Newsletter - Edition 29
Dr Andrew Millar appointed as CEO of Oxford Gene Technology's New Operations Subsidiary
Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) the 1995 Oxford University spin-out company based on the genomics technology developed in Professor Ed Southern's laboratory (Department of Biochemistry) has restructured. A new operations subsidiary, OGT Operations, will concentrate on the provision of services while the rest of the group will maintain its focus on maximising the licensing position of OGT's patent portfolio.
Dr Andrew Millar, 45, the former head of clinical trials at British Biotechnology, now CEO of OGT Operations, described the company's purpose as being to develop and commercialise specialised services, using DNA microarray technology invented and patented by Professor Southern and his colleagues over the last ten years. These services can be technically summarised as oligonucleotide optimisation for anti-sense reagents and probes, resequencing of genes and gene expression analysis. The techniques lend themselves to the production of arrays for many applications in biological, pharmaceutical and medical research.
Dr Millar's medical experience and fifteen years research experience in the pharmaceutical, contract research and biotech industries qualify him uniquely to lead this enterprise. His capabilities are entirely complementary to the academic experience and proven innovation of Professor Southern, who will be a Scientific Advisor and the bioengineering expertise of Dr Tim Fell who will be Technical Director.
Dr Millar worked for seven years for Marion Merrell Dow in the UK, Australia, Japan and Europe holding the most senior medical positions in the latter three territories. He worked for one year in contract research before joining British Biotechnology as Director of Clinical Research in 1992.
Professor Ed Southern is globally recognised for his key insight 25 years ago that labelled nucleic acid molecules could be used to interrogate genetic material to determine DNA sequences. His techniques and their derivatives have led to vast research programmes in many different fields of biology, diagnostics and medicine including early work in the human genome project.
In the late eighties and early nineties, with his co-workers, he developed methods of synthesising customised short sequences of nucleic acids on glass surfaces, which would be capable of extreme miniaturisation. Coupled with bioengineering, these techniques allow very powerful experimental tools to be built to investigate gene sequences and behaviour. It is widely accepted that the commercial potential for such techniques is large. Professor Southern sees his techniques as being building blocks for, or complementary to, the skills needed in biological and medicinal research.
Located in the Oxford Trust's BioTechNet incubator site in Littlemore, OGT Operations plans to be providing genomic services by spring 2000.
Newsletter - Edition 29 Contents
- Monoclonal Antibodies
- Reprogramming the Immune System
- Oxford Gene Technology
- Isis College Fund
- Oxagen Ltd