Staff

John is a medical practitioner with 25 years experience in drug development in industry. For the last 17 years John has worked exclusively in Developing World Medicine – malaria, helminths, leishmaniasis, diarrhoea etc. and was the moving force and "father figure" of the tropical disease initiatives in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

John was closely involved in establishing the Medicines for Malaria Venture and the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, and was a member of GATB scientific advisory committee. At GSK, John ensured involvement in 3 Public Private Partnerships with the WHO (Lapdap, Lapdap + artesunate and an early stage antimalarial) and in developing concepts for access in public health to these products. John was intimately involved in establishing the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF), having initiated both the original studies that formed the basis of the programme, and the concepts behind the global programme.

Over the years John has acted as an advisor in a number of WHO programme initiatives (e.g. global helminth elimination). Although now retired from GSK, John continues to work part time for WHO in their drug development programmes, and holds academic appointments in Liverpool and in Perth, and is a founding trustee of the Malaria Consortium, a UK NGO.

Wayne has almost 30 years experience in synthetic and medicinal chemistry both in academia, government and industry. Wayne obtained his BSc (Hons) and PhD in Organic Chemistry from The University of Western Australia. He then spent two years at Imperial College in the UK where he obtained a DIC, followed by a year at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Wayne then took up a position with ICI Australia's Research Group in Melbourne where he spent over four years designing and synthesizing a range of biologically active compounds, particularly agrochemicals. During this time Wayne was seconded for six months to ICI Agrochemicals' Jealott's Hill Research Station in the UK to work on the rational design of a novel herbicide target.

Following ICI, Wayne returned to Western Australia and spent the ten years preceding Epichem at the Chemistry Centre (WA) where he was responsible for the formation and running of the Medicinal & Biological Chemistry Section which undertook collaborative R&D into drug discovery and contract synthesis for the drug discovery and pharmaceutical industries.

Wayne is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and has held appointments as an Adjunct Associate Professor at both Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia. He is also a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Colette has over ten years experience in organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry both in Australia and overseas. Colette obtained her BSc (Hons) at the University of Western Australia, and completed her PhD (Organic Chemistry) at the same institution.

Colette then took up a position at the Chemistry Centre (WA) to work on an anti-HIV drug discovery program, before completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching. Following this Colette moved to Canada for a year and a half where she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Calgary.

Colette returned to Australia to take up another position at the Chemistry Centre (WA) where she spent over seven years, and was engaged in contract synthesis and drug discovery projects. Prior to joining Epichem, Colette headed the Medicinal and Biological Chemistry Section. Colette has since completed a Bachelor of Science (BSc) and BVMS, Veterinary Sciences/Veterinary Clinical Sciences.

Martine is a medicinal chemist with 10 years professional experience in drug discovery, including 8 years in a multinational pharmaceutical company. Following a PhD in natural products synthesis at Kings' College in London, and post-doctoral studies in Germany developing chiral catalysts for asymmetric hydrogenation, Martine took up a medicinal chemistry position in the neuroscience division of Eli Lilly in the UK.

Martine has expertise in identifying novel hits, designing new analogues, computer-aided drug design, using SAR analysis to develop compounds into new leads and optimising molecules towards drug candidates.

Martine moved to Perth, Australia and joined Epichem in 2008 working primarily in the field of infectious diseases, and managing drug discovery projects.