Big DNA appoints new Chief Operating Officer

1 December 2008

BigDNA Limited, the Edinburgh-based vaccine development company today announced that it has appointed Dr Karen Jervis as Chief Operating Officer. The purpose of this new role, one of several new appointments, is to direct the Company's vaccine development programmes and to implement the commercialisation of the portfolio. The BigDNA technology, developed by Drs. John March and Jason Clark, uses bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) to deliver vaccines. These 'phage vaccines' contain the genetic instructions (or DNA) rather than using the disease organism itself, which conventional vaccines rely upon. BigDNA recently announced that they had raised £1.5M in funding from an international consortium, to progress the development of the technology towards clinical proof of principle and Dr Jervis' appointment was a direct result of this investment.

Dr Jervis was previously Director of Business Development at CXR Biosciences Ltd, Dundee and currently holds a number of consulting and advisory positions, including membership of the Scottish Government's Scientific Advisory Committee. Dr Jervis has a PhD from the University of Glasgow and an MBA from the University of Edinburgh. Dr Jervis said: 'Conventional vaccines can be difficult and expensive to make, requiring specialist facilities and expertise, and even fail in some diseases. Bacteriophage DNA vaccines offer considerable potential for addressing these shortcomings and my role will be to help to drive these novel products towards market. I am looking forward very much to working with the team at BigDNA.'

'This appointment is an important step forwards for our business,' says Dr John March, CEO and Founder of BigDNA Ltd. 'Karen's own scientific background, and wealth of experience in developing and commercialising technology will help us to progress our business and create new international partnerships to get our vaccine portfolio to market. Our patented technology has enormous potential importance for public health in the future.'

Bacteriophage vaccines have a number of advantages over conventional vaccines. They can be manufactured using relatively simple and rapid processes (weeks rather than months), factors which are crucially important for pandemic influenza for example. In addition they offer the potential to be taken orally, eliminating the need for needles and injections and all their associated hazards. A range of vaccines are currently under development by the Company for a number of human and veterinary/aquaculture disease indications. Big DNA Ltd is based in Roslin Biocentre just outside Edinburgh.

ENDS
This information, further details, interviews and pictures from Carol Anderson, The Business, tel 0131 718 6022

E-mail: contact@bigdna.co.uk