Michael J. Butler, Ph.D. (Chief Executive Officer)

Mike has 20 years experience in science-driven businesses in Europe, US and Asia and is motivated by the organizational challenges at the interface of science and business. Most recently, Mike was the President, Scientific Operations and Chief Scientific Officer with Aptuit. During an acquisition-driven expansion, he consolidated and integrated API, preclinical, formulation, solid state chemistry and drug product manufacturing operations. The organization grew from three locations to eight and employed 800+ staff. Mike also led efforts to penetrate large accounts using Strategic Alliance Management teams, allocated R&D investment in service-oriented solutions and managed the Scientific Advisory Board. Mike was a member of the Aptuit-Laurus Board of Directors.

Before Aptuit, he was Group Vice President at MDS Pharma Services where he managed the company’s largest operations and commercial organizations. Ten clinical and chemistry operating units were located in N. America and Europe with clients in N. America, Europe and Asia. Prior to MDS, Mike was the Group Director, Business Development for Huntingdon Life Sciences, UK.

Ian Bedford, F.C.C.A. (Finance Director)

A Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants since 1986 with a range of experience in international finance leadership from a successful venture capital backed enterprise to public companies in the UK and USA. Ian has worked for Xpedite Systems, Inc in the Data Communications industry as Chief Financial Officer, CableData International in the Enterprise Software sector as Finance Director in addition to senior finance roles in Financial Services with Next plc. Ian set-up his own consultancy business in 2004 which included an assignment as Interim Finance Director for Xceleron from May 2008 leading to him becoming Finance Director for the company in December 2009.

Graham Lappin, Ph.D. (Chief Scientific Officer)

Graham has 30 years experience with metabolism and pharmacokinetics in academia and industry. He joined Xceleron in 2001 where he pioneered many applications of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS), including human microdosing, intravenous tracers, combining AMS and positron emission tomography, drug-drug interactions and applications to biologics. Previously, he was a Section Manager at Covance Laboratories, Harrogate, UK and before that with Zeneca’s Central Toxicology Laboratory, Alderley Edge, UK.

Graham is a Fellow of the Society of Biology and Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK and a member of ASCPT in the United States. He has over 40 publications plus a textbook entitled Radiotracers in Drug Development (CRC Taylor Francis, 2006). Graham is on the Editorial Advisory Boards for Expert Opinion in Drug Metabolism and Toxicology and Bioanalysis. He sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Human Regenerate Map Project at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden and is a visiting professor of Drug Metabolism at the University of Lincoln, UK. In addition to being Xceleron’s Chief Scientific Officer, Graham also has his own consulting business, Isometix Consulting, which offers services in metabolism and pharmacokinetics.

Stuart Best, Ph.D. (Senior Director of Operations)

Stuart has over 20 years experience spanning both regulated bioanalytical investigations and drug discovery screening for multi-national pharmaceutical companies and Contract Research Organizations. His career is distinguished by progressive applications of newer analytical technologies to characterize an expanding and ever more complex chemical space.

Immediately prior to Xceleron, Stuart was with Merck in Scotland where he spent seven years with Organon then Schering-Plough. He acted as site lead and supported critical ADME and pharmacology investigations, including analysis of endogenous compounds. Stuarts team employed a range of sample preparation and detectors, including parallel columns systems, UPLC, linear ion trap and QToF systems.

Stuart also spent time in the traditional service sector with Charles River (Inveresk) and Bioanalytical Analytical Systems. Most of his analytical time during this period was with LC-MS/MS, GC-MS systems.

Stuart completed his PhD at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Strathclyde. He has a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Strathclyde and is on the register of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

Mark Seymour, Ph.D. (Director of Study Conduct)

Trained as a biochemist at University College Cardiff, Mark obtained his PhD in comparative drug metabolism (in vitro/in vivo correlations) from the University of London in 1988. He then spent 12 years in the R&D Department at the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory, conducting in vivo metabolism studies on compounds potentially used for doping racehorses, and developing analytical methods to detect their use. In 1999, he joined the Drug Metabolism Department at Covance, Harrogate, where he was involved in running regulatory pre-clinical and clinical A(D)ME studies. Mark joined Xceleron in January 2007. Throughout his career, Mark’s research activities have focused on novel detection methodologies for drugs and their metabolites, including immunoaffinity chromatography; direct coupling of gas and liquid chromatography; the use of 13C:12C ratios to detect abuse of endogenous steroids. The move to Xceleron, and the use of accelerator mass spectrometry as an ultra-sensitive, enabling technique in biomedical research, was therefore a logical progression.

Jeremy Hague (Senior Director, Strategic Development)

Since joining Xceleron in 2003, Jeremy has been instrumental in developing fit-for-purpose applications of 14C tracer/AMS in clinical investigations. Jeremy combines a keen understanding of client need across a range of pharmaceutical stakeholder groups with a broad knowledge of how 14C tracer / AMS can be used to design novel and cost-effective clinical studies. Most recently, Jeremy has led or participated in the development of the following clinical solutions:

  • IV-PK investigation of absolute bioavailability and other PK properties at pharmacological doses at incremental cost within existing Phase 1 investigations
  • MIST – an innovative and cost-effective first view on human metabolism providing confidence in the representativeness of vitro and in vivo models
  • Examining utility of 14C tracer/AMS for large molecule drug development particularly in target-mediated disposition and soluble target turnover

Jeremy is a Chemistry and Management Science graduate of Imperial College, London University. Prior to joining Xceleron, Jeremy held product development roles in Europe and Asia for Charles River, Mars / Masterfoods and Exxon Chemical .