Matt Barnes
Head of R&D
Matt joined Nxera Pharma in August 2016 as Head of Molecular Pharmacology with subsequent roles as VP, Drug Discovery and currently as Chief Scientific Officer and President of Nxera Pharma UK leading teams across multiple functions of the company including Platform, Drug Discovery and Translational Medicine totalling ≈180 scientists. Matt has over 25 years’ experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry and previously held positions of increasing seniority at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, UK and at Celltech Ltd (now UCB). He has a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Pharmacology from Newcastle University in the UK. Matt is a driven, highly collaborative and productive Biopharma leader with broad experience across Drug Target Identification/Validation, Drug Discovery, Pre-clinical Development and early Clinical Development. He has delivered numerous successful R&D campaigns resulting in multiple pre-clinical and clinical candidates across a broad range of therapeutic areas (Immunology, GI, Neuroscience, Immuno- oncology, Endocrinology) through leading multi-discipline teams including the initiation of 3 Phase I clinical studies over the last 2 years.
