Our people

Dr Hajjar is primarily responsible for the identification, protection and commercialisation of technologies and IP developed at the UCL School of Pharmacy.

Adam is an experienced IP management and technology commercialisation professional, with a Life Sciences technical background, coupled with over 30 years’ experience gained through various commercial roles held across industry and academia. Prior to joining UCL Ventures, he was an Intellectual Asset & Commercialisation Specialist at BP Plc, where he led on IP strategy, portfolio management, and commercialisation activities across a broad range of technology and product areas, including oil and gas, bioenergy, renewable energy, and advanced materials. He has also held various senior commercial roles at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, Plant Impact Plc, and Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, providing relevant experience across pharmaceuticals, biotech, and diagnostics sectors.

He has also previously worked in a number of different technology transfer roles, supporting various London-based Universities (including King’s College London, University College London and the London School of Pharmacy) and their affiliated NHS Trusts in the protection and commercialisation on of a wide range of healthcare and pharmaceuticals related technologies and IP, mainly through patenting, licensing, and spin-out company related activities.

Adam holds a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Aberdeen, as well as a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Kent. Read more about Dr. Adam Hajjar

Dr Alberto Gatta is responsible for the identification, protection, and commercialisation of technologies arising from UCL Cancer Institute, the Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and the Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children.

He has a PhD in molecular cell biology from UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and research experience in biophysics from Yale University and the Francis Crick Institute.

Before joining UCL Ventures, Alberto was a full-time scientist and a LifeArc-AUTM Technology Transfer Fellow. He has a scientific background in neuroscience, immunology, and cancer biology and worked with modalities including small molecules, lipid nanoparticles, RNAi, gene therapy, cell therapy, antibodies, and targeted protein degradation. Read more about Dr. Alberto Gatta

Alexandra's experience prior to joining UCL Ventures in 2021 comes from being a translational scientist on a POC project focusing on drug development, specifically small molecules at the University of Greenwich.

She has a first class BSc (hons) Biomedical Science degree from University of Greenwich and has also completed her PRINCE2 Practitioner level certification for project management. She speaks three languages. Read more about Alexandra Martin

Alicia is responsible for drafting, reviewing and negotiating confidentiality agreements, assignment agreements, revenue sharing agreements and inter-institutional agreements. Alicia also supports the Director of Legal Affairs, Senior Counsel IP and Senior Counsel Corporate in their provision of legal services and intellectual property advice to UCL, the commercial and leadership teams of UCL Ventures and external parties. Alicia has a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Greenwich. Read more about Alicia Woodward

Part of the Physical Sciences and Engineering team, Dr Sadeghi supports the identification, development, and commercialisation of UCL research across materials, engineering, and sustainability-focused technologies.

Alireza joined UCL Ventures with a background spanning deep-tech research, entrepreneurship, and venture capital. He co-founded a cleantech startup, where he held senior operational and sustainability leadership roles and helped scale the business internationally. Alongside this, he gained hands-on investment experience at a VC fund, sourcing and diligencing early-stage investments across cleantech, materials, and energy transition.

He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sheffield, is a Chartered Engineer, and has led industrial R&D and technology development, with experience as an inventor on patented technologies. Read more about Dr. Alireza Sadeghi

Ana managed the Health Social Innovators’ Programme at UCL Ventures, a partnership with THT Social Investments to support early-stage health ventures which received backing from Janssen Healthcare Innovation and the Cabinet Office’s Social Incubator Fund.

Her current responsibilities within UCL Ventures include commercialising research from the Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts (SHAPE) as well as developing social venture opportunities (for profit, for purpose businesses) arising from UCL’s research base.

Prior to joining UCL Ventures, Ana provided funding and support to social entrepreneurs at UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs in the UK.

She holds an MBA from Oxford University. Read more about Ana Lemmo Charnalia

Dr Lane started her career as a geneticist and completed a PhD and British Heart Foundation Junior Fellowship at UCL before teaching and researching at Harvard University and Medical School in the US. This was at a time when Genentech, Biogen and Millenium were making the headlines, motivating her to move to the business world in 1997, working for RTP Pharma Inc in Montreal, Canada and as a business consultant for the US Technology Transfer Centre and Veterans’ Administration, translating scientific research into medical solutions.

Anne moved into university technology transfer at her alma mater UCL in 2000. She helped to move UCL’s commercialisation activities into a wholly-owned subsidiary, establishing UCL Business Ltd in 2006, and has been CEO since 2019; the company rebranded to UCL Ventures in 2026.

She worked on the establishment of the two UCL Technology Funds raising in excess of £120m which has supported many spinout businesses formed by UCL academics to commercialise their research and technologies.

These businesses have raised almost £3 billion in external investment, 5 have listed on NASDAQ and their world-changing impacts include a potentially curative ‘one-shot’ lifetime treatment for haemophilia A, AI-led climate change solutions, and revolutionary diagnostic technologies minimising breast cancer surgery. Anne has also led UCL Ventures’ work to create pioneering businesses driving social change, from new approaches to help children eat more healthily to upcycling mining waste to create paint products for use in fine art and interior design.

Anne acts as board director on several of UCL Ventures’ spinout companies, including UCL Consultants Ltd, and is a member of the Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) Advisory Board.

Anne holds a BSc in Applied Biochemistry from Liverpool John Moores University, a PhD in medicine from UCL and an Executive MBA from Molson Business School, Montreal, Canada. Read more about Dr. Anne Lane

Dr Cox is responsible for assisting in the commercial exploitation of IP arising from UCL’s departments of Medicine, Structural and Molecular Biology, Infection and Immunity, Chemical Biology, Biochemical Engineering, Medical Physics and BioEngineering, Epidemeology and Health and Psychology and Language Sciences.

Prior to joining UCL Ventures, Barny was a technology transfer manager at Queen Mary Innovation, where in addition to acting as a director on the board and company secretariat to a Queen Mary, University of London spinout, he gained a wealth of experience in the commercialisation of a broad portfolio of healthcare and other life science-related technologies, assisting in the patent prosecution of new commercially-viable innovations, the acquisition of translational funds and successful marketing, negotiation and execution of a number of out-licensing deals.

Barny has previously held positions with the British Medical Association and two internationally-acclaimed patent and trademark firms, where he gained a thorough grounding in intellectual property prosecution.

He completed an MRC Career Development Fellowship at the National Institute for Medical Research in the field of developmental neurobiology, studying the morphogenic Sonic Hedgehog signalling cascade in mammalian neural tube cell-fate specification and holds a doctorate awarded by UCL. Read more about Dr. Barny Cox

Billy Lam is apart of the Physical Sciences and Engineering team, where he focuses on the commercialisation of medtech, healthcare engineering, medical imaging and AI-enabled healthcare innovations arising from UCL research.

He supports academics in identifying protectable inventions, developing IP strategies, assessing market opportunities and shaping translational plans for early-stage healthcare technologies. Billy brings experience across academic, commercial and government sectors, with a strong background in innovation management and intellectual property commercialisation.

Before joining UCL Ventures, he worked as an IP consultant to startups, supporting invention capture, IP portfolio management and commercialisation strategy from early-stage R&D through to investor and partner engagement. Read more about Billy Lam