The Touchlight Story
Our ambition is for our technology to underpin the next generation of DNA products.
Touchlight was established in 2008 on the conviction that our ever-increasing understanding of DNA would lead to its emergence as a material of the future.
Founder and CEO, Jonny Ohlson, has brought together a highly motivated and talented group of scientists to realise this vision. They are supported by an experienced executive management team and board that brings a wealth of experience leading life sciences companies, particularly those focused on DNA-based therapeutics.
Since its founding, Touchlight has developed, patented, scaled and evidenced a revolutionary platform to enable the next generation of genetic medicines and DNA industries.
Two arms of the company have been established to utilise the platform: Touchlight Genetics, a DNA therapeutics business developing DNA vaccine and non-viral gene therapy assets, and Touchlight DNA Services, a contract manufacturing business producing dbDNA as a critical starting material for ATMP production.
Touchlight is situated at the Morelands and Riverdale Buildings in Hampton, UK. These state-of-the-art facilities have been established in a restored Victorian water works on the River Thames
Management Team
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Jonny has previously held the positions of board director at Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising Ltd, Managing Director of Griffin Bacal Advertising, Chairman of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising Society, main board director of Soho House Ltd, and founder of UK distribution company One Squared Ltd.
He also founded the UK-registered charity The Reconstruction Project.
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Jill has worked in vaccine development and manufacture for 22 years, for Emergent Biosolutions (as Vice President, R&D), Microscience Ltd (as R&D Director), Celltech-Medeva (in product development and project management) and Evans Vaccines (in vaccine manufacture and R&D).
During this time she developed her substantial knowledge of vaccine development and held positions of responsibility in each of the functional areas of R&D, including manufacturing and testing, pre-clinical development, regulatory affairs and clinical development.
She has management experience of Phase I, II and III vaccine development programmes. Jill has been successfully working freelance since 2008, supporting biopharmaceutical companies in development planning and implementation, interim R&D management, project leadership and management of R&D service providers.
Jill holds a PhD in influenza vaccine research.
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Tommy has a background in molecular biology, having first received a BA in Biological Sciences, followed by a D.Phil from the University of Oxford on the topic of cell and molecular biology.
He subsequently spent 4 years in the Life Sciences team at L.E.K. Consulting where he worked extensively with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on a broad range of commercial engagements, including corporate strategy, product strategy, commercial due diligence and valuation. Tommy joined Touchlight in 2015.
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Anjum Ahmad brings extensive insight in the UK life sciences sector having been the longstanding Group Finance Director of Touchstone Innovations Plc (formerly Imperial Innovations) - the AIM listed venture capital investor in early stage science.
In his former role at Touchstone he was one of the four-person senior executive team, presenting over £200m of investment opportunities in the therapeutics/biotech field to the Luxembourg Board, managing the corporate finance activity for an equity raise of £250m, responsible for the finance/treasury tax operations, conducting portfolio company asset valuations, and presenting the interim/year end results alongside their CEO. He was also responsible for their I.T. and H.R. functions.
Prior to Imperial Innovations he held finance positions within a tech start-up and GSK.
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Bradley is a solicitor qualified in England and Wales with an established and recognised expertise in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields, having worked alongside clients in respect of corporate structuring, mergers and acquisitions, licensing transactions and corporate fundraising.
Bradley divides his time between his role with the Company and the position of Principal of Theobald Associates, a highly regarded boutique legal practice founded in 2011. Prior to establishing Theobald Associates, Bradley was involved in a significant number of domestic and multinational transactions through his prior roles in the London office of the market leading biotechnology and lifescience practices of the Californian firm, Morrison & Foerster and the Washington DC based, Arnold & Porter.
Bradley began his career with Linklaters, where he worked on a number of high profile transactions in a wide variety of business sectors.
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Neil has over 25 years research and business experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
A biochemist by training, he was head of natural products drug discovery at Glaxo Group Research, before joining Xenova as Technical Director of Applied Microbiology. He founded BioDiversity Ltd in 1996, a company providing drug discovery research services to the European and American pharmaceutical industry.
