David Baker

As Head of Bioscience Metabolism for Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism (CVRM), I oversee and guide our strategy, seeking to understand the role of metabolism in illness. This includes participating in the core strategy team and business development activities, and being a champion for inclusion and diversity.  

Altered metabolic processes play a key part in all CVRM diseases and understanding these changes can be critical in finding effective treatments. My role involves working closely with teams across all of our research sites and CVRM research programmes. We have a diverse research portfolio, spanning from target investigations to phase 2b studies in diseases such as diabetes, obesity, non-alcoholic liver diseases and dyslipidaemia (high lipids in the blood).

I received my PhD in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of Nottingham Medical School and have worked for many years in the field of drug discovery including work on muscle disorders, obesity and diabetes, and using both in vivo and in vitro methods. I have been working consistently across CVRM diseases since 2014.

Effective teamworking is vital to successful drug development. It is important that colleagues can benefit from a range of skills, communicate effectively and understand each other. My experience in collaborative team building and leadership extends across academia and industry, including both scientific leadership and people development. The collaborations I facilitate enable teams across the business and beyond to generate high-impact science that drives the discovery of life-changing medicines.