The Team
Prof Richard Farndale
co-founder and CEO
Richard studied, among other things, Natural Sciences at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge, graduating in 1972. He then joined a high tech company, Image Analysing Computers Ltd, working in their life science laboratory on pattern recognition methodology being developed for cervical cancer screening and for leukocyte differential counting. In the latter project, Richard first encountered blood platelets that later became a major research interest, but in this setting, their unwelcome presence confounded the microscopic analysis of stained leukocytes.
He joined Strangeways Research Laboratory (SRL) as a Research Assistant in 1978, undertaking doctoral studies on connective tissue with Dr Sylvia Fitton Jackson. The group worked on the application of a commercial medical device to difficult bone fractures such as non-unions, and aimed to elucidate mechanisms by which externally applied electromagnetic fields might modify connective tissue cell behaviour. Here, Richard first worked on collagen metabolism, stimulating a career long interest in collagens, bone, cartilage and other connective tissues. SRL, then an independent laboratory, was internationally prominent; staff members had included Francis Crick, Michael Abercrombie and Honor Fell.
Strangeways Research Laboratory
After completing his PhD (1984) Richard moved to the Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, to learn cell signalling in the laboratory of Rick Martin. He collaborated with Michael Barnes, a collagen biochemist with a special interest in platelets and thrombosis, while Michael was at SRL, and later Richard started his own research group with the support of the then Head, Richard Perham, with funding from MRC. Michael Barnes joined him in 1994, and they jointly ran a platelet and collagen group, developing their interest in synthetic collagen peptides that culminated in the invention of Collagen-Related Peptide (CRP) that is a potent activator of platelets, and the ligand for integrin alpha2beta1, GFOGER.
Subsequently, Richard expanded this interest to develop the Collagen Toolkits, libraries of synthetic peptides designed to permit the mapping of any collagen-binding protein onto either collagen II or collagen III. Richard was appointed to a personal Chair (Professor of Matrix Biochemistry) in 2008.
The technology has formed the basis for many collaborative studies, allowing ligands for many collagen receptors and ECM proteins to be identified. These materials are the central products of Triple Helical Peptides Ltd.
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PubMed record
Scopus record