He has also worked independently as a technical and business consultant developing academic research ideas. Neil has a track record in the discovery of natural product therapeutics and has extensive experience in the design and manufacture of laboratory equipment including computer control systems used in automation and process optimisation.
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Dr. Linden brings over 20 years of experience in the field of gene therapy as well as in several senior roles in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including senior gene therapy research and leadership roles at Pfizer, where he was Head of The Genetic Medicine Institute and Vice President of Gene Therapy, developing Pfizer’s strategy to become a leader in the gene therapy field.
Dr. Linden has also held multiple senior academic roles, most recently as Professor of Molecular Virology in the Department of Infectious Disease at King’s College London. In this role, he established a well-funded laboratory focussed on elements of AAV replication, where he led the development of a neurotropic AAV capsid platform, which was subsequently patented and license to Pfizer. Dr. Linden was also appointed Director of the University College London (UCL) Gene Therapy Consortium.
Dr. Linden trained in Molecular Virology at Cornell University Medical College, New York before moving to Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Spark Therapeutics, and is the current Chairman on the Board of Bravo Biotech, a Melbourne based gene therapy company.
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John has a background in immunology, receiving his PhD from the University of London and post-doctoral training at Yale University School of Medicine. He subsequently joined the Wellcome Research Laboratories (now GSK) and has worked in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors for over 25 years.
John worked extensively in the areas of vaccines and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies in his tenure at GSK rising to the position of Vice President with the GSK Biopharm CEDD where he was responsible for leading the Discovery Biology group.
After leaving GSK John was founding CEO of Bicycle Therapeutics, a spin out from the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
He has been involved in a number of academic translational initiatives and is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of MRC-T, a member of the CR-UK Drug Discovery Committee and Chair of the CR UK Biotherapeutics Expert Review Panel.
John was previously the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Edward Jenner Institute for Vaccine Research.
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Sarah has a background in biomedical engineering, and received a BABE(Hons) in Biomedical Engineering and Arts, from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute at Auckland University.
Sarah spent 2 years whilst at University working for Adept Medical, a New Zealand specialist medical plastics and devices manufacturer. She then spent 4 years at L.E.K. Consulting, in both Sydney and London. Starting in the general practice, Sarah later joined the Life Sciences team, where she worked with a range of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare companies on projects supporting M&A and commercial due diligence as well as corporate and product strategy.
In her role at Touchlight, Sarah is responsible for directing the translation of therapeutic candidates and products that utilise the dbDNA platform.
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Lisa has a degree from the University of Edinburgh in Medical Microbiology and a PhD in microbial pathogenicity. She undertook postdoctoral research developing a recombinant subunit vaccine against Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium using immunomics to select potential antigens.
She was responsible for antigen selection, cloning and purification of these antigens including their testing in proof of concept studies.
She joined the vaccine company, Emergent Biosolutions, applying and developing her skills in antigen cloning, purification and vaccine strain construction, including patent development and HSE submissions. Lisa joined Touchlight in 2009.
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Paul graduated from the University of York with a BSc in Biochemistry and an MRes in Biomolecular Science. He studied for his Doctorate at the Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology working on the kinetic and biophysical characterisation of the viral DNA polymerase from HIV-1.
During his post-doctoral research at Birkbeck/UCL and Heinrich-Heine University in Dusseldorf he focused on the kinetic characterisation of DNA polymerases, DNA repair enzymes and restriction enzymes. At Touchlight, Paul heads up the Innovations group who are responsible for creating new technologies and platforms as well as improving proteins used in the manufacture of DNA.
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Sarah graduated from the University of Houston with a BSc in Biology and Chemistry, after which she obtained her MSc in Immunology and PhD in Molecular Virology at King’s College London. During her postdoctoral research at KCL, she focused on defining the mechanisms of AAV latency regulation and reactivation.
