Steve Rees

Steve Rees is Vice-President of the Discovery Biology department at AstraZeneca with global responsibility for functional genomics, reagent generation and assay development and advanced therapeutics platforms. Prior to this Steve led the Screening Sciences and Sample Management department at AstraZeneca with accountability for Compound Management, the human tissue BioBank, Hit Discovery and Lead Optimisation biology support to preclinical discovery projects. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Steve worked at GlaxoSmithKline for 24 years in various roles. Steve joined Glaxo folliwng his graduation from the University of Bath with a BSc in Biochemistry. Steve has led multiple international collaborations and external partnerships including the creation of the Cambridge COVID19 Test Centre in partnership with GSK and the University of Cambridge to create PCR doagnostic testing capacity in the COVID19 pandemic. Steve has authored 65 scientific papers and has spoken at many international symposia. Steve has been highly active in the research community; he was Chair of the European Laboratory Research and Innovation Group from 2016 to 2020; has served on many committees including as Chaor of the European Council for the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening and is a member of the BPS Council. In tese roles Steev is passionate about creating education and networking opportunities for scientists engaged in drug discovery research. In addition, Steve is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for EU-OPENSCREEN, the Centre for Membrane Protein Receptor Research at the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham, and WCAIR at the University of Dundee.