HCDD News

Celebrating women in biotech and life sciences on INWED 2023

June 23, 2023

As part of the International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) 2023, Research Assistant Simran was invited to talk to the BioIndustry Association about her motivations to work in STEM.

Watch the video here.

Simran Joins The Team

June 7, 203

This week we welcome Simran Sidhu in a newly created Research Assistant role.

"My interest in neuroscience stems from my experience living with a family member with a neurological condition and a desire to learn about the nervous system. This is the reason why I pursued an undergraduate degree in neuroscience at King's College London and a MSc in Clinical Neuroscience at University College London. From my academic experiences, I developed an interest in understanding molecular mechanisms of neurological conditions and discovering potential targets to create effective therapies. I'm excited to join the Human Centric DD as a Research Assistant to support the team in improving drug discovery."

Omer joins the team as supply chain and operations intern

May 30, 2023

''Currently, I am studying for an MSc in Drug Discovery and Pharma Management at UCL, which combines aspects of the technical drug discovery processes with management skills applicable to Pharmaceutical and Biotech industry. I have obtained my previous academic background from a BSc in Biomedical Sciences and my primary professional exposure through various commercial positions in the Life Sciences Industry. As part of my previous professional experiences, I have been working with various Life Science Industry suppliers and through this also gained exposure to the opportunities and challenges, specifically faced by Biotech start-ups, due to the Supply Chain processes.

By combining and implementing my professional experiences and technical understanding of the industry, I’m excited to be joining Human Centric DD as a Supply Chain and Operational intern. As part of the HCDD team, I will be working alongside the Operations and Laboratory teams, while carrying out research focused on the optimization of the supply chain for a small Biotech company.''

Reaction to Cochrane Review on Antidepressants for Pain Management

May 10, 2023

Written by Dr Rosa Woldegebriel

Antidepressants are prescribed to patients suffering from pain conditions but there is little scientific evidence on how efficacious these are. Antidepressants work through three main pathways that may be shared between mood and pain: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and the serotonin-noradrenalin reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs).

A network meta-analysis by Birkinshaw et al published in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews this week looked at 25 different antidepressants. Their analysis shows duloxetine was the only antidepressant with sufficient evidence and treatment potential. This interesting finding will have implications to patient care and authors recommend duloxetine at a standard dose for patients suffering from pain conditions. Importantly, patients should not drastically stop other medications, and should consult their clinician.

The study looked at response to the drug over two months, and longer follow-up would be needed to assess whether the drug can provide long-term pain relief. There is no data on efficacy on longer use of any antidepressants. Also, more data is needed on the safety of the duloxetine and other antidepressants to patients with chronic pain in longer use.

Even for the patients that the drug worked, it was shown to only give at best moderate and short-term relief for chronic pain. Therefore, more novel drugs to treat pain conditions are needed across different mechanisms of action and for those who do not respond to antidepressants such as duloxetine.

Sofiya Suladze joins as lab management and strategy intern

April 12, 2023

“After completing my undergraduate degree in neuroscience, I pursued a Biotech and Pharmaceutical Management MSc at University College London. Throughout my academic journey, I worked in a team of clinicians at Imperial College London, specialising in neuroendocrinology. Together we investigated an endogenous neuropeptide and published several papers in high-impact journals. After working in clinical research, I decided to apply my knowledge in an operational management environment. I am delighted to join Human Centric DD as a Lab Management and Strategy Intern. My responsibilities include ensuring the efficient management of experimental labs as well as performing commercial and scientific research on migraine discovery to advance key strategic areas.”

Human Centric Celebrates First Birthday

Jan 1, 2023

In December, Human Centric celebrated our first birthday after spinning out from the University of Oxford. Equipped with a passion for improving neurology drug discovery, we started with raising seed investment from Oxford Science Enterprises and moved into our new lab and office space in Oxford. Since then, we have grown our team with expertise across a number of subjects and have started to produce results from our cheminformatics, genomics and electronic healthcare record analysis. We have also interacted with the community here in Oxford through our stem cell seminar series and educational outreach, and internationally at BioTech X in Basel.

The team looks forward to continuing their excellent work and making an impact in the drug discovery space.

