Astex Pharmaceuticals is led by a globally experienced management team with knowledge and expertise in drug discovery, development and commercialization.
Maria Ahn
PhD, Vice President BioScience
Maria Ahn
PhD, Vice President BioScience
Maria Ahn joined Astex in 2014 as a cell biologist supporting discovery and translational biology research. Since then, Maria has made significant contributions to multiple drug discovery programs, some of which are now in clinical development. With drug discovery experience ranging from target identification to IND, Maria has assumed positions of increasing responsibility and presently serves as a Vice President, Head of Bioscience at Astex. She has overall responsibility for Bioscience encompassing target evaluation, discovery biology and translational research in Oncology and Neurodegeneration.
Maria has a BSc in Biology from Imperial College, University of London and a DPhil in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford. Prior to joining Astex, she held a post-doctoral position at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge.
Jeremy Carmichael
PhD, Senior Vice President Corporate Development, Head of Business Development
Jeremy Carmichael
PhD, Senior Vice President Corporate Development, Head of Business Development
Jeremy Carmichael joined Astex as associate director business development in October 2001. He has more than 25 years of business development experience in the biotech and academic research sectors. His extensive agreement experience spans the range from drug discovery and development alliances with global pharma companies and leading academic research institutes to all other agreements supporting R&D activities at Astex. Prior to Astex he was director of a biotechnology centre at Queens University Belfast and the University of Ulster focused on technology transfer of life science research, and was a senior molecular biologist at Cantab Pharmaceuticals, one of the earliest UK-based biotech companies, having completed a postdoc at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Cambridge. He has a BSc in Genetics and Microbiology from Queens University Belfast and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the Australian National University.
Gianni Chessari
PhD, Chief Scientific Officer
Gianni Chessari
PhD, Chief Scientific Officer
Gianni Chessari joined Astex in 2002 and has held several leadership positions with increasing responsibility, including Head of Modelling, Head of Medicinal Chemistry, and Head of Drug Discovery before assuming his current role as CSO. With over two decades of experience spanning early-stage research to preclinical development, Gianni has a strong track record in fragment-based and structure-based drug design, contributing to the development of Astex’s Pyramid™ platform and multiple small molecule drug candidates that have advanced towards clinical trials. He has been a key member of joint committees for collaborations with research partners, fostering productive partnerships. Gianni holds a Chemistry degree from the University of Catania (Italy) and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Sheffield (UK), followed by postdoctoral research at the Institute Pasteur (France) and the Institute of Cancer Research (UK). He is a named inventor and author of more than 80 patents and publications. Gianni is passionate about translating scientific and technological innovation into new medicines for patients.
Michelle Jones
PhD, EPA, CPA, FRSC, President and Chief Executive Officer
Michelle Jones
PhD, EPA, CPA, FRSC, President and Chief Executive Officer
Michelle Jones was appointed President of Astex in October 2025 to drive the next phase of the Company’s growth and development and continue to build on the success that Astex has delivered in its first 25 years Michelle joined Astex in 2000 and assumed roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as Chief Operating Officer, where she was closely involved in the strategic oversight and alignment of various business, finance and science functions within the Company. In her time at Astex, Michelle has developed a deep understanding of the Company’s science and business operations. She has significant experience implementing R&D collaborations and licensing strategies to support the Company’s research and licensing initiatives, external fund-raising and investment decisions and has been a key member of the deal teams for Astex’s many agreement negotiations, including its research and development alliances with major pharmaceutical companies such as MSD, Janssen and Novartis and with leading academic research institutes and charities.
Michelle is a European and Chartered (UK) Patent Attorney and was previously Head of IP at Astex, managing a global patent portfolio protecting preclinical, clinical and marketed pharmaceutical compounds. Michelle has been recognised in IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists, an annual list of individuals who lead the way in the development and implementation of strategies that maximise the value of IP portfolios. She was also named a Managing IP Corporate IP Star, which recognises in-house practitioners for their contributions to the protection and management of their company’s IP assets and/or influence in the IP community.
Outside of her lengthy career at Astex Michelle served as Chair of the BioIndustry Association IP Advisory Committee from 2022 until 2024, is a member of the CIPA Life Science Committee and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Michelle obtained a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from University of Cambridge and B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemistry from University of Birmingham.
Neil Jones
BSc, FCA, Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations
Neil Jones
BSc, FCA, Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations
Neil Jones joined Astex in May 2000 from Sapient Corporation. He has significant financial experience working within Bioscience, CRO and consultancy organisations. He obtained an honours degree in Economics from Loughborough University and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1991.
Chris Murray
PhD, FRSC, Senior Vice President, Computational Chemistry & Informatics
Chris Murray
PhD, FRSC, Senior Vice President, Computational Chemistry & Informatics
Chris Murray joined Astex in 2000. He has overall responsibility for the Informatics groups in modelling, chemoinformatics and bioinformatics. At Astex, Chris helped establish Fragment based drug discovery methodologies and has supported the development of computational tools that facilitate drug discovery. Chris has acted as project leader on a number of projects that have delivered clinical candidates and one project that has led to a launched drug. He joined Astex from Protherics, a UK-based biotechnology company, where he headed up the developmental team working on virtual screening docking codes and went on to lead the molecular design group. Dr Murray obtained his degree and doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge, UK, and subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Indiana University, Bloomington, USA before beginning his industrial career. He is a co-author on over a hundred publications.
Marc O’Reilly
PhD, Senior Vice President, Discovery Technologies
Marc O’Reilly
PhD, Senior Vice President, Discovery Technologies
Marc O’Reilly is Senior Vice President, Discovery Technologies and joined Astex in 2000. Over the past 20 years he has helped to establish and evolve Astex’s Fragment-Based Drug Discovery (FBDD) platform, which continues to deliver drug candidates for unmet medical needs in oncology and CNS. The Molecular Sciences Team now encompasses crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, NMR, other biophysical methods and bioinformatics and supports the full breadth of Astex’s discovery pipeline. Marc has worked on numerous drug discovery programs, including that which led to Novartis’ launched oncology drug Kisqali®, and was instrumental in the discovery project that lead to ASTX029, which is currently in clinical development. Marc has more than 25 peer reviewed publications and patent applications, and is an active participant in pharmaceuticals circles as a member of the organising committee for the Cambridge New Therapeutics Forum (CamNTF).
Marc received a degree in Physics from Imperial College, London and a DPhil in Structural Biology from the University of Oxford. He joined Astex from a post-doctoral position at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), Cambridge.
Nicola Wilsher
PhD, FRSC, Senior Vice President, Early Development
Nicola Wilsher
PhD, FRSC, Senior Vice President, Early Development
Nicola Wilsher is the Senior Vice President, Early Development and joined Astex in 2010. Nicola has more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery and preclinical development, having worked in academia, large pharma, CRO and biotech companies. Early in her career at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, UK, Nicola introduced higher throughput technologies to address the need for understanding DMPK properties earlier in the drug discovery process. Nicola has worked on numerous discovery and preclinical development projects in multiple therapeutic areas, with a focus on oncology and neurodegeneration. In 2004 Nicola joined the Institute of Cancer Research, UK to focus on the discovery of novel anticancer agents and contributed to the development of Abiraterone. Nicola attained an MSc in Biopharmacy at King’s College London and her PhD at Leicester School of Pharmacy.
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