Our Team
Mark Duxon PhD
Every day brings us closer to discovering a major breakthrough in the search for new drugs to prevent, alleviate or cure. Mark is passionate about translational biology and the pivotal role it has towards delivering this.
As CEO of well known CRO companies in France and Singapore, he has enjoyed a privileged position in leading and influencing vital drug discovery programmes. Here in the UK, as CEO of Transpharmation, Mark’s work continues in translational biology with innovative science at the core.
Outside of work Mark’s interests are rooted in the countryside with dogs, tractors and a farmyard thrown into the mix.
Neil Upton PhD
Neil is the author of several patents, over 200 publications and a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society. His drug discovery know-how is renowned throughout the industry.
From taking a pivotal role at the helm of up to 40 preclinical and clinical translational scientists specializing in diverse CNS and GI indications to being strategic leader on several portfolios including Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, pain, epilepsy and sleep disorders. Neil has also taken molecules directed to numerous targets through Discovery and into clinical trials. These include 5-HT6, H3 and OX1/2 receptors and GAP junction modulators.
When Neil can be dragged away from the lab he can be found enjoying a pint of home grown ale at his son’s Brewery.
Ewa Sokolowska PhD
Ewa Sokolowska holds a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Zurich. She has over 15 years of experience working with different mouse models gained whilst at EMBL Monterotondo, Italy as a trainee, at the University of Zurich as a PhD student, and at the University of Helsinki during her Postdoctoral fellowship. Ewa is also the author of several paper publications and poster abstracts. She has been at Transpharmation Ireland Ltd for the past three years, where she successfully runs multiple preclinical studies and leads a team of young scientists. Her research interests include all aspects of novel animal models with possible high clinical significance.
Latin music and dance is Ewa’s favourite pastime when she’s not hard at work.
Col Taylor
Col is Transpharmation’s Operations Lead, Project Licence Holder and Animal Welfare Advocate. With over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry at leading companies including Rhone-Poulenc and GlaxoSmithKline, Col’s knowledge is expansive across numerous therapeutic areas such as pain, diabetes, arthritis and epilepsy. As such, she is well-placed to ensure all work conducted at Transpharmation is carried out to the highest standards. Alongside her skilled and experienced team, Col is instrumental in developing new assays and techniques for our ever-expanding portfolio of capabilities.
Col’s love of animals extends to all things equestrian. She owns a horse and competes at a regional level in dressage
Jack Prenderville PhD
Jack has over 10 years of experience in behavioural and molecular neuropharmacology across academia and industry. After completing a PhD at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, he spent time as a visiting researcher at the University of Michigan, USA. Following that, Jack returned to Ireland taking up a postdoctoral researcher post at the APC Microbiome Institute, University College, Cork working within an industry-academia partnership. Jack joined Transpharmation in 2014 and currently leads a team of innovative scientists responsible for translational models of psychiatric, neurodegenerative and inflammatory disorders.
As well as an enthusiastic traveller, Jack is an avid sports fan and an ever-improving short distance runner.
Sandor Kantor PhD
Sandor has over 20 years’ experience in neuroscience research, published more than 20 research articles and was awarded with theprestigious Pickwick Fellowship of National Sleep Foundation to study the neurobiology of narcolepsy at Harvard Medical School. Prior to taking up his post at Transpharmation, Sandor held a research role at Cambridge University where he identified the abnormal changes in sleep and brain oscillations in Huntington’s disease as well as the drugs that can reverse them. As Scientific Lead at Transpharmation he is responsible for directing sleep-wake profiling and EEG assessment of novel, CNS acting compounds.
Sandor is also a big fan of jazz music and wishes to learn the bass guitar at some point in his life.
John Huxter PhD
John has 23 years of neuroscience experience in both academia and industry. He has worked across an expansive range of therapeutic areas including psychiatric disorders, chronic pain and neurodegeneration. With a background in behaviour as well as electrophysiology (UCL, University of Bristol, Oxford’s MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit), John led biomarker discovery and assay development efforts at both Pfizer and Eli Lilly before joining Transpharmation in 2020. Highly proficient, John brings his focus on translational potential in neuroscience to the scientific team along with his passion for collaboration, honed through previous efforts with IMI prism and NC3Rs.
Gardening is John’s answer to relaxation, but when he wants to ramp things up live music ticks all the boxes.
Daniel Cohn PhD
Daniel has a PhD in Pyschoneuroimmunology and 15 years of experience in pre-clinical neuroscience. His scientific expertise has been gathered by working in neuroimmunology, psychopharmacology, neurodegeneration and pain. Daniel’s post-doctoral experience spanned three universities in three countries; the University of São Paulo in Brazil, La Trobe University in Australia, and the University of Southampton here in the United Kingdom. Before joining Transpharmation Ltd in 2020, Daniel worked at Eli Lily. As Capability Leader for neuropathic pain, Daniel is responsible for overseeing studies across multiple global clients.
Spending time with his family is Daniel’s favourite pastime, with a passion for travel and reading too.
Ana Pereira PhD
Ana’s research experience is in preclinical models of inflammatory and neuropathic pain, with a focus on evaluating nociceptive, cognitive and emotional behavioural performances. As such, she is well placed as Transpharmation’s Capability Leader for Inflammatory Pain, working on a variety of client studies. Ana is also a skilled single-cell electrophysiologist. She has over 10 years of experience in rodent models of pain gained during her MSc in Health Sciences and PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Minho in Portugal and postdoctoral training at University College of London.
Travelling is at the top of Ana’s time off list, with movie watching her preferred way to relax.
Our clients are our partners.
We work hard around the globe to create breakthrough results for them.
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