Dr Qasim Rafiq

Qasim is a Senior Lecturer & Associate Professor in Cell & Gene Therapy Bioprocessing within the Department of Biochemical Engineering at University College London (UCL). He is both a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Chartered Scientist (CSci) and sits on multiple scientific and engineering committees including ESACT-UK (UK Society for Cell Culture Biotechnology) as the committee’s General Secretary, and the IChemE Biochemical Engineering Subject Interest Group.

Qasim obtained his Masters in Engineering at UCL in Biochemical Engineering before completing his PhD at Loughborough University investigating the scalable, robust manufacture of clinically-relevant human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Following his PhD, he was awarded a £250k Fellowship with a focus to develop a small-scale experimental model for hMSC expansion.

Much of Qasim’s activity is in tight collaboration with industry partners, maximising his research’s translational impact. He leads a research portfolio of over £1.5M including two recent Innovate UK grants. One of these grants is in collaboration with Aglaris, specialists in manufacturing cells, that aims to improve the scalability, quality and costs of T cell manufacturing for cancer therapies and the other with Biovault Technical, to develop a scalable and reproducible manufacturing platform for research-grade stem cells.

Dr Hannah Hunter

Hannah is a consultant haematologist with a special interest in bone marrow transplantation and the management of acute leukaemia and multiple myeloma.

Based at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, a teaching hospital and large tertiary referral centre for the Peninsula, Hannah has general haematology duties as well as clinical and laboratory on-call commitments.

For the last nine years Hannah has been one of two consultants managing a multidisciplinary team involved in the care of patients undergoing allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplantation. This includes a clinical unit, a stem cell collection unit – both by aphaeresis and bone marrow harvesting, and a stem cell processing team. She is the JACIE Programme Director.        

Hannah has been a medical consultant to Biovault since 2008 and our Medical Director since January 2009.

Kate Sneddon

Having left Biovault in 2022, Kate has remained an active part of the advisory board. Prior to leaving Kate held the roles of Operations Director and Technical Director before becoming CEO.

Kate studied Microbiology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, joining GlaxoWellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline or GSK) on completion of her degree as a Graduate Microbiologist. 

Whilst CEO of Biovault Family and Biovault Technical, Kate was recognised in 2019 as an Inspirational Woman in STEMM, winning a Venus Award for her contribution biotechnology.