Leigh Revers

Leigh Revers comes to the MBiotech Program with an extensive background in biotechnology entrepreneurship, and has more than 15 years of experience working in the life sciences sector, both in academia and industry. Trained as a chemist and molecular biologist in the Dyson Perrins Laboratory, he came to Canada in 1996 as the recipient of a Leverhulme Scholarship to work with Prof. Harry Schachter on developmental enzymes involved in human diseases at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. His research interests in complex carbohydrates as mediators of events at the cell-surface led to his interest in cancer. He joined Dr Jean Gariépy’s research team in 1999 to work on novel toxins capable of exploiting cancer-related carbohydrate signals. A long-held interest in entrepreneurship led in 2000 to his becoming a co-founder of Molecular Templates Inc. (MTI), an private biotech company focussed on the development of novel toxin-based cancer therapeutics. In May 2006, he was appointed Assistant Director with the MBiotech Programme at the University of Toronto. In 2007, Dr. Revers co-founded a consulting practice, AdamsRevers, which provides specialist scientific and financial services to SMEs in the life sciences. Dr. Revers holds Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Physical Sciences from University of Oxford.