord Prior's primary focus will be to support the company’s ongoing strategy to comprehensively reverse ageing while in the shorter-term leveraging his broad industry knowledge and connections to explore and support opportunities for investment and to accelerate the development of Shift’s pipeline with pharma partners.

Sir Tony will help shape the company’s scientific strategy, identifying and advising on research and industry opportunities and raising awareness of Shift Bioscience’s unique approach to cell rejuvenation therapeutics.

David’s career spans finance, law, business and politics. He brings significant Board experience to the company, having previously been the Chairman of NHS England, the Care Quality Commission, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust and University College Hospital NHS Trust.

During his political career, David was the MP for North Norfolk and the Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of the Conservative Party, and has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for both the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

He is a strong advocate for transitioning from today’s reactive ‘sick-care’ health model to a proactive prevention-based approach, targeting the underlying causes of disease.

Tony is an esteemed academic and entrepreneur who has played a major role in the Cambridge life sciences ecosystem, having co-founded both the Milner Therapeutics Institute and Abcam. He is a professor in the field of Cancer Biology, listed as one of the top 10 most cited scientists at the University of Cambridge from 1996-2017.

Based at the Gurdon Institute, a world-leading cancer research facility, Tony’s lab explores the role of epigenetic modifications in cancer, and is currently investigating the specific involvement of mRNA modifications.

He has significant experience in founding and growing therapeutics companies, including as co-founder and ex-director of Chroma Therapeutics, co-founder and director of STORM Therapeutics, and co-founder and CEO of Vellos. In addition to these roles, Tony is a Venture Partner at Fifty Years.

Dr Daniel Ives, CEO, Shift Bioscience, said: “I’m extremely pleased to welcome Lord David Prior and Sir Tony Kouzarides to Shift Bioscience. Both are hugely renowned leaders in healthcare and life sciences respectively, and their careers and achievements speak for themselves.

“We’re incredibly thankful for their support of our mission to reverse ageing and combat the debilitating diseases that come with it, and I look forward to harnessing their experience to help propel the Company forwards in pursuit of this goal.”

Lord Prior said: “By applying sophisticated machine learning techniques to measure epigenetic change, Shift have been able to identify a number of genes that can reverse and slow down the ageing process. These findings will have extraordinary therapeutic benefits, enabling us to move from a reactive sick-care system to a more predictive preventative system of healthcare, and I look forward to drawing on my experience in the industry to support Shift Bioscience in leading the way through this transition.”

Sir Tony added: “Shift Bioscience is pioneering a truly unique approach to rejuvenation therapeutics, harnessing an expert team of AI and machine learning scientists, alongside its powerful virtual cell technology, to uncover new therapeutic targets and fight age-driven disease.

“I’m pleased to be taking on the role of Scientific Advisor at such a pivotal point in the company’s development, and look forward to working alongside Daniel and the wider leadership team to guide the company’s research and publication strategy.”

The appointments follow those of Dr Jill Reckless and Professor Bo Wang, as previously reported by Business Weekly. Establishing a strong Board and network of expert advisers has formed a key part of Shift’s ongoing development.