Our Management Team

Management

Dr Catherine Bladen, Chief Operations Officer

Catherine has more than 15 years’ experience in biochemistry research (specifically protein identification, purification and characterization) both in the UK and in the USA. She completed her PhD in 2001 in the Cancer Research Unit at Newcastle University, studying novel proteins involved in p53 independent cancer pathways. From there, Catherine spent 6 years at the Medical College of Georgia (USA) identifying proteins involved in double stranded DNA repair as a consequence of medical radiation exposure (radiotherapy). Catherine then spent 7 years at Leeds University researching the role of DNA repair and oxidative stress in Osteoarthritis. A further two years were then spent at Newcastle University leading a large, multi-national research project identifying mutations leading to Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in an effort to understand how mutation status and clinical outcomes were connected. Catherine joined Absolute Antibody in 2015 and leads our research and production teams.

Dr Michael Fiebig, Chief Scientific Officer

Dr Michael Fiebig is the Chief Scientific Officer at Absolute Antibody. Michael studied Biochemistry before obtaining his doctoral degree from the University of Oxford. He joined Absolute Antibody in 2014 to develop the recombinant antibody catalog and many underlying technologies, before transitioning into the role of Chief Scientific Officer in 2021.

Scientific Advisors

Dr Nicholas Hutchings

Nicholas is an entrepreneur with a background in immunology and proteomics, whose first startup Everest Biotech Ltd made 5000 traditional antibodies for the research market. He studied Biochemistry at the University of Oxford followed by a doctorate at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, supervised by Prof Neil Barclay.

Dr Ian Wilkinson

Ian has a scientific background firmly in the engineering and development of therapeutic antibodies. During a UCB-Celltech sponsored PhD at the University of Leicester, Ian solved the first NMR structure of a human antibody fragment (scFv). From there he moved to MedImmune, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca. He worked on a number of antibody and non-antibody early stage therapeutic research projects covering technology validation, drug discovery and optimization. Ian has been with Absolute Antibody since its founding and developed many of the processes that underpin the company’s recombinant antibody services. With a proven track-record of work on the structure-function relationship of various antibody formats, from full-length to scFv, Ian is eager to apply his expertise to even the most challenging antibody engineering projects.