Festive Symposium 2025: Delivering Neuroscience: From Synapse to Society

Maria Beatrice Panico

Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Scendea

I am a Principal Medical Consultant at Scendea, responsible for providing highly strategic clinical and regulatory advice. I was formerly a Leading Senior Medical Assessor at the MHRA and represented the UK in the European working groups on new trial designs, safety and In Vitro Diagnostics. I am one of the authors of the CTFG Recommendation Paper on the Initiation and Conduct of Complex Clinical Trials. I was involved in the UK response to both the Ebola and the COVID19 medical emergencies.
Before joining the MHRA I worked as a clinical neurologist, clinical investigator, researcher in neuroscience and pharmacovigilance expert in the pharmaceutical industry.
I was a member of the WHO working group on regulatory aspects of artificial intelligence.
I am a medical doctor, fully qualified neurologist and have a PhD In neuroscience.

: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/maria-beatrice-panico-0

Paul Sharp

Lead Scientist, Medicines Discovery Catapult

Paul is a Senior Preclinical Imaging Scientist with over 15 years of experience in driving innovation in translational research within academia and industry.

Paul has a PhD in neuroscience and expertise across multiple therapeutics areas from oncology to CNS disorders, with a strong focus on applying anatomical and functional imaging modalities for disease phenotyping, PK/PD readouts and evaluating whole-body biodistribution of complex medicines.

Chris Shaw

Chief Scientific and Clinical Advisor/Co-Founder, AviadoBio

Professor Shaw had trained as a Neurologist in New Zealand before coming to Cambridge, UK on a Wellcome Trust Fellowship and moving to King’s College London in 1995. He is Director of the Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, and Centre Director of the UK Dementia Research Institute at King’s. His research team have discovered more amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) genes than any other laboratory, enabling gene testing for patients and at-risk family members. They have generated a large number of stem cell and transgenic mouse models that recapitulate key features of the human disease and have revealed important mechanistic insights. Their focus for the future is to develop gene therapies for a wide range of neurodegenerative disorders using adeno-associated viral gene vectors. Award highlights include the “Forbes Norris Award” for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Care and Research (2009), “Sheila Essey Prize” for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research (2012) and “Kea World Class New Zealander Award” (2019). He remains clinically active, running an ALS clinic at King’s College Hospital and leading clinical trials of antisense oligonucleotide therapies.

David Thomas

Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Alzheimer’s Research UK

David Thomas is the Head of Policy and Public Affairs at Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK), and leads the organisation’s efforts to influence policy, advocate for change and shape the public affairs agenda to accelerate research into dementia, advance innovation, and improve access to new treatments.

Before joining ARUK, David Thomas worked at Roche in the UK, leading public affairs and policy work across several disease areas including dementia.He also served at NHS Confederation as Head of Public Affairs, gaining experience working with healthcare providers and commissioners.

Simon Ward

Professor of Translational Drug Discovery, Cardiff University

Professor Simon Ward
Founder and Chief Scientific & Development Officer at Draig Therapeutics
Sêr Cymru Professor of Translational Drug Discovery, Cardiff University

Professor Simon Ward is a scientific leader and drug development expert with more than 25 years’ experience spanning academia, biotech, and the pharmaceutical industry. He is the Founder and Chief Scientific & Development Officer of Draig Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation therapies for neuropsychiatric disorders. At Cardiff University, he leads the Medicines Discovery Institute as Sêr Cymru Professor of Translational Drug Discovery. His work focuses on translating neuroscience and medicinal chemistry research into new treatments, advancing projects from discovery through to clinical development.