David Aitken, Interim Chief Executive

David is a successful business leader with global experience of developing strategies, growing teams, and building partnerships to accelerate the move to a decarbonised future. He has spent most of the last two decades in the UK catalysing the development of innovative climate technologies, business models, and finance mechanisms. He led Carbon Trust’s innovation work globally, growing one of the largest climate technology venture accelerators in the world, and designing and delivering large scale market transformation initiatives. Prior to joining the Carbon Trust, David was the first employee at CarbonAided, a low carbon start-up venture, and spent the earlier part of his career advising on legal and commercial issues in financial services (Aviva plc) and engineering (Beca). Since returning to New Zealand in late 2023, he has led the set up of Lucidome Bio. David has an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford (Distinction) and has a Bachelor of Laws (First Class) and Bachelor of Arts from Canterbury University.

Dr Neil Wedlock, Principal Scientist

Dr Neil Wedlock is a Principal scientist leading the immunology component of Lucidome Bio’s methane vaccine research. Neil is an AgResearch employee seconded to Lucidome Bio. Neil graduated with a PhD in Microbiology from Massey University in New Zealand and after postdoctoral positions at the University of Oxford and the University of Sheffield in the UK was employed as Senior Molecular Biologist at RSR Ltd in Cardiff helping identify key autoantigens involved in human autoimmune diseases.  Upon returning to New Zealand and joining AgResearch in 1994, Neil developed expertise in ruminant immunology and has over 30 years’ experience in vaccinology and immune based diagnostics. He was part of an internationally recognised team, testing and validating a vaccine for control of tuberculosis in cattle and developing better skin test reagents for diagnosis of infection.  He has led projects developing vaccines for bovine mastitis and ovine pneumonia and with the University of Wellington tested efficacy of a new class of adjuvant for veterinary use, with an adjuvant now progressing to commercialisation. He was part of the Animal Biosecurity Research Team recognised at the Science NZ awards in 2023. Neil has been involved in New Zealand’s vaccine development programme since 2007, leading a multi-disciplinary team working on a vaccine to reduce methane emissions from farmed ruminants since 2011.

Dr Peter Janssen, Principal Scientist

Dr Peter Janssen is a Principal Scientist leading the microbiology component of Lucidome Bio’s methane vaccine development pipeline. Peter is an AgResearch employee seconded to Lucidome Bio. Peter has been an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, and an academic staff member at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne. He has been involved in New Zealand’s vaccine development programme since 2009. He was the Principal Investigator for the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium’s methane mitigation research programme from 2012-2021. He led the successful Global Rumen Census project that showed that rumen microbes are the same globally (published in 2016) and was also part of the team that developed New Zealand’s breeding programme for low methane sheep, for which he and the other team leaders were awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi Pickering Medal in 2023. Peter was the science advisor for the award-winning 2002 science documentary Alien Underworld. He has published over 190 peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Dr Sofia Khanum, Scientist

Dr Sofia Khanum is a scientist specializing in immunology, microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry. Sofia is an AgResearch employee seconded to Lucidome Bio. Her research focus at Lucidome Bio is to develop innovative tools to study the interaction of antibodies with the rumen methanogens. Her particular emphasis is on characterising immunological epitopes of methanogen proteins to aid in the development of vaccine. She is also involved in developing methods using flow cytometry and immune-capture technology to study the gut microbes and their interactions with the host immune response. Sofia received her PhD in Biochemistry from Massey University, and then worked as an AgResearch postdoctoral fellow before becoming a scientist at AgResearch. Combining her expertise in protein biochemistry and microbial interactions in the gut environment, Sofia is focused on characterisation of the immune response for antigen screening. Since 2018, she has been conducting research on antigen-antibody interactions in the methanogen vaccine project. She consistently updates her knowledge in the field by staying informed about new research and contributing to the latest publications. 

