Microbiotica Ltd.. (5/9/17). "Press Release: Microbiotica Appoints John Shields as Non-Executive Director".

	Organisation	Microbiotica Ltd.
	Organisation 2	Sanger Institute, The Wellcome Trust
	Group	Wellcome Trust, The
	Product	microbiomics
	Product 2	microbiomic treatment (live biotherapeutic product, LBP)
	Person	Shields, John (Sanger Institute + Crick + MRC before Abingworth Management + Cantab Pharmaceuticals + GSK)
	Person 2	Romanos, Mike (Microbiotica 201612– CEO + Co-Founder before Crescendo Biologics CEO before CSO before GSK)

Microbiotica, the spin-out company from the UK’s Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Sanger Institute), is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr John Shields as a non-executive director representing the Sanger Institute.

Dr Shields has extensive operational and investment experience in the biotechnology sector and is currently a member of the Sanger Institute Translation Committee, the Crick Institute Translation Advisory Group and the Medical Research Council’s Translational Research Group. He serves on a number of biotechnology company boards and is an adviser to several venture capital groups. Previously, he was an adviser to Abingworth Management, the life-sciences focused venture capital group, and has also worked in the pharma and biotech industry, initially at Glaxo and then as SVP Research for Cantab Pharmaceuticals.

Mike Romanos, Chief Executive Officer of Microbiotica, commented: “We are delighted to welcome John to Microbiotica’s Board. His experience in the translation of innovative science will bring invaluable insights to the company as we work to commercialise ground-breaking research into the role of the human microbiome in health and disease, and its application to medicine. His appointment is a welcome and tangible demonstration of our ongoing close link with the Sanger Institute, and I am sure he will make an immediate and important contribution to the team.”

Dr Shields commented: “Microbiotica is an immensely interesting organisation with, I believe, significant potential to apply its understanding of the role of human gut microbiome in health and disease to develop bacteriotherapies. I am looking forward to helping the team realise the enormous opportunity which is emerging from our increased knowledge of the role of the microbiome and to offering a new approach for treating diseases for which conventional treatments have been inadequate.”

Dr Shields joins existing Microbiotica Board members Mike Romanos, CEO, and Trevor Lawley, Chief Scientific Officer, along with Sam Williams, Head of Biotech at IP Group plc, and Robert Tansley, Investment Director at Cambridge Innovation Capital plc.

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Notes about Microbiotica

> Microbiotica was established in 2016 to develop and commercialise ground-breaking research into the role of the human microbiome in health and disease and its application to medicine conducted in the Host-Microbiotica Interactions Laboratory (“HMIL”) at the Sanger Institute.

> Microbiotica’s founders are Mike Romanos, Trevor Lawley and Gordon Dougan, FRS.

> CIC and IP Group are co-investors in Microbiotica, with a £4m contribution from each party to provide total initial funding of £8m.

> Microbiotica is based at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Cambridge, UK, with offices in the Biodata Innovation Centre and laboratories in the Sanger Institute.

Record changed: 2023-06-05