During her postdoc at Imperial College, she used CRISPR-Cas9 technology to edit primary human CD4+ T cells to study the relationship between certain somatic mutations and HTLV-1 infection in driving the progression of adult T cell leukaemia.
Sarah has extensive experience in gene therapy-focused molecular virology and a keen interest in host-pathogen interactions. Her aim is to apply established mechanisms in viral biology to the advancement of non-viral vector technology. Sarah joined Touchlight in 2019.
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Jon graduated from the University of Bath with a BSc in Biochemistry and a Doctorate in Protein Biochemistry and Enzymology. During his undergraduate studies he spent a year on placement performing research in the DMPK laboratories of AstraZeneca.
His Doctorate was undertaken in the Centre for Extremophile Research and focused on the study of thermophilic dehydrogenase proteins for use in second-generation biofuel production. Jon has experience in molecular biology, x-ray crystallography and protein biochemistry with a particular focus on enzymology. He joined Touchlight in December 2012.
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Karen graduated with a degree in Applied Biology from the University of Hertfordshire and has gained experience in both academic and industrial research environments. She has extensive experience in molecular probe diagnostics, development of a bovine MHC-based screening technology and infectious disease research on Group B Streptococcus in neonates.
Her most recent work has involved molecular-based research and development of vaccine strains based on a new vaccine delivery platform. Her experience also includes business planning, project planning, supervising and training. Karen joined Touchlight in 2009.
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Cheryl graduated from Anglia Ruskin University with an BSc (Hons) in Forensic Science. Throughout her early career she gained experience in Microbiology with Oxoid and Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Validation and Quality (QC & QA) with Tristel, a high-level disinfectant manufacturer. She moved into the Quality Assurance field with Intertek, working on Quality Systems Management.
Since, she has been working as an independent consultant in Quality and Compliance. She has extensive knowledge and expertise in GMP Manufacturing, consulting throughout the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices industries for EU and US markets and holding Senior Lead Auditor status. Cheryl joined Touchlight in 2019.
Board Members
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Clive is widely regarded as one of the leading figures in British Biotechnology, and is a former Chairman of the BioIndustry Association (BIA).
Clive was co-founder and Chief Executive of Convergence Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which was acquired by Biogen in Jan 2015.
Clive was previously co-founder and Chief Executive of PowderMed Ltd, a vaccines development company acquired by Pfizer in November 2006; before that he was Senior Vice President, Research and Development and a Board member of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc until its acquisition by Chiron Vaccines in 2003. Clive began his career in industry at Ciba-Geigy and then GlaxoWellcome, where he left as UK Research Director in 2001. Clive is a recent past Chairman of the BioIndustry Association (BIA) and is currently Chief Executive Officer of C4X Discovery plc and Non-Executive Chairman of Centauri Therapeutics Ltd.
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Jonny has previously held the positions of board director at Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising Ltd, Managing Director of Griffin Bacal Advertising, Chairman of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising Society, main board director of Soho House Ltd, and founder of UK distribution company One Squared Ltd.
He also founded the UK-registered charity The Reconstruction Project.
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David spent 15 years as a broker in London Insurance before he joined an international firm of strategic corporate advisors assisting companies with mainly energy-related contracts in emerging markets.
In 2001 he joined the UK corporate finance firm Axis International Limited as a partner and director. In 2005 David sold his share of Axis to concentrate on consultancy work as well as investing in exciting start-up companies mainly in the medical and biotech sectors.
David is also a director of the recently formed 1678 Society, which is a large charitable trust addressing the problems of child poverty in London.
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Andrew is the co-founder and designer of the hugely successful Betfair, now Paddy Power Betfair Plc. Prior to this he was a mathematician, initially working in the City, latterly for the MOD. He is on the board of Hydrodec Plc. as well as a number of unquoted companies.
He owns the Hampton Listed Buildings through his company Blackbottle. He is a significant investor in Oncimmune and C4X Discovery.