Dr Christina O’Neill is the CEO of VascVersa. She has extensive experience in the vascular biology field, having worked in this area as a postdoctoral scientist at Queen’s University Belfast for over a decade. In addition, Dr O’Neill has pioneered work in isolating the vascular stem cells that underpins ANGICYTE™ technology and has been directly involved in optimising protocols for their production, expansion and characterisation. She has a keen interest in commercialisation pathways for cell therapies. 

​

Dr O’Neill successfully led the team through the NxNW ICURe programme and was instrumental in winning several IUK grant awards. Dr O'Neill is central to the company and is both a highly accomplished scientist and business leader, having completed several entrepreneurial and leadership programmes.

Mr Courney is the NED and chairman of VascVersa. He has over 20 years’ experience of establishing and building companies in life science and other technology sectors.   He co-founded and was CEO of Roslin Cells, a provider of stem cells and developer of new cell therapies in 2006.  Established to support the research and technology translation needs of public sector stakeholders, by 2015 the company had grown to employ 70 staff with leading positions in two major areas: cell therapy manufacturing and drug discovery services. 

​

From 2013, he led the creation of the EBiSC consortium of 28 commercial and academic research partners across nine EU countries to create the European repository for induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. In 2016, he co-ordinated the restructuring of Roslin Cells to create two separate spin-out businesses and subsequently became CEO of Censo Biotechnologies which focuses on using stem cells for drug discovery.   He currently holds non-executive, executive and advisory positions in several early stage technology companies.

 

Mr Courtney is a qualified chartered accountant and has an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge and a Masters degree in Innovation Technology Law from the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Reinhold Medina is a Research Group Leader at Queen’s University Belfast. He has an MD degree from Peru and a PhD degree in Stem Cell Biology from Japan. Professor Medina is committed to translational medicine with a major focus on cell therapy. 

 

Professor Medina’s is recognised worldwide as a leader in vascular stem cell biology which is demonstrated by over 3000 citations of his work. Professor Medina will contribute to the VascVersa team with scientific knowledge and expertise surrounding vascular stem cell biology.

Professor Stitt is the Dean of Innovation and Impact at the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast. He has a wealth of experience in vascular related biology, having worked in this area for over 30 years. Professor Stitt has over 15,000 citations for his work and is internationally recognised for his contribution to retinal vascular diseases. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and he has also earned significant prizes in recognition of his research. 

 

He contributes significantly to the international academic community by serving on advisory boards, grant panels and presenting guest lectures across the world. With a network of local, national and international collaborative partners he will contribute to the VascVersa team by providing scientific advice and knowledge in diabetes and vascular biology.