Dr Hugh Spotswood appointed as Senior Business Manager and Emily Haggerty as Scientific Portfolio Associate

London, UK, 01 April 2015:

Ximbio (www.ximb.io), an online reagents portal for the life science community which originates fromCancer Research Technology(CRT), the development and commercialisation arm ofCancer Research UK, today announced the expansion of its team, with two new appointments. Dr Hugh Spotswood has joined as Senior Business Manager, and Emily Haggerty as a Scientific Portfolio Associate.

Hugh’s role as part of Ximbio is to head up the business development function to maximise the revenue created from commercialisation of life science research reagents available through the Ximbio website. He has over six years’ experience in reagents sourcing and licensing, and has a broad network of key opinion leaders in academic and government laboratories throughout Europe.

Hugh joins Ximbio from Merck Millipore, where he was Business Development Manager with responsibility for identification and in-licensing of new research tools. Prior to this he was Senior Development Scientist at Orchid Biosciences, before joining Abcam as a Senior TechnicalSupport Specialist and then moving to Millipore as a Field Applications Specialist.

Emily studied Biochemistry at Imperial College, and subsequently secured a placement with Imperial Innovations working with the technology transfer team. At Ximbio she is part of the Scientific Portfolio team, which sources exciting new reagents. Emily deals with Material Transfer Agreement queries and antibody sales, in addition to the assessment and diligence around new product deposits and the general management of Ximbio’s portfolio of research reagents.

Through Ximbio researchers can virtually deposit reagents, to raise their profile and share research globally. The Ximbio community benefits from Ximbio’s existing relationships with more than 300 life science reagents companies. Deposited reagents can be ‘tagged’ with details of the scientist and institute where they were developed, to make it easier for future users to cite the originating source in publications. Researchers can also use Ximbio to help make an informed decision about where to source a product from, and share experiences of using specific reagents with others.

Dr Melanie Hardman, Head of Ximbio, commented: “We created Ximbio to unify the life science reagent community, with the aim of maximising the visibility and impact of all research reagents, making them more widely and easily available. We hope that in this way we will contribute to the acceleration of life science research. We are excited to see our team expanding so soon after launch, and are confident that both Hugh and Emily will be great assets to Ximbio.”

Dr Hugh Spotswood said: “Ximbio is an exciting new concept in life science reagent commercialisation and sharing. I am delighted to be joining at this stage, and look forward to working alongside the team to expand the portfolio.”

ENDS

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About Ximbio(www.ximb.io)

Ximbio will change the way life science reagents are searched, sourced and shared.

• Through Ximbio researchers and technology transfer offices can virtually deposit their reagents free of charge to an online portal. Each reagent record can be linked to the originating inventor, enabling scientists and institutions to be credited for their work.
• Life science reagents companies can use Ximbio to easily source new products to augment their portfolios via a straightforward commercialisation process.
• Ximbio offers scientists looking for a specific reagent with a fully searchable database, extensive datasheets, peer reviews and supplier options.

Ximbio is owned by Cancer Research Technology (CRT). A share of product-based revenues is returned to the depositing institution.

Ximbio is focused on all areas of biology and will broaden the range of tools available to scientists globally, to support and advance life science research.

About Cancer Research Technology

Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT) is a specialist commercialisation and development company, which aims to develop new discoveries in cancer research for the benefit of cancer patients. CRT works closely with leading international cancer scientists and their institutes to protect intellectual property arising from their research and to establish links with commercial partners. CRT facilitates the discovery, development and marketing of new cancer therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and enabling technologies. CRT is wholly owned by Cancer Research UK, the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.