Professor, Dept. of Medicine, University of Cambridge
Allan, a professor in the Dept. of Medicine at Cambridge University, is a world-renowned researcher and entrepreneur. He is known for his pioneering role in the development of ES cell technology, acknowledged by the 2007 Nobel Prize awarded to his thesis advisor Martin Evans. His laboratory has published numerous highly cited primary research articles, he has mentored many leading academics and he is an elected fellow of both the Royal Society and Academy of Medical Sciences. Serving as the second Director of the Sanger Institute after Sir John Sulston, he was responsible for transitioning a highly focused genome-sequencing facility into a highly productive academic institute while stimulating a culture that enabled translation, including two spinouts that emerged from his own laboratory at Sanger, Kymab and PetMedix.
Allan is a serial entrepreneur. He has co-founded six companies two in the USA and four in the UK including two unicorns, Lexicon’s $1bn debut on the NASDAQ was achieved 5 years after it was founded while Kymab was sold to Sanofi for $1.45bn in 2021. PetMedix, the animal health company he co-founded in 2018 was recently acquired by the leading animal health company, Zoetis. Allan currently serves as the CEO of T-Therapeutics the most recent spinout from his laboratory.
