02.05.24
Cambridge,UK, Techbio company Qureight has appointed Dr Simon Walsh to the role of Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). This significant strategic appointment will deliver expert clinical oversight and technical support to drive Qureight's research and development pipeline.
Bringing 15 years of interdisciplinary experience in imaging-based biomarker development to the CSO role, Dr Walsh will initially focus on scaling Qureight’s science team, developing their machine learning tools for integration into clinical trials and extending the company’s research relationships and data-sharing arrangements with pharmaceutical companies. He will also take a leading role in driving product innovation across the organisation.
Dr Walsh is a NHS Consultant Thoracic Radiologist at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Foundation Trust and a Clinician Scientist at Imperial College London, positions that he will continue to hold alongside his CSO role at Qureight.
He has a specialist interest in fibrotic lung disease, acting as an Advisory Board member for multiple treatment trials in pulmonary fibrosis and having co-authored over 200 publications on this subject. He is also a co-founder of The Open Source Imaging Consortium and a member of the Fleischner Society: a prestigious global group of 60 leading respiratory scientists and radiologists.
Dr Simon Walsh, incoming CSO of Qureight, said:
“I’ve dedicated my career to developing tools that harness cutting edge machine learning research to improve treatment trial execution in interstitial lung diseases and other complex lung diseases. Joining Qureight in the CSO role allows me to apply my academic experience to drive forward innovation and, critically, implementation of the latest ML science.
“Qureight’s agile, iterative model of working is exactly what is needed to accelerate innovation in this sector. The team is constantly prototyping, testing and pivoting based on experimentation, which means that their technology represents a significant advance on existing products.
“I’ll be extending and integrating their already strong relationships with industry and academic collaborations with my own established network to help increase the scope and calibre of Qureight’s partnerships.”
Qureight’s digital infrastructure houses and curates multiple types of medical data for powerful analysis and biomarker development. The company has ongoing strategic collaborations and research partnerships with some of the most well-known healthcare, research and pharmaceutical companies in the world, including AstraZeneca, Vicore Pharma, and several NHS Trusts.
In April, Qureight announced a $8.5m Series A raise to accelerate the development of their AI-driven product portfolio and expand into new diseases including lung cancer.
Dr Muhunthan Thillai, founder and CEO of Qureight, said:
“Welcoming Simon into Qureight’s senior leadership team is a pivotal moment in Qureight’s scale-up journey. His combination of thoracic imaging and machine learning skill experience places him in a unique position when it comes to clearly defining clinical problems and providing clinical oversight to the technical team working to solve these problems. His interdisciplinary skills and unrivalled professional network will also be incredibly valuable as we look to recruit top talent across several departments.”