Professor Andrew Wilks is an accomplished academic scientist who worked at the LICR (Melbourne) between 1983 and 1997 and made transformative discoveries in the signal transduction field, as well as in neurogenesis and angiogenesis. He has completed a rare ‘trifecta’ – discovering and patenting a number of important drug discovery targets (e.g. JAK1 and JAK2); founding one of Australia’s most successful biotech companies, Cytopia; and co‐inventing and leading the team that delivered the JAK inhibitor, Momelotinib.

Co‐founder and CEO of the SYNthesis Group, Professor Wilks is a serial entrepreneur and founder or co‐founder of ten companies in the drug discovery arena