Dr Juliana Yeung, Scientist

Dr Juliana Yeung is a scientist with expertise in protein science, microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry in methanogens (Archaea) and filamentous fungi. Juliana is an AgResearch employee seconded to Lucidome Bio. At Lucidome Bio, she uses her knowledge and experience to lead vaccine target validation. Juliana received her PhD in Biological Science from Simon Fraser University (Canada), was a recipient of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada Postgraduate Doctoral Scholarship and the Australia Awards Endeavour Research Fellowship, where she researched a collection of soluble and transmembrane proteins to study sialic acid metabolism of the opportunistic pathogen, Aspergillus fumigatus. She later completed her postdoctoral research work at AgResearch in the Animal Health department to further develop her specialty in protein science by utilizing 1D/ 2D electrophoresis and LC-MS/MS for antigen discovery and confirmation, and extraction of antibodies derived from various ovine and bovine sources in an animal vaccine program. Juliana later accepted a permanent scientist position at AgResearch where she utilizes her specialty in protein science to study antibody binding to native membrane proteins for vaccine development.

Dr Dairu Shu, Scientist

Dr Dairu Shu is a scientist with experience in gastroenterology, immunology, experimental pathology, animal models, infectious diseases, and vaccine development. Dairu is an AgResearch employee seconded to Lucidome Bio. She is particularly interested in understanding host immune reactions to pathogens and vaccine antigens. Dairu graduated from Zhejiang University in China with a major in veterinary science and received her PhD in physiopathology at Massey University in 1994. She worked at Wakefield Gastroenterology Research Institute, Wakefield Hospital, Wellington before joining AgResearch in 2001. She has worked on projects on sheep lice, bovine tuberculosis and understanding mucosal immune responses and the progress of Johnes’ disease in cattle and is now focusing on developing a methane vaccine.

Dr Jo Claridge, Scientist

Dr Claridge completed an Honours Degree in Cell and Molecular Biosciences from Victoria University in 2003 before joining the lab of Steve Pascal (Massey University) for PhD studies in biomolecular NMR. His post doctoral work at the University of Oxford in the Biochemistry Department focused on the interactions of influenza A proteins using NMR and other biophysical techniques. Subsequent work in Brussels with Han Remaut studied the curli adhesion fibre system in E. coli. Jo returned to New Zealand in 2020 and after a brief stint working in product development for Synlait, joined the Animal Health Solutions team at AgResearch where he began working with the methane vaccine team. Jo is an AgResearch employee seconded to Lucidome Bio.

Dr Lisa Williams, Project Manager

Dr Lisa Williams has a background in immunology, cell biology and molecular biology, focused on antigen presenting cells, cell-cell adhesion and models of inflammation during PhD (Otago University) and Post Doctoral studies (Oxford University). Her interests subsequently broadened to include a more commercial focus taking on roles in startup biotechnology companies in New Zealand and Australia. her project management role in the Lucidome Bio team combines a passion for science, pioneering new ideas and multi-tasking to help projects achieve their target outcomes through excellence.   

Deborah Roche

Deborah is a Director of Lucidome Bio. She is Head of Catalyst at AgriZeroNZ, responsible for leading investments to accelerate research and innovations across the system to reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions for pasture-based farming in New Zealand. 

Deborah has held executive roles for over 15 years in both agriculture and human health. She led the policy and trade team at the Ministry for Primary Industries, with lead responsibility for all policy from animal welfare to food safety, agriculture climate change policy, market access and trade settings covering over 75% of New Zealand’s exports. Deborah has also been a Board member of OSPRI NZ which runs the national animal identification and tracing system and supports animal disease management. Deborah has also held executive roles in New Zealand’s health care system.

Deborah has postgraduate degrees from The University of South Australia and The London School of Economics. 

Dan Brier

Dan Brier is the General Manager – Farming Excellence and Genetics at Beef + Lamb New Zealand. Dan is a veterinarian and a sheep and beef farmer with a deep interest in the success of New Zealand’s livestock sectors. He has worked across the industry, focused on ensuring New Zealand’s farmers have the tools and resources they need to continue producing high quality food profitably and sustainably.