About us
Learn more about Imperagen and meet our team
Founded by a team of enzyme engineers and computational biologists as a spin-out of The University of Manchester, we are increasing the speed and reliability of enzyme engineering to unlock the full potential of enzyme technology.
Based in the heart of Manchester, UK, the historic centre of the world’s first industrial revolution and a hub of computing innovation, Imperagen will be at the forefront of the next bio-revolution.
Meet our team
Management Team / Executive Board Members
Rob Wilson
Chief Executive Officer
Rob is an experienced executive with an international background in pharmaceuticals, life sciences and biotechnology, having held business leadership roles at Avecia, Codexis and DNA Script. He brings 20+ years’ experience leading projects and businesses in the space, with a particular focus on protein engineering, enzyme manufacturing and developing differentiated products and processes for regulated environments.
He has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Leeds and is passionate about solving unmet market needs with the smart use of technology.
Andrew Currin
Chief Scientific Officer – Co-founder
Andrew is a leading expert in the fields of directed evolution, enzymology, and synthetic biology. Andrew’s driving interest is accelerating protein engineering through advancing techniques in gene assembly and laboratory automation. He has developed multiple novel DNA assembly approaches that provide the technology foundations for Imperagen’s fully automated enzyme engineering platform.
He has also authored numerous papers and edited books on enzyme engineering and is a named inventor on several patents. He has a PhD in Biochemistry from The University of Manchester.
Andrew Almond
Chief Information Officer – Co-founder
Andrew has over 20 years’ of experience in managing commercial R&D projects with particular emphasis on using computers to understanding complex biochemical problems, which lie at the centre of Imperagen’s AI-based technology.
Andrew is also a serial entrepreneur with a strong track-record in successful commercialisation of biotechnology. He co-founded C4X Discovery, a drug discovery company, and led the company as CEO to a successful series-A fundraise, before stepping back to CTO and helping to deliver a successful IPO in 2014.
He currently holds a part-time Readership in Physical Chemistry at The University of Manchester.
Tim Eyes
Chief Product Officer – Co-founder
As CPO, Tim drives product development and commercial engagement for Imperagen. An experienced protein engineer, his scientific career started in antibody technology and biotherapeutics for Big Pharma. More recently he has pivoted his interests towards the vast potential and importance of enzyme technology in sustainable biomanufacturing.
This has led Tim to co-develop the founding technology of Imperagen and help build its early commercial strategy. He has a PhD in Biotechnology and held an Enterprise Fellowship at The University of Manchester. He has authored several scientific papers and is a named inventor for a novel enzyme-based process for API synthesis.
Non-Executive Board Members
Peter Seufer-Wasserthal
Non-Executive Chairman
Peter brings over 30 years of industrial biotechnology and life sciences commercialisation experience, supporting biotechnology companies’ development and profitability.
Investment Director
Northern Gritstone
Alex Wilson
Partner IQ Capital
Advisory Board
John Woodley
Advisor, Biocatalysis
John is currently Professor of Chemical Engineering at Technical University of Denmark. He has published over 300 papers with over 30 years’ experience in the scale-up and scale-down of biocatalytic processes.
Frank Craig
Advisor, Platform Technology and Automation
Frank was a co-founder and a VP of Aurora Biosciences (San Diego, USA) and has also worked for GSK and GE Healthcare in senior scientific roles. Frank has raised over £250m in investment and commercial partnerships.