Our team

Dr Appleby is an accomplished medicines developer, having operated in all phases of therapeutic development from discovery to commercial launch. He joins Mogrify from the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, where he was Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer and led the R&D group focused on ATMP manufacturing processes and analytical development for five years. Prior to this, Dr Appleby was CSO for Cell and Gene Therapy in GSK’s Rare Diseases Unit, where he led the team that developed Strimvelis^TM, the multi-award-winning and first autologous pediatric CD34⁺ stem cell gene therapy to be approved for commercial use. He also led for 2 years the ARSA gene therapy, which was later out-licensed to Orchard Therapeutics and recently approved as Lenmeldy^TM.

Dr Appleby previously held the position of Director and Portfolio Manager at the GSK Centre of Excellence for External Drug Development, where he discovered, in-licensed, and developed new technologies and assets across a broad range of therapeutic areas. He graduated from the University of Leeds with an honors degree in Genetics and a PhD from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Joe began his career at Horizon Discovery Group plc working within the corporate development team gaining experience in business planning, licensing, technology evaluation and M&A analysis, before becoming Dr. Jonathan Milner’s (Co-founder of Abcam plc) Portfolio Manager where he built and managed a complex portfolio of more than 40 early-stage life science companies. Joe holds a degree in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Bath and an MPhil in business management from the University of Cambridge.

Leading the Movement Towards Direct Cell Conversion – Technology Networks featuring Joe Foster. 

Aida is a computational biologist specializing in developing novel therapeutic approaches to treat disease. Before joining Mogrify in 2019, she worked in target discovery for diverse therapeutic areas including chronic and autoimmune conditions at Duke-NUS, all the way through computational modeling, target discovery, ex vivo and in vivo experimental target validation. She also worked on cell therapies for heart and retinal disease which were licensed by Alder Therapeutics in 2023. Aida completed her PhD at Imperial College London on Cardiovascular System Genetics.

Alun joined us from Oxford Biomedica having spent three years working across cell and gene therapy program strategy as well as the design, initiation, and management of a range of preclinical studies. Alun brings extensive experience in the preclinical translation of advanced therapies for inherited retinal disease, including execution of both exploratory and proof-of-concept studies as well as delivery of gene therapy clinical trials for eye disease.

Alun completed his PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Manchester, UK, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Mary Lyon Centre at MRC Harwell prior to joining the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford.

David has broad experience conducting and leading research in the areas of stem cell differentiation, gene editing and gene delivery technologies across a number of biotech companies. Following completion of his PhD in Stem Cell Biology at the University of Nottingham, David was awarded a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue independent research at the MCRI, Melbourne. Prior to joining Mogrify, David also held research roles at GE Healthcare (now Cytiva), Horizon Discovery and Empyrean Therapeutics.

Helen is an experienced Finance & Business Operations leader within the life sciences and biotechnology sector. She has over 18 years’ experience across all areas of financial and operational management, with a specific track record of successful audits, R&D tax claims, and building high-performance financial infrastructure and reporting. Helen began her career at Abcam PLC during its growth phase through to IPO, undertaking both AAT & ACCA qualifications, managing teams, processes, and reporting across international subsidiaries. She then joined Axol BioScience’s leadership team – a company offering stem-cell-derived research models – to set up and lead their finance, HR, and business support functions. Helen also played a key financial role in obtaining a leading VCT investment for Axol Bioscience in 2017.

Mark has extensive experience in the creation and delivery of complex communications for the life science and technology sectors. Prior to joining Mogrify in 2019, he worked within the communications team at Horizon Discovery Group plc from scale-up through to IPO, gaining critical experience in the development of cross-channel communications, investor relations (both private and public), brand building and corporate development. Mark holds a dual role as Director of Communications and Investor Relations, and Chief of Staff to the Executive Leadership Team supporting various aspects of strategic planning and corporate governance.

Conor has more than 20 years’ experience practising law, mainly spent in-house supporting biopharma R&D. Conor began his career in private practice before moving to Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) in 2005. Conor’s key responsibilities in CAT (later, MedImmune) were advising on strategic business development-led deals and leading a team of lawyers in the US and UK. In his final role prior to Mogrify, Conor was Chief Counsel to AstraZeneca’s Neuroscience R&D unit where he had a wide remit, with a focus on transactions and patent prosecution. Conor holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law from the Queen’s University of Belfast and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.