Ludger Team

Dr Daryl Fernandes
Chief Executive

Daryl is the founder and Chief Executive of Ludger. He gained his doctorate in structural analysis of biological oligosaccharides at the Glycobiology Institute, University of Oxford in the 1980s, was a consultant on biopharmaceutical glycoprofiling to Monsanto and G.D. Searle and helped spin out Oxford GlycoSciences (OGS) from the University. OGS was the third high-technology company to spin out of Oxford University and specialised in glycoanalysis products and services for biopharma.
Daryl founded Ludger in 1999 to develop and exploit glycomics technology for medical applications. His focus has expanded to three main areas:

1. Biopharmaceutical realisation. This centres on glycotechnologies and streamlined Quality-by-Design (QbD) workflows for development and production of safer, more effective and more affordable glycoprotein therapeutics.

2. Medical glycomics for chronic diseases. The main activities in this area are development of glycomics-based methods for early warning identification and stratification of chronic diseases (CDs). Daryl's emphasis is on five main groups of CDs: metabolic and endocrine disorders, inflammatory conditions, cardiovascular diseases, cancers and degenerative diseases of the brain.

3. Precision healthcare. This includes development of a framework for effective and affordable selfcare pathways for increased healthspan by slowing or preventing progression of chronic diseases. The aim is to provide a model of true preventative healthcare that can deliver lasting improvements in the health trajectories of individuals at population scale using lifestyle medicine. The current focus is on self-care pathways for diabetes prevention focussing on Type 2 and gestational sub-types of diabetes. These models will be exploited via a collaboration with Avenna Ltd - a sister company to Ludger.

In addition to glycotechnology, Daryl has keen interests in medical applications of graph theory, human evolution and ethnobiology. He's also more than slightly obsessed with fat bellies (i.e. central adiposity) - where they come from and how to get rid of them without fuss.

Daryl's short biography

Paul Plume
Chief Operating Officer

Paul joined Ludger in 2017 with twenty years’ industrial experience predominantly in the Medical Device industry, with a bias towards Operations & Engineering. Paul worked for Abbott in the Diabetes Care Division and for ArjoHuntleigh in the Patient Handling, Pressure Area Care & DVT sector. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from Leeds University and also completed an Advanced Course in Design, Manufacture and Management (ACDMM), University of Cambridge.
Paul is responsible for supporting all personnel at Ludger in order to support and develop the glycobiology expertise. The challenge to drive this is to:

• provide products to the Biopharma industry that support the next generation of drug development
• research chronic diseases and how glycomics can support treatments and develop biomarkers
• research the lifestyle factors that impact chronic diseases with the aim of developing precision medicine self-care pathways

Dr Archana Shubhakar
Head of Business Development

With extensive experience in PR and analytical glyco-technology, Archana is the Head of Business Development at Ludger, driving growth by building strategic client relationships and spearheading global sales and marketing initiatives. Responsible for pursuing new business opportunities, Archana also manages contracts, including CDA’s and service agreements. During her tenure at Ludger, she has held various roles, from Scientist to Project Manager (Innovate UK project) and Senior Scientist within the R&D team. Her expertise includes automated and high-throughput N-glycomics analysis using cutting-edge analytical platforms. In addition to research, she has led market research and coordinated numerous research projects and grants, collaborating with key industry partners. Archana holds a PhD from VU University, Amsterdam, specialising in glycan biomarker discovery and method development, particularly for Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Omar Cardenas
BD Executive

Omar holds an MSc in biotechnology and entrepreneurship from the University of Nottingham. In his previous role as a Business Consultant, he implemented process optimisation strategies for Fortune 500 organisations in LATAM. Since he joined Ludger in 2021, Omar has designed and executed marketing campaigns for lead generation and branding while fostering existing customer relationships around the globe.

Cindy Li 李慧 - QQ: 170439096
Ludger China - Sales Executive

Cindy is responsible for processing Chinese customer orders and preparing them for shipment. She keeps in touch and follows up with current and prospective customers to see if they have any additional needs or concerns.

Lily Wang 王丽 - QQ: 258363672
Ludger China - Technical Sales Executive

Lily is responsible for sales of Ludger services and products, also directing Ludger China's marketing development. She is dealing with process Chinese clients' orders and their technical problems. She works closely with current and prospective clients to find out their potential needs. She has a background in Biochemistry and molecular biology.

Dr Daniel Spencer
Head of Development

Daniel has over 24 years of experience with HPLC and mass spectrometry-based techniques for analysis of complex carbohydrates. Having joined Ludger in 2003 Daniel oversees the development of new tools for glycan analysis as well as directing the Grant-funded activities of Ludger. Daniel is a Principal Investigator in several pan-European PhD research consortia with responsibility for coordinating the training of Early Stage Researchers in both their technical and complementary skills. Daniel gained his PhD in 1997 at the University of Nottingham working on mucin O-glycans. He then worked at University College London for several years on a project to reduce the immunogenicity of a cancer therapeutic and performed N-glycan analysis before moving into the field of mass spectrometry in industry.

Dr Concepcion Badia Tortosa
Lead Scientist

Concepcion (Conchi) joined Ludger in 2010 as a Marie Curie Fellow within the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) EuroGlycan Arrays Project. Currently, she is a Lead Scientist at Ludger working within the Development team. With extensive experience in chemistry she is involved in the development of new techniques for glycan and glycopeptide analysis for HPLC and MS platforms, including the synthesis of new potential dyes, as well as in method development that contributes to the improvement of Ludger's production and glycoanalytical services including high throughput Sialic Acid analysis. She also has been involved on the quantification of Lurdger’s glycan standards using NMR, sialic acid analysis and monosaccharide analysis. Conchi studied Chemistry at Jaen University (Spain) where she also obtained her Master's Degree. She gained her PhD in Organic Chemistry at the Institute of General Organic Chemistry-CSIC in Madrid (Spain).

Dr Jack Cheeseman
Senior Scientist

Jack graduated with an MCHEM from the University of Reading in 2017. After graduation, Jack joined the University of Reading Department of Pharmacy as a PhD student with Ludger as an industrial partner. His PhD project titled 'Sialic Acids as Biomarkers for Cardiovascular Disease’ focussed on the chemical synthesis of acetylated sialic acid derivatives and their subsequent utilisation as quantitative standards in the analysis of human plasma via liquid chromatography. Jack joined Ludger in 2022 as part of the research and development team. His current work now focusses on the development of high-throughput plate-based assays for the analysis of sialic acids and other biomarkers. Jack