Paul J. England

Aurora Biosciences Corp. designs and develops proprietary drug discovery systems, services and technologies to the discovery of new medicine. It develops a proprietary ultra-high throughput screening platform that uniquely integrates innovative fluorescence chemistry, molecular biology, miniaturization, automation, and informatics. The company also provides assay development and screening services. Aurora was founded in 1995 and is located in San Diego, CA.

Smithkline Beecham Plc develops and manufactures pharmaceutical products. The company markets pharmaceuticals for human and animal healthcare consumption, vaccines, over the counter medicines, health related consumer products, clinical laboratory testing services, disease management and pharmaceutical benefit management. It is headquartered in Brentford, UK.

ProXara Biotechnology Limited is a recently-formed biotechnology company whose mission is to be a world leader in the development of novel therapeutically-relevant cell-based and in-vitro high throughput screens for drug discovery in the oncology field. The Company was founded by Professor Jeremy Tavaré in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Bristol and was incorporated in March 2001. The company is supported by an experienced and entrepreneurial management team. ProXara has received funding from the Sulis Seedcorn Fund Partnership Limited, Catalyst BioMedica, The Wellcome Trust and private sources. Its premises are currently in the School of Medical Sciences in the University of Bristol. ProXara has established a portfolio of novel cell-based and in-vitro assays against important intra-cellular targets in cancer (primarily breast and prostate) for screening against both internal and customer compound collections. Breast and prostate cancers are the most prevalent malignancies in women and men respectively, and the second highest cause of cancer deaths. The company's technologies will allow the discovery of drugs with a completely novel mode of action against relevant and validated targets. ProXara is currently undertaking optimization of a series of proprietary drug-like molecules which could provide a novel route for the treatment of cancer.