News & Events
Latest News & Events
Updates on our latest milestones, scientific contributions and industry appearances.
Latest News
Upcoming Events
9th – 11th November 2026
Cologne, Germany
Bio Europe 2026
Attendees:
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Dr Ben Davis is an NMR spectroscopist and biophysicist by training, although since 2022 he has focussed on Business Development. However, he still maintains an active interest in developing new methods to enable Fragment Based Drug Discovery, particularly against challenging targets. Ben studied for his PhD in protein folding with Professor Alan Fersht at Cambridge University, and then studied molecular interactions at UCL before joining RiboTargets, now Vernalis, in 1998. He has contributed to seven books on FBDD since 2012, and has been an author on more than thirty scientific publications. He is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences.
Kerry Waters MBA
Commercial Director
Kerry Waters MBA
Commercial Director
Kerry brings nearly 30 years of drug discovery experience across government, pharmaceutical (MSD and GlaxoSmithKline) and contract research industries (Transpharmation Ltd, Sygnature Discovery Ltd), including 8 years in business development. During this time, Kerry has successfully driven sales growth globally across standalone services and fully integrated drug discovery programmes amounting to £millions per year and fostered key strategic partnerships with biotechs and VCs. Kerry completed her Master’s in Business Administration with the Open University in 2021.
10th – 11th November 2026
Stevenage, UK
Elrig: Protein Sciences in Drug Discovery
Attendee: Sophie Hubert
10th – 12th November 2026
Barcelona, Spain
DDC Europe 2026
Attendee:
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Dr Ben Davis is an NMR spectroscopist and biophysicist by training, although since 2022 he has focussed on Business Development. However, he still maintains an active interest in developing new methods to enable Fragment Based Drug Discovery, particularly against challenging targets. Ben studied for his PhD in protein folding with Professor Alan Fersht at Cambridge University, and then studied molecular interactions at UCL before joining RiboTargets, now Vernalis, in 1998. He has contributed to seven books on FBDD since 2012, and has been an author on more than thirty scientific publications. He is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences.
2nd December 2026
London, UK
BMCS/SMR Recent Trends in Medicinal Chemistry and Enabling Technologies
Attendee:
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Dr Ben Davis is an NMR spectroscopist and biophysicist by training, although since 2022 he has focussed on Business Development. However, he still maintains an active interest in developing new methods to enable Fragment Based Drug Discovery, particularly against challenging targets. Ben studied for his PhD in protein folding with Professor Alan Fersht at Cambridge University, and then studied molecular interactions at UCL before joining RiboTargets, now Vernalis, in 1998. He has contributed to seven books on FBDD since 2012, and has been an author on more than thirty scientific publications. He is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences.
10th – 11th December 2026
Marseille, France
BioFit
Attendees:
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Dr Ben Davis is an NMR spectroscopist and biophysicist by training, although since 2022 he has focussed on Business Development. However, he still maintains an active interest in developing new methods to enable Fragment Based Drug Discovery, particularly against challenging targets. Ben studied for his PhD in protein folding with Professor Alan Fersht at Cambridge University, and then studied molecular interactions at UCL before joining RiboTargets, now Vernalis, in 1998. He has contributed to seven books on FBDD since 2012, and has been an author on more than thirty scientific publications. He is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences.
Kerry Waters MBA
Commercial Director
Kerry Waters MBA
Commercial Director
Kerry brings nearly 30 years of drug discovery experience across government, pharmaceutical (MSD and GlaxoSmithKline) and contract research industries (Transpharmation Ltd, Sygnature Discovery Ltd), including 8 years in business development. During this time, Kerry has successfully driven sales growth globally across standalone services and fully integrated drug discovery programmes amounting to £millions per year and fostered key strategic partnerships with biotechs and VCs. Kerry completed her Master’s in Business Administration with the Open University in 2021.
Past Events
Discovery & Development Europe 2026
Attendee:
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Dr Ben Davis is an NMR spectroscopist and biophysicist by training, although since 2022 he has focussed on Business Development. However, he still maintains an active interest in developing new methods to enable Fragment Based Drug Discovery, particularly against challenging targets. Ben studied for his PhD in protein folding with Professor Alan Fersht at Cambridge University, and then studied molecular interactions at UCL before joining RiboTargets, now Vernalis, in 1998. He has contributed to seven books on FBDD since 2012, and has been an author on more than thirty scientific publications. He is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences.
CWOW Cambridge Wide Open Week 2026
Attendee:
Lisa Baker PhD
Director of Biology
Lisa Baker PhD
Director of Biology
Dr Lisa Baker joined Vernalis in 2001, having previously completed a degree and PhD in Biophysics and a postdoctoral position as a protein crystallographer in the York Structural Biology Laboratory. One of her main interests is in the use of high-throughput crystallographic techniques to solve large volumes of ligand-bound protein crystal structures which can subsequently be used to rapidly progress a fragment-based lead discovery project. Throughout her career, she has solved 1000s of ligand-bound structures which have contributed to the design of candidate compounds for many different therapeutic targets. She is also an experienced project leader leading several collaborative projects in which the project teams delivered nanomolar affinity compounds that have subsequently progressed to lead optimisation and pre-clinical studies.
DDIF 2026
Attendee:
Lee Walmsley
Head of Chemistry Innovation Technology, Medicinal Chemistry
Lee Walmsley
Head of Chemistry Innovation Technology, Medicinal Chemistry
Lee Walmsley has been with Vernalis since 2001 and, prior to that, was with Roche for 9 years. Lee has led successful drug discovery projects in collaboration with our partners based in Europe, USA and Japan. He is a champion of bringing new methodologies to our chemistry group. Leading a small technology team, he has established our flow chemistry capabilities and augmented this with state of the art organometallic, electrochemical, redox and photocatalytic chemistry.
BIO-Europe Spring 2026
Attendee:
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Dr Ben Davis is an NMR spectroscopist and biophysicist by training, although since 2022 he has focussed on Business Development. However, he still maintains an active interest in developing new methods to enable Fragment Based Drug Discovery, particularly against challenging targets. Ben studied for his PhD in protein folding with Professor Alan Fersht at Cambridge University, and then studied molecular interactions at UCL before joining RiboTargets, now Vernalis, in 1998. He has contributed to seven books on FBDD since 2012, and has been an author on more than thirty scientific publications. He is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences.
Drug Discovery Chemistry Europe
Attendee:
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Ben Davis PhD
Research Fellow and Director of Business Development
Dr Ben Davis is an NMR spectroscopist and biophysicist by training, although since 2022 he has focussed on Business Development. However, he still maintains an active interest in developing new methods to enable Fragment Based Drug Discovery, particularly against challenging targets. Ben studied for his PhD in protein folding with Professor Alan Fersht at Cambridge University, and then studied molecular interactions at UCL before joining RiboTargets, now Vernalis, in 1998. He has contributed to seven books on FBDD since 2012, and has been an author on more than thirty scientific publications. He is a frequent speaker at scientific conferences.
32nd SCI Young Chemist in Industry 2025
Speaker: Luke ThompsonJoin us at an upcoming event
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