Ian Churcher MA, DPhil

Ian Churcher is the founder and CEO of Janus Drug Discovery Consulting Ltd, and provides scientific input to biotech, investors, and academics on all aspects of targeted protein degradation (TPD) and induced-proximity drug discovery. Ian was one of the pioneers of the recent explosion of the induced-proximity and PROTAC field through his 2012 collaboration with Prof Craig Crews and Alessio Ciulli when leading the GSK PROTAC group (2012-2017), including the publication of the landmark 2015 Nature Chemical Biology paper and advancing a portfolio of PROTACs towards the clinic. More recently, between 2020 and 2023, as CSO, Ian oversaw the rapid growth of TPD biotech Amphista Therapeutics' novel TPD platform.

Ian also has extensive experience in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology leadership from roles at Merck and GSK across many therapy areas, including neuroscience, oncology, inflammation, and others. Additionally, Ian led the R&D team at BenevolentAI, where he applied novel artificial intelligence methods to a portfolio of projects to approach target identification and chemical optimization in new ways.