Maria is responsible for the innovative Cancer Research UK (CRUK) – MedImmune Alliance Laboratory. She heads up and will lead a multidisciplinary team of 14 scientists from both CRUK and MedImmune at this CRUK-funded facility. The laboratory utilises MedImmune's and AstraZeneca’s core Antibody Discovery and Protein Engineering technologies and capabilities to discover new medicines for the potential treatment of cancer. This innovative Alliance has access to the CRUK oncology Principal Investigator (PI) network, which represents over 4000 laboratories throughout the UK. Maria leads the Alliance team to work with selected PIs on five new projects each year for the five-year term of the Alliance. Maria is also an industry recognised expert and leader in the field of ribosome display and protein engineering. She joined the company (Cambridge Antibody Technology/MedImmune Ltd.) in 2000 and established herself as an externally recognised scientific expert in ribosome display. As a project leader, her biggest success to date has been leading the R&D phase of MEDI1814 – an antibody therapeutic for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease which is now in Phase 1 clinical trials.

BIOCHEMISTRY