Dr Johnny Habchi

Dr Johnny Habchi is a life sciences R&D leader focused on helping biotech companies, investors and innovation ecosystems turn promising science into robust, investable development programmes. As Head of R&D Consulting at Medicines Discovery Catapult, he leads a multidisciplinary team supporting founders and organisations across therapeutic areas and modalities to de-risk scientific strategies, strengthen translational plans and make better-informed portfolio decisions. He also shapes the commercial strategy for R&D Consulting, builds partnerships with regional clusters and innovation ecosystems across the UK and internationally, and contributes scientific and commercial insight to investment evaluation and portfolio discussions. 

Johnny’s career spans academic research, biotech entrepreneurship and strategic consultancy. After completing his PhD and leading drug discovery research at the University of Cambridge, he co-founded and scaled Wren Therapeutics, where he built and led a multidisciplinary team of more than 30 scientists and advanced five preclinical drug discovery programmes. He established collaborations with global pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and specialist delivery partners, while introducing automation, robotics and high-throughput experimentation to increase platform efficiency and significantly reduce development timelines. 

Alongside his executive role, Johnny contributes to investment and programme governance through Medicines Discovery Catapult’s Investment Committee, the PACE-AMR Joint Programme Management Board and the Audit and Risk Committee of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. With more than 55 peer-reviewed publications, patented technologies and extensive international speaking experience, he combines scientific depth with commercial judgement, operational leadership and cross-sector relationship building. His approach centres on challenging assumptions early, identifying the critical risks within a programme and defining the decision-grade evidence required to progress towards investment, partnership and clinical translation. 

Dr Adriana Gambardella

Dr Lorna Fitzpatrick

Lorna is a Lead scientist with many years of experience in molecular biology and genetic engineering in primary, stem and cancer cells.

Lorna has a PhD from St. George’s University of London and carried out post-doctoral research at Manchester Metropolitan University before joining Medicines Discovery Catapult.

In her current role, Lorna develops reporter models of disease pathways for both in vitro and in vivo readouts. She also has developed expertise in establishing capabilities to characterise intracellular delivery of complex medicines.

Dr Matthew Burnham

Dr Matthew Burnham has been a Lead Scientist at Medicines Discovery Catapult for eight years, working with early-stage companies to bring their innovations to industry and investor readiness, establishing a clear line-of-sight to the clinic for preclinical programmes. 

He brings ten years’ experience in large pharma Discovery Sciences, pharmacology and target engagement, cell-based screening and associated technologies spanning Neuroscience and Cardiovascular therapy areas from both an Efficacy and Safety viewpoint.

Dr Michael Eyres

Michael joined Medicines Discovery Catapult as an intern at the start of 2019 at the end of his PhD in Oncology at Oxford University.

Michael stayed at MDC to volunteer at the Lighthouse COVID test labs at the start of the pandemic and then joined MDC as a senior scientist in spatial biomarkers. Now he applies spatial proteomic and transcriptomic techniques on a wide range of tissues and diseases.

Dr Nicole Stone