Bioanalysis Rising Star Award 2023: the judges

We are thrilled to announce the judging panel for the Bioanalysis Rising Star Award (formerly the New Investigator Award). Each judge is a leading expert in the bioanalytical community and we are delighted they are sharing their knowledge and expertise to help make this year’s award extra special!

Back to the 2023 Bioanalysis Rising Star Award

Robert Plumb
Director Metabolic Phenotyping, Health Sciences
Waters Corporation (MA, USA)

Dr Robert Plumb is the Director of Omics and Small Molecule Pharma in the Waters scientific operations division, responsible for the development of new approaches to DMPK, proteomics lipidomics and metabolomics. Prior to his current position, he was a part of GSK (London, UK) for 15 years in the areas of bioanalysis, drug metabolism and metabolic profiling. Dr Plumb has published over 100 peer reviewed papers on the subject of HPLC/MS and NMR for bioanalysis, metabolomics, proteomics, lipidomics and metabolite identification. He is an Adjunct Professor at Murdoch University (Perth, Australia) and a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2014, he was awarded Highly Cited Researcher by Thompson Reuters (Toronto, Canada).

“Reliable, efficient bioanalysis plays a critical role in the drug discovery and development process, ensuring that the medicines we rely on are safe and effective. It is important to recognize the important work that scientists and researchers working in this field perform. I am pleased, and honoured to be part of this year’s Bioanalytical Rising Star Award.’

Neil Spooner
Director and Founder of Spooner Bioanalytical Solutions (Hertford, UK)

Neil is the Founder of Spooner Bioanalytical Solutions, helping companies to integrate biological fluid microsampling and patient centric sampling as well as analysis into workflows. He also works with organizations to develop technologies and introduce them to the market. Neil also assists organizations with their understanding of emerging trends in the pharmaceutical industry and bioanalysis. Neil is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire (Hertfordshire, UK), Editor in Chief of Bioanalysis Journal, Founder of the Patient Centric Sampling Interest Group and Co-Chair of the Reid Bioanalytical Forum. He has published over 70 peer reviewed manuscripts and delivered over 50 podium presentations.

“I am extremely honored to have been invited to act as one of the judges for this prestigious award.  I am a great believer in encouraging the development of the new and exciting talent we need to face the bioanalytical challenges of the future and for them to bring forwards the novel approaches and ideas that will be the lifeblood of our discipline in the years to come.”

Zhuo Chen
Exploratory Biomarker Assay Sr. Analyst
GSK (PA, USA)

Zhuo Chen received his BS and MS degrees from Peking University (Beijing, China) and then pursued a PhD degree at Brown University (RI, USA) focusing on mass spectrometry-based proteomics. After graduating from Brown in 2016, Zhuo joined GSK as a GSK/Waters joint postdoctoral fellow. In the department of bioanalysis, immunogenicity and biomarkers (BIB), his work focused on developing LC−MS assays to quantitate protein therapeutics and biomarkers. Since switching to a full-time GSK employee of BIB in 2017, he took more responsibility for supporting GLP-regulated PK/PD assays. Zhuo has published five bioanalytical papers since 2019 and delivered oral presentations at ASMS and CPSA annual conferences.

Shelby Barnett
Research Associate
Newcastle University (Newcastle, UK)

Shelby obtained her PhD from the University of Manchester (Manchester, UK), where she investigated the utility of endogenous biomarkers to predict drug-drug interactions in the liver. The main focus of her research has always been on the translational aspect of pharmacokinetics.

She is currently a Research Associate at the Newcastle University Centre for Cancer (Newcastle, UK). Currently, her main research focus is improving the dosing of anticancer drugs in challenging pediatric patient populations, such as neonates and infants. As part of this research, she leads a therapeutic drug monitoring program of work that supports the dosing of hard-to-treat childhood cancer patients in the UK.