Jeff Clare has worked in ion channel drug discovery for the last 13 years and is currently Head of Gene Expression for ion channels at GlaxoSmithKline. Having obtained his PhD from Kent University, he spent 5 years studying retrotransposable elements at UMIST and University of Connecticut. He then entered the pharmaceutical industry first joining Wellcome BioTech, to develop expression systems for vaccine antigen production, before transferring to Wellcome Research to initiate efforts in ion channel molecular cloning and expression. Subsequently, at GlaxoWellcome and then GlaxoSmithKline, he has been engaged in drug discovery and research projects for a range of ion channels, particularly voltage-gated sodium channels.

Derek Trezise has over fifteen years experience in the functional analysis of ion channels, in both academic and industrial environments. After completing his PhD on smooth muscle K+ channels at the Victoria University of Manchester, UK he spent 5 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Glaxo Institute of Applied Pharmacology at Cambridge, studying P2X channels. He then moved to GlaxoSmithKline R&D, Stevenage where he has held positions of increasing responsibility in Neuroscience, Molecular Pharmacology and Assay Development and Compound Profiling departments. His current role is Head of Assay Development for ion channels and G-protein coupled receptors.