David Keeling

I am a Senior Project Leader in Respiratory, Inflammation and Autoimmunity (RIA), BioPharmaceuticals R&D.

I lead multi-disciplinary respiratory research and development projects in pre-clinical and clinical phase. Several of these projects are international collaborations with pharmaceutical/biotech partners. From 2011 to 2013, I was Business Operations Director for early RIA and responsible for the smooth-running of the unit, comprising approximately 200 staff. This included orchestrating governance through the RIA Research Board ensuring timely, high quality decision-making in support of project progression.

Previously, I was Senior Project Manager in RIA, from 2009 to 2011. During this time, I was Chairperson/deputy of the Local Project Forum, bringing line managers, project leaders and senior scientists together to manage and support drug discovery projects. I was also member of the Research Area Portfolio Team (RAPT) responsible for implementing strategy and managing the size and shape of the RIA discovery project portfolio.

In 2004, I was made Director of Lead Generation Biology, a post I held for five years following my previous position as Associate Director. I managed the Lead Generation Biology section of approximately 30 staff and was jointly responsible for the delivery of lead series.

From 1990 to 2001, I was a pre-clinical project leader within the Gastrointestinal, Cardiovascular Research Area at AstraZeneca, Mölndal, Sweden where I was responsible for establishing drug discovery projects in the novel area of osteoporosis and bone biology. A key area of focus was the osteoclast acid pump.

I started my career in the pharmaceutical industry in the UK at SmithKline & French where I worked as lead biochemist in the drug discovery project leading to the approval of a gastric acid inhibitor.