:: D-Gen :: Our Team

Director and founder of D-Gen, John is a leading international researcher in prion disease and in 2004 was awarded a CBE by the Queen for services to medical research. He has been involved in prion disease research since 1988 and is Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Prion Unit, the main focus of MRC funded research in prion disease in the UK. He holds an established chair of neurology at the Institute of Neurology, University College London and is head of the Department of Neurodegenerative Disease there. He is an honorary consultant neurologist to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and St Mary's Hospital in London and is Clinical Director of the National Prion Clinic. Previous academic appointments include: Professor of Molecular Neurogenetics (Imperial College), Wellcome Principal Research Fellow in the Clinical Sciences, Wellcome Senior Research Fellow in the Clinical Sciences. Professor Collinge has been involved in many advisory committees nationally and internationally. He is a member of the UK Government's Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) and Deputy Chair of the European Union High Level Group on BSE in 1996.

He has authored numerous scientific publications and his group has also contributed to some of the most significant advances in prion research. These include: demonstrating genetic susceptibility to CJD, producing the first firm experimental evidence of a link between BSE and vCJD through developing a biochemical test that identified differences in prion strains; developing a test to detect abnormal prion protein in tonsil tissue to diagnose vCJD; demonstration that human prion protein can be reversibly interconverted between its native alpha helical form and a beta sheet rich form similar to that accumulating during disease; development of mouse models of human prion diseases to study the species barrierlimiting human infection with BSE prions; the demonstration of subclinical carrier states of prion infection; showing that monoclonal antibodies could form a basis for future medicines to treat CJD; demonstrating the ability to halt onset of clinical disease and reverse early pathology in established brain infection with prions by interference with prion protein expression.

Dafydd is Head of the Neurology Department at St Mary's Hospital, London, Prof. Emeritus of Clinical Neuroscience, Imperial, and Consultant Neurologist to the National Prion Clinic. He is also Senior Lecturer in Neurology at Imperial and University Colleges, London, Chairman of SMTI Ltd, and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Dafydd has been a Director of D-Gen Ltd since its foundation and is particularly interested in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of prion diseases.

Nigel is D-Gen’s Company Secretary and Finance Director and also acts as the Imperial Innovations’ representative on the D-Gen board. He has worked with several spin-out companies at Imperial College over the past 7 years, and was central to the raising of Ł7.8m for two of these companies in 2005. As well as being a director of D-Gen, he is currently acting as a consultant to three other organisations in the medical sector. Nigel helped set up and raise the investment capital necessary for one of these companies in 2006. It has subsequently achieved a Ł1m+ turnover and is already profitable. In addition to his fundraising expertise, Nigel brings wide experience gained from these other spin-outs in areas such as legal, tax, finance and corporate governance. Nigel gained an MBA from London Business School and a degree in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College.