HCDD Meets Required Standard for NHS Digital's DSPT

December 9th, 2022

HCDD has met the required data security standards for NHS Digital's Digital Security Protection Toolkit. This provides assurance that the company is practicing good data security and that personal information is being handled correctly.

Human Centric Drug Discovery gains ISO 27001 certification

October 28th, 2022

We are delighted to announce that Human Centric Drug Discovery is now ISO 27001 certified! This is an internationally recognised standard, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to information security.

Human Centric Lab Team - Ed Nix0001_edited.jpg

HCDD's all-female lab team is complete

October 27th, 2022

With the addition of Rowan Taylor, the Human Centric DD lab team is now complete. Rowan is a molecular and cell biologist with a research background in modelling human disease using stem cell-derived models. She also brings an in depth experience of using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to model disease in human cells. Following her PhD at the University of Leeds, Rowan is excited to start her research career at Human Centric DD. She will use her expertise in human disease modelling to drive innovative drug development for patients with neurological disorders.

We welcome a new addition to our lab team!

August 8th, 2022

Antigoni Katsikoudi has joined HCDD as a Research Scientist. She is a neuroscientist with a research background in modelling neurodegeneration using human relevant models of disease. She brings an in-depth experience of the neurological drug discovery pipeline having previously worked in an international pharmaceutical company. Having recently completed her DPhil degree she brings to the company fresh expertise in developing and optimising human stem cell assays.

HCDD celebrates the opening of our laboratories in Oxford

July 26th, 2022

We celebrate the opening of our laboratories at the Wood Centre for Innovation in Oxford. James Peach, CEO opened the laboratories by ribbon cutting followed by a party at the terrace to celebrate with other companies in the building. We are looking forward to getting started with cell cultures to understand and treat neurological disorders.

Human Centric DD welcomes experienced lead scientist

May 11th, 2022

Human Centric Drug Discovery welcomes Dr. Rosa Woldegebriel, PhD as a Lead Scientist. She is an experienced neuroscientist and cell biologist with core expertise in using human stem cells for neurological disease modelling. She has previously co-founded a start-up focusing on using real-world data in healthcare. She now has responsibility for leading the research aspects of the company, working with the CSO. She is delighted to begin her work with HCDD in this critical period to deliver research and drug discovery.

Prof Webber appointed UK DRI Director of Informatics

May 10, 2022

Congratulations to HCDD founder Caleb on his appointment to this new role leading informatics across the 750 researchers at the £290m national dementia research institute. We share the DRI's confidence that data science will lead to major breakthroughs in this area, and it is great for HCDD to be connected to the best science and methods.

https://ukdri.ac.uk/news-and-events/director-appointed-to-capitalise-on-innovations-in-informatics-and-data-science

Human Centric Drug Discovery welcomes experienced biotech finance director

February 9th, 2022

Human Centric Drug Discovery welcomes Kim Haworth, FCCA, MSc as company Finance Director. Kim has deep experience in biotech start-up finance including a portfolio of CFO and FD roles. She has been advising Human Centric pre-spinout and now has responsibility for all finance aspects of the company, working with the CEO. We are delighted that she is continuing her work with HCDD in this critical period to deliver financial strategy, control and management.

Human Centric Drug Discovery moves into new lab and offices

January 7, 2022

Human Centric Drug Discovery moved in to the purpose-built cell lab and offices in the Wood Centre for Innovation, just by the Churchill and John Radcliffe Hospitals and the Oxford Big Data Institute.

Human Centric Drug Discovery seed funding round complete

Friday 17th Dec 2021

Human Centric Drug Discovery raised seed funding today from Oxford Science Enterprises, following on from their initial support. The funding will enable the development of HCDD's integrated platform, building the team, and progressing internal programmes.

Human Centric Drug Discovery spins out from Oxford University

Thursday 16th December, 2021

Human Centric Drug Discovery span out of Oxford University today to push forward the work of Professors Zam Cader and Caleb Webber, including an exclusive license to the Oxford Science Enterprises funded proof of concept data. We have an exciting adventure ahead to de-risk neuroscience drug discovery using an innovative integrated platform of real-world informatics, human cellular phenotypes and genomics.