Brendan Leighton

Brendan Leighton, Ph.D., is a Biochemist who has provided professional bioscience services to the pharmaceutical industry since 1998. With more than 14 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, Dr. Leighton provides drug discovery expertise/scientific leadership to global drug discovery and development project teams, formulates biology strategies for small molecule and biological pharmaceutical target proteins. Brendan has a deep knowledge of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. An expert in Experimental design and devising screening cascades for drug discovery including in vitro and in vivo experimentation, as well, he reviews, interprets, and integrates study data into formal reports for project teams. Dr Leighton was a Project Licence Holder under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Due diligence services can also be provided. Dr Leighton also has experience in the scientific development of scientists and/or organisations towards enhance performance and delivery (e.g. Bioscience Experimental Design Teams). Brendan is experienced in initiating, maintaining and collaborating with colleagues in the Pharmaceutical Industry, academia and CROs.

Dr. Leighton’s background is as a Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca (Alderley Park, U.K.). In addition, he was Lead Biologist for 12+ years and reported to senior staff and executive site management for the preclinical drug development of 12 compounds that entered human clinical development phase. During Dr. Leighton’s 14+ years at AstraZeneca, he worked in the global Pre-Clinical Drug Research and Development Departments, Project Management, and a leader within s Science Ladder. After graduating in Biochemistry (B.Sc., 1979) from Manchester University (1984), he completed his Ph.D. (Manchester University, 1984). His career began as a Post-Doctoral scientist (1984-87) in the

Department of Biochemistry at Oxford University, then later, he was appointed a Departmental Lecturer (1987-1998). He has published over ~80 peer-reviewed full research articles and was a college tutor for Biochemistry at University of Oxford. His academic research focussed on biological mechanisms underlying skeletal muscle insulin resistance and impaired glucose metabolism. Dr Leighton demonstrated that the pancreatic hormone, called amylin, had biological activity. A synthetic analogue of amylin, called Symlin, is now a treatment developed by Amylin Pharmaceuticals for insulin requiring diabetics.

Expertise
Biology-in-vitro, Biology-in-vivo, CVMD, Small Molecule, UK