Who We Are

Gifford Bioscience is a preclinical contract research organization (CRO) providing receptor pharmacology services for lead optimization in drug discovery research. These include radioligand binding and uptake assays, occupancy studies and autoradiography. We also offer label-free SPR and functional GPCR assays.

We are a premium provider. We adhere tightly to our core specialism and our scientists all hold PhD’s.

We undertake standard or custom assays on our customer’s samples to our customer’s specification. Additional capabilities include assay design, cell culture, in-house production of membrane preparations and assays requiring human or animal tissue.

We are based at The BioHub Birmingham, on the University of Birmingham’s research park. We maintain strategic relationships with the University for access to its Human Biomedical Resource Centre, Protein Expression Facility and Biomedical Services Unit.

Read about some of our recent collaborations here.

“I forgot to say thank you for the work done on the D2 binding assays, including the extra tests. The data looks great and I would like to stress, that it is highly appreciated that your reports are so thorough.”

Principal Investigator, Danish Pharma, July 2024

“Thank you so much for the updates! These data are really important to guide our next step and thank you so much for delivering the results so quickly. We are very impressed with your work! Thank you again!”

Associate Professor, Californian University, May 2024

87% Recurring Customers

87% of our business is repeat business, working with the scientists we have collaborated with before.

100% PhDs

All of our scientists hold a PhD in pharmacology or a related discipline.

“The service I received during the course of my project was excellent. I am very happy with the outcome, and I trust the results and interpretation from your highly skilled team. I would absolutely utilize Gifford Bioscience again for future projects.”

Director Laboratory Ops, New Jersey Biotech, Apr 2024

International Customer Base

53% of our clients are in North America. A further third are based in the Europe.

“The service was excellent. Maintain this approach.

I would recommend Gifford. Informed discussion prior to initiation of the project coupled with clarity of expectations, and regular updates of progress, all made for an excellent service.”

Senior Scientist, UK Research Institute, Oct 2023

“I’m very satisfied. We get data back very fast, the scientists we work with communicate clear knowledge of our assay design and goals, provide assistance with assay development, and return quality final reports. “

Scientist, Californian Biotech, Oct 2023

“Thank you for a very well executed study and a high quality report which you delivered efficiently, we do appreciate it.”

Senior Director of Research, Californian Pharma, Apr 2023

“The service was very good, turnaround time was very efficient and the data were well presented. In particular, the communication with Kevin and Becky was very clear. We would definitely recommend your services to others.”

CTO, UK Biotech, Apr 2023

The Management Team

Dr Andrew Gifford

Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer

Andrew was previously a Senior Scientist in the radiopharmaceutical development program at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York. As a Principal Investigator, he has been responsible for the preclinical development of a variety of radiolabeled drugs. Techniques employed in his academic laboratories were primarily radiometric ligand binding and occupancy assays, radiolabeling chemistry and autoradiography.

Andrew is a graduate of Imperial College, London and was awarded his PhD in Pharmacology by the University of St. Andrews.

He is an author of 52 peer-reviewed publications.

Mr Macer Gifford

Managing Director

Macer is a banker by profession. His 25 year career in finance has spanned numerous senior roles. Most recently, he was Deputy Group CEO at Ahli United Bank. Macer was previously a Managing Director then Group Head at Standard Chartered PLC, where he assumed overall responsibility for the management of the Group’s balance sheet.

Macer is a graduate of the London School of Economics and a Sloan Fellow of the London Business School.

Dr Kevin Thompson

Chief Operating Officer

Kevin has a wealth of industry experience, encompassing both sides of the big pharma (Knoll Pharmaceutical) / CRO (BioFocus) relationship. In his 25 year career, Kevin has also worked for several biotechs: he joined Gifford Bioscience in 2019 from Chronos Therapeutics, where he was director of Screening and Operations. Kevin has a deep knowledge of in vitro screening applied to diverse therapeutic targets. He uses his in-depth understanding of binding kinetics to oversee our SPR (Biacore) assay services.

Kevin is a Biology graduate and was awarded his DPhil in Neurobiology, both at Sussex University.

He is an author of 31 peer-reviewed publications.

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