Ahead of their attendance at this year’s MEDICA event, AgPlus have appointed a new Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Nic Christofides, who has vast experience of finalising late stage clinical assays to ensure commercial success.
Of Cypriot descent, Dr Christofides started his career in 1973 at Hammersmith Hospital, London, as a research assistant where he developed immunoassay for Oestriol and provided routine biochemistry services to the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department. This was quickly followed by a move to Endocrinology for 9 years as a senior research officer where numerous immunoassays were developed to determine the physiological functions of a number of hormones and neurotransmitters. This led to numerous (>100) publications in peer-reviewed journals and books.
In 1985 and for the following 22 years, Dr Christofides was the scientific advisor and research fellow at Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, a former Johnson and Johnson company. It was during this position that he developed numerous well-known immunoassays for RIA, Amerlite and Vitros Eci and where he became the joint inventor of a novel free hormone immunoassay format which alone has yielded sales of more than $200 million. It was here that he was awarded ‘Excellence in Science’ from Johnson & Johnson.
Since 2007, he has been a scientific consultant to a number of companies, spending his time and valued experience developing immunoassays on a variety of platforms including early development, claim verification and trouble-shooting of launched assays.
Nic has worked closely, for over 40 years, with Tito Bacarese-Hamilton, our Interim Chief Technology Officer who said of Dr Christofides: “It is clear that we could not have better talent to lead our scientific development at this critical stage of AgPlus’s life.”
The core focus of AgPlus and for Dr Christofides’s role within the business is to generate data to prove the efficacy of the Agilis platform. His work here with the scientific team will be to optimise assays and gather reproducible assay results. This essential work will establish a commercial fit and result in a detailed plan to finalise the design for manufacture of a minimum viable product.
Executive Chairman, Christopher Getley is delighted to have the Dr Christofides on board at AgPlus: “As AgPlus begins demonstration of its electrochemical Agilis point of care platform to both existing and new customers it is critical that the scientific expertise within the company is top class. The appointment of Nic to this new position ensures that that is the case.”
You can find out more about AgPlus and the team at this year’s MEDICA event.
