Elaine Harper

Biography

Dr Elaine Harper has over 25 years of research and development experience in pharmaceutical, biologics and cell and gene therapy arenas working and publishing in a number of therapeutic areas, including oncology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, inflammation and virology. After completing her PhD and a brief period of post-doctoral research at the Parke Davis Research Unit, Cambridge, Elaine moved into the industry spending 16 years at the James Black Foundation followed by 7 years working in biotech and CRO companies (Syntaxin Ltd and hVIVO).  At the James Black Foundation, Elaine led the research and drug discovery activities of a small team of Analytical Pharmacologists and also supervised a number of graduate and PhD students.  At Syntaxin, Elaine was initially employed as a preclinical pharmacologist, responsible for identification of and program management of the preclinical activities required for first in man studies of a novel biologic for the treatment of COPD.  She then took over as Head of Department and was responsible for leading the research and development activities of the company Pharmacology and Cell Biology scientists, project leadership and strategic planning of project science.  As Development Pharmacology sub-team leader, Elaine was also responsible for devising the Pharmacology preclinical plan and subsequently project managing internal and outsourced activities with CRO and national and international collaborators to support the regulatory submission of a novel biologic for the treatment of Acromegaly. At hVIVO, as Cell Biology and Inflammation Target Discovery Team Leader, Elaine worked with a team of cross-disciplinary scientists to identify biomarkers and novel host immunomodulator targets for the treatment of respiratory viral infections leading to exacerbations of asthma and COPD. Latterly, Elaine worked at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult in London where she was responsible for program management of a number of multidisciplinary UK-based and global cell and gene therapy projects focused on assisting cell and gene therapy developers translate research into commercially viable therapies. Elaine has a wealth of experience in compiling Grant applications, research and development plans and patent applications and has a BSc and Associateship of the Royal College of Science in Biochemistry from Imperial College, London University and MPhil and PhD in Pharmacology from Cambridge University.

Research Interest

therapeutic areas, including oncology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, inflammation and virology.