“We are at an exciting stage of our journey entering clinical trials next year. We are ready to take this huge leap forward in progressing this new therapeutic for patients”
What’s your name and job title?
Professor Carrie Ambler, CSO at LightOx Ltd.
How long have you been at LightOx?
I’ve been with LightOx now since it all started back in 2016! My lab discovered the fact that the molecules we were investigating could make very good cell killing agents and the rest is history!
Can you share a bit about your previous experience in the health and life sciences industry?
My background is incredibly diverse! Some may say I’ve taken a winding road through life!
Initially I earned a BSc in agriculture in the USA, before moving over to the UK and becoming more biologically focussed. That led me to UNC – Chapel Hill to secure my PhD, and then onto working with Fiona Watt on epidermal stem cells and skin wound healing mechanisms.
I also worked at Cancer Research UK (CRUK) in London and Cambridge, before moving up to Durham into an academic post there. My work and collaborators, Mark Coles and Andy Whiting played a key role in the founding of LightOx, taking me into a dual role of commercial and academic research, a CSO position and a Professorship. It’s been quite a journey, but a lot of fun along the way.
What are your particular areas of interest and expertise?
As you can see from the above, I have a huge interest in the way the body and skin repairs itself. It’s a fascinating area, incredibly complex and differs according to so many variables.
All my work, and more recently projects completed at the Singapore Skin Research Institute, demonstrate not just the complexity of how the body repairs itself but how that changes depending on your environment and ethnicity. It’s amazing what the body can do to heal itself.
Our work at LightOx builds on this and shows the complexity of oral cancer biological pathways, how they are difficult to diagnose and to treat without surgical invention. We are hoping that our drugs can help this process.
Away from the science, I love the commercial world. Dealing with the pressure of building a company and a drug pipeline is hugely rewarding.
What role do you play in the development of LightOx’s new therapies for oral cancer and wound care or in supporting the LightOx business?
All of it! You would imagine as the CSO I might be focussed on the science, but in a small business you have to be involved in everything. The scientific team we have at LightOx is exceptional -they are such a talented bunch, and a real pleasure to work with. I spend a lot of time dealing with investment, clinical, regulatory and laboratory work, it’s a real balancing act.
Our work in oral cancer also requires a huge breadth of understanding about the clinical environment and we work really closely with a great team in Liverpool who are helping us with our clinical trials. Their work also spans the academic and clinical applications so it’s fantastic to be pulling all these strands together.
Our wound care project is more focussed on the skin repair world, which is also very close to my heart. Rather than looking at skin biology it moves into microbiology, so whilst it’s a new area, it is also very familiar
What do you like the most, or find the most interesting about your role?
I love working with the wide variety of teams – our amazing scientists, project/operation management and regulatory teams and I really enjoy meeting investors and collaborators too. Overall, I think I have learnt most from our clinical team in Liverpool, who have opened my eyes to the patient journey.
What does a typical working day at LightOx look like for you?
As everyone who have taken part in our ‘Meet the team’ interviews so far say, no one day is the same! I might be in the office dealing with shareholders, or holding board meetings, or I could be organising the next set of experiments.
Every day presents a new challenge, whether that’s in the lab or the boardroom, but that is what keeps things interesting. Balancing the work on the academic and research front, versus keeping the company focussed on delivering results is always a challenge but equally both really enjoyable.
I love my teaching, and now run courses on entrepreneurship too. The fact I’m needed to be able to apply my research both commercially and academically, means you have to switch your mindset very quickly. That agility and ability to adapt to different roles, I feel is a real benefit to the business.
What are your hopes or ambitions for the projects you’re working on?
I think for LightOx, the ambition is to see our drug go into clinic and ultimately to see people, namely patients benefitting from our work. Watching the drug programme move from the discovery stage in the research lab in the university to putting the drug into a human in clinic would be spectacular.
And if we manage to get good clinical evidence from our trials next year, we could see these new drugs being used all over the world. I am really lucky to have made collaborations all over the world, and being able to bring all this together to help patients is amazing.
Patients who suffer from oral cancer really do suffer as the treatments are so life changing. They have so few options other than surgery, and losing part of your mouth changes the way you will spend the rest of your life. I would love to see that change with our drugs being available as an option.
When you are not at work how do you like to unwind?
Taking long walks with the dogs on the beach and motorbike rides. I would love to say running but I do it mostly to keep fit! I also enjoy playing board games with the kids as well as a good old Sunday lunch in the pub. I recently bought a house needing a facelift, so I do quite a bit of DIY too. I recently completed a Victoria tile floor with more than 4000 individual tiles!
Who are the 4 guests dead or alive you would invite to your dinner party?
Michelle Obama – Because she’s a legend. Lawyer, mother, First Lady and overall inspiration. Always composed, always professional, always awesomely dressed! How does she do it?
Lyse Doucet – BBC’s Chief International Correspondent and war journalist. I would love to hear the personal side to the stories she covered.
Jurgen Klopp – Former Liverpool FC manager. Yes, I am showing my allegiance to my club, but he tells awesome stories too!
Lee Kuan Yew – Considered as Singapore’s Founding Father who lived from 1923-2015. Having had the privilege to live in Singapore, I would love to hear how Lee Kuan Yew led the country to independence, firstly from colonial Britian post WWII and subsequently in separating from Malalysia after securing key water access. Less than 60 years of post-colonial existence, Singapore has emerged as one of the fastest growing, stable economies in the world.
Finally, in another life what would have been your dream job?
Tour guide and travel agent!
Nothing brings me more joy than helping arrange a well-planned, organised trip for my family or friends. I am fortunate to have travelled all over the world. Highlights include safari to Africa in 2019, a combined work/family trip to India and Singapore in 2020 with my son and a four-country tour of the Central American Mayan monuments in 2022.
I also love a motorbike road trip where travel planning is much more spontaneous, even though that means being a bit more savvy to meet my “glamping” requirements!
