BRIEF—New appointments as Metrion expands drug discovery unit

The UK’s Metrion Biosciences has appointed Edward Stevens as head of drug discovery and Andrew Lightfoot as head of medicinal chemistry and discovery funding.

The specialist ion channel contract research and drug discovery company has expanded its internal drug discovery programme with up to $1 million in funding from Innovate UK.

Dr Stevens was formerly chief scientific officer at Ario Pharma, and has also worked in the field of ion channel discovery at Pfizer.

Dr Lightfoot is currently chief executive at Procarta Biosystems, a position he will retain while also working at Metrion.

Chairman Keith McCullagh said the appointees would “play an important role in the further advancement of our proprietary ion channel research programmes, with the aim of securing significant future research collaborations with pharma partners.”