Shift Bioscience (Shift), a biotech company using an AI-powered virtual cell to fight age-driven diseases, appointed Lord David Prior as Chair of the Board and Sir Tony Kouzarides as Scientific Advisor. 

Prior and Kouzarides will provide crucial support to advance Shift’s therapeutic pipeline, helping to foster new industry partnerships and broaden awareness of the company’s long-term mission to treat disease by targeting underlying cellular aging.

David Prior, Chair of the Board

Joining as Chair of Shift’s Board, Prior’s primary focus will be to support the company’s strategy to reverse aging. Prior will leverage his broad industry knowledge and connections to explore and support investment opportunities and to accelerate the development of Shift’s pipeline with pharma partners. 

Prior’s career spans finance, law, business, and politics. He previously served as the Chairman of NHS England, the Care Quality Commission, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust, and the University College Hospital NHS Trust. 

Prior is a strong advocate for transitioning from today’s reactive ‘sick-care’ health model to a proactive prevention-based approach, targeting the underlying causes of disease.

Tony Kouzarides, Scientific Advisor

In his role as Scientific Advisor, Kouzarides will help shape the company’s scientific strategy, identifying and advising on research and industry opportunities and raising awareness of Shift Bioscience’s unique approach to cell rejuvenation therapeutics.

Kouzarides is an academic and entrepreneur who has played a major role in the Cambridge life sciences ecosystem, having co-founded both the Milner Therapeutics Institute and Abcam. He is a professor in the field of Cancer Biology. 

Based at the Gurdon Institute, a world-leading cancer research facility, Kouzarides’ lab explores the role of epigenetic modifications in cancer and is investigating the specific involvement of mRNA modifications. 

Kouzarides also has experience in founding and growing therapeutics companies. Including co-founder and ex-director of Chroma Therapeutics, co-founder and director of STORM Therapeutics, and co-founder and CEO of Vellos. 

Dr Daniel Ives, CEO, Shift Bioscience, said: “I’m extremely pleased to welcome Lord David Prior and Sir Tony Kouzarides to Shift Bioscience… We’re incredibly thankful for their support of our mission to reverse aging and combat the debilitating diseases that come with it, and I look forward to harnessing their experience to help propel the Company forwards in pursuit of this goal.”