Dr Andrew Powell

Andrew is a Team Leader within GSK’s Chemical Biology department and Biology Director for the collaborative partnership between GlaxoSmithKline and the Francis Crick Institute (the Crick-GSK Biomedical LinkLabs). He is an experienced molecular cell biologist with over 25 years of experience supporting and leading drug discovery programs. He has expertise in the application of cell and molecular biology techniques for disease-target validation and drug discovery.
Prior to his current role, Andrew worked predominantly in the drug discovery reagent and assay development space, initially with a focus on ion channel biology, but subsequently expanding to in vitro safety pharmacology and the application of stem cell models for drug discovery. He has led projects to discover novel ion channel lead molecules for several therapeutic areas.
Andrew obtained his BSc(Hons) degree in Microbiology from Queen Mary College (University of London) and an MSc in Applied Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from University College London. He subsequently completed his PhD in Cell Biology and Biochemistry at the Ludwig institute for Cancer Research, UCL branch.