Paul Townsend

Paul is the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Surrey. He is also a group leader and Full Professor in the School of Biosciences and Medicine at the University of Surrey, where his research interests centre on cell stress biology. The reputation of Paul’s research is reflected in continued invitations to present at UK and international conferences. He also holds Honorary Professorships at: the Division of Cancer Sciences at the University of Manchester (UK); National Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece); and at A*STAR (Singapore).

In his previous role at the University of Manchester, Paul led on Industry and Innovation for the Manchester Biomedical Research Centre and the Manchester Academic Health Sciences Centre. Paul relocated to the University of Surrey in 2021, where he continues to build on his career research income of >£7M and maintains a strong track record of publications and outreach. He is now helping to design a new ‘Innovation at Scale’ initiative at the University of Surrey.

Paul previously held a position of Business Fellow with the London Technology Network and is a board member for several biotechnology start-up companies. Paul is an academic entrepreneur and co-founded Karus Therapeutics, based at Oxford, in 2005, and Pentagon Therapeutics in 2018, based in Manchester. Both are biotechnology spinout companies that focus on understanding the molecular biology and precision medicine of disease. His expertise in this field was demonstrated by being an invited member of the Innovate U.K. KTP mission on precision medicine, 2020.