Open Targets Validation Lab

Emma Duncan joined Open Targets as a Senior Research Assistant in September 2020.

During her PhD at Queen Mary University London, Emma studied a rare neurodegenerative disease, Autosomal Recessive Spastic Ataxia of Charlevoix Saguenay. In particular, she researched the cellular consequences of disrupted sacsin function in patient fibroblasts.

She then pursued postdoctoral studies at the Babraham Institute’s signalling department, where she focused on the autophagic protein degradation pathway.

Now in the Open Targets Validation Lab, Emma is validating targets from large genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screens in oncology.

Stuart is a Principal Bioinformatician with the Open Targets Validation Lab.

Eloise Lockyer joined the Open Targets Validation Lab in July 2024 as an Experimental Oncology Technical Specialist.

Salman studied at Swansea University, graduating with a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology, with a focus on cancer.

He joined Open Targets in 2021. As an Advanced Research Assistant in the Validation Lab, Salman is working to generate experimental evidence towards identifying new routes to therapeutic intervention in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Panos Zalmas joined Open Targets as the Head of the Open Targets Validation Lab in October 2019.

Panos graduated from the University of Oxford with a PhD in Oncology and Cancer biology. His research focused on DNA damage response control of E2F-7 and E2F-8. He went on to work at the Francis Crick Institute and University College London, before joining the Validation Lab at Open Targets.