John Thornback

John holds a B.Sc.(First Class) and Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Imperial College under Prof. Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson, Nobel Laureate.

Working for the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Harwell on nuclear fuel reprocessing developed his interest in the chemistry of Technetium, which is also the main radioisotope used in nuclear medicine. An interest he continued in academia at Loughborough University and MIT/Harvard, and subsequently as Head of Radiopharmaceutical R&D and later Sales and Marketing for Radiopharmaceuticals at Medgenix based in Fleurus, Belgium.

In 1995, he moved to Canada as CEO of Resolution Pharmaceuticals and back to UK in 2000 to oversee the privatization of the MRC PET Centre at Hammersmith as a joint venture with Amersham in the role of Managing Director of Hammersmith Imanet. In 2005 he moved to in vitro molecular diagnostics and was CEO of Enigma Diagnostics, and Chief Commercial Officer and Chairman of Myconostica. In 2012 he moved to Singapore as CEO of Dx Assays, a joint venture between QIAGEN and the Singapore Economic Development Board and took over as Managing Director of Apta Biosciences on its formation in 2013. John has been a Adjunct/Visiting Professor at McMaster University and Imperial College and currently sits on the Board of the CPDC at McMaster and also serves as an advisor to the Diagnostics Development Hub in Singapore and as Chairman of Sestria Ltd, a consulting company helping small diagnostic companies. He has published over 100 papers, 30 patents and co-authored 1 book.