Dr Simon Preston serves as the Director Clinical Research at BCAL Diagnostics where he has responsibility for the design and management of all global clinical trials, clinical research outputs and intellectual property management for the Company. In addition, Dr Preston provides capital raising support, R&D leadership and competitive business analytics to the BCAL Science teams and executive functions. He has over 15 years of experience in R&D, across both diagnostics and therapeutics, and a proven track record of making important translational discoveries across the life science areas of oncology, inflammation and infectious diseases.
Previously, Simon managed a portfolio of biotech companies for life science venture capital fund SYNthesis BioVentures that focussed on novel therapeutics for oncology and inflammatory diseases. Responsibilities included operations and R&D management in areas including intellectual property, finance, contracts, new company formation, capital raising activities and assessing new investments opportunities at the preclinical and clinical stages. Dr Preston also led late preclinical research programs for portfolio company Anaxis Pharma.
Dr Preston holds a PhD in biomedical science from The University of Melbourne and completed post-doctoral studies at Australia’s leading medical research institute, WEHI, with fellowship support from the Cancer Council Victoria. Dr Preston has co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications and has received the Australian Museum Eureka prize twice for infectious disease research.
