Professor M Francesca Cordeiro, is a clinician-scientist, Chair of Ophthalmology Imperial College London, and UCL Professor, Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist/Research Lead, Director of the ICORG Clinical Trials Unit at the Western Eye Hospital London, and recently Founder and Director of Novai Ltd, a start-up company based on DARC Technology.

Her research, funded continuously by the Wellcome Trust since 1996, focuses on novel and translational approaches with a target of saving sight and reducing disability, with over 180 peer-reviewed publications.

She has received a number of international awards for this work, including the Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize 2005, the Research to Prevent Blindness International Research Scholar Award 2015, the GG2 Diversity Award for Outstanding Achievement in Medicine 2017 and 2019 Duke Elder Award (Royal College of Ophthalmologists) and is frequently asked to give keynote lectures abroad.

Dr Michalis Papadakis is the CEO and co-founder of Brainomix. He leads the management team, commercial strategy, fund raising, and corporate partnerships. He has grown the company from the ground up, building the company’s global presence and has raised more than £30 million of private investment and public funding. When he founded Brainomix he was the Scientific Director of the preclinical stroke lab at the University of Oxford. He has a BSc Honours in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a PhD in neurosciences from UCL School of Pharmacy. He has been an invited speaker at international scientific and innovation conferences.

Seasoned C-suite leader with over 26 years in the life sciences sector. CEO of Glyconics and held top roles at Astellas Pharma Europe, Thomson Reuters, and Eli Lilly, and serving as as a Royal Society Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Southampton Life Sciences.