Donna Finch

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT DONNA FINCH

In April 2020 I took a hugely exciting post at Achemab Therapeutics as Head of Translational and Clinical Science. A wide ranging role, I am working with the Alchemab team to identify, characterise and bring to the clinic monoclonal antibodies discovered using next generation sequencing technology and computational biology from self-protective antibodies in resilient individuals.Prior to that I worked at MedImmune/AstraZeneca in Early Clinical Development, Respiratory Inflammation and Autoimmunity (Nov 2018-March 2020), where I used my expertise in disease pathogenesis to drive innovation in clinical trial design for early Ph2 COPD trials, and Digital Health pilot studies in the Respiratory therapy area. I continued to work with experts and consortia to understand Precision Medicine and -omics discovery in lung disease, for example, I was AZ lead for the Biomarkers workstream of NOVELTY, a unique observational study studying real world patients across the spectrum of obstructive respiratory disease.Previously, I led a group of immunologists researching and developing drugs for unmet need in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease. This group studied COPD pathogenesis, patient phenotypes, and immunological mechanisms that drive progression and exacerbations of disease. Using cutting edge cell biology, 3D co-culture-omics technologies and imaging, we focused mainly on human in vitro systems and disease samples to maximise translation to the clinic. I maintain a keen interest in basic biological mechanisms of disease.My history also includes drug discovery in Inflammation, particularly rheumatology and I have lead multi-disciplinary teams of scientists, taking three candidate drugs through to the clinic.I manage teams directly and in a matrix structure, and consider people development and autonomy to be extremely important.