Our Business and Innovation Office is made up of a skilled team of staff with many decades’ experience in collaborating and contracting with commercial organisations and ICR scientists, turning our discoveries into patient benefits.

It is one of the most successful teams of its type in the UK, having played a major role in making the ICR the UK’s leading research institute for research impact and commercialisation, as well as one of the world’s most innovative academic organisations.

For general enquiries please contact us on: [email protected] or 020 8722 4030.

Address: Business and Innovation Office, The Institute of Cancer Research, 15 Cotswold Road, Sutton, London SM2 5PT

Dr Jon Wilkinson

Director of Business and Innovation (interim)

Jon holds a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Bristol and a D.Phil in developmental genetics from the University of Oxford. He is an experienced technology transfer professional with over 20 years leading in identifying, protecting and commercialising opportunities in the healthcare sector.

Jon joined the ICR having previously worked for Imperial Innovations and Imperial College London, where he led on commercialising research across medicine and natural sciences sectors. This role involved negotiating numerous licenses, research collaborations and alliances with biotech and pharma companies, as well as supporting the creation of multiple spin-out companies.  

Email: [email protected]

Phone number: 020 3437 6620

Commercial opportunities:

CAR-T therapy development for breast cancer and other solid tumours

Opportunity: IL23 inhibitors in prostate cancer

Dr Ceri Mathews

Senior Business Development Manager

Ceri holds a BSc in Physiological Sciences and a PhD in ion channel physiology from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He also holds an MBA awarded by Durham Business School. Ceri is an experienced technology transfer professional with over 20 years’ experience of identifying, protecting and commercialising opportunities in the life sciences and medtech sectors.

Ceri joined the ICR in 2022 having previously worked for King’s College London, where he led on commercialising a wide range of technologies arising mainly from their School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences. Prior to joining King’s, Ceri worked with a number of government research agencies, including Dstl and UK Health Security Agency, to commercially exploit research outputs via licensing technologies to existing companies or newly-formed spin-outs. 

Ceri’s team works closely with the ICR’s Divisions of Clinical Studies, Genetics and Epidemiology, Molecular Pathology and Radiotherapy and Imaging, which have extensive interactions with industry, to support the development and translation of new cancer diagnostics, prognostics, treatments and technologies.

Email: [email protected]

Phone number (home): 020 3437 6884

Phone number (mobile): 07840 841 369

Dr Charlotte Walden

Business Development Manager (Head of Enabling Contracts)

Dr Charlotte Walden leads our Enabling Contracts team, which has streamlined the approval of a range of agreements from simple CDAs and MTAs to academic consultancies and complex international consortium agreements.

Charlotte holds a D.Phil in lipid biochemistry from the University of Oxford and completed a postdoc in organelle biogenesis there, before spending several years as a Global Project Manager at Unilever and then taking up a position as research and business development Manager for Structural and Chemical Biology at the University of Leicester.

Email: [email protected]

Phone number: 020 3437 6497

Dr Jenny Worthington

Business Development Manager

Dr Jenny Worthington holds a PhD in Cancer Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry from University College London and most recently was an Innovation Adviser at Newable Ltd., where she delivered strategic and tailored business advisory support to London-based SMEs to enable profitable growth through innovation.

Previously Jenny was responsible for the evaluation, protection and commercialisation of technology and IP assets arising from the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine at Kings College London.

Email: [email protected]

Phone number: 020 3437 6607

Commercial opportunities: 

New drug in ovarian cancer

Biomarker for CDK4/6 and/or aromatase inhibitor response in breast cancers

Jennifer Hodgson

Business Development Manager

Jennifer has a masters degree in Physics from the University of Manchester and a professional masters in Enterprise from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

Jennifer has been a member of the Business and Innovation Office since 2004 and has experience in all areas of intellectual property protection and commercialisation.

Email: [email protected]

Phone number: 020 8722 4454

Jonathan Beech

Business Development Manager

Following a PhD from the University of Bristol, Jonathan worked as a research fellow at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in San Diego.

He has worked on translational collaborative research projects with industry at Imperial College London before moving into business development and holds an MSc in Science Entrepreneurship from Cass Business School.

Email: [email protected]

Phone number: 020 8722 4226

Commercial opportunities:

Cancer vaccines or immunotherapy to tackle drug resistance

ARID1A and other BAF complex defects as biomarkers for ATRi resistance

Kirsten Miles

Business Development Officer

Kirsten has a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol and an MSc in Management of Intellectual Property from Queen Mary University of London.

She previously had a placement at a patent law firm, worked in editorial teams for educational medical journals and worked in clinical trial data management at the ICR. Within the Business and Innovation Office, she mainly handles material transfer agreements, confidentiality agreements and consultancy agreements.

Email: [email protected]

Phone number: 020 8722 4529

Gillian Hynes

Business Development Officer

Gillian has a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Sheffield. She spent several years working in the Section of Cell and Molecular Biology at the ICR on a wide range of laboratory projects prior to joining the Enterprise Unit in 2009.

Gillian is mainly involved with handling Material Transfer Agreements.

Email: [email protected]

Phone number: 020 8722 4407

Sarah Loosley

PA and Office Manager

Email: [email protected]

Phone number: 020 8722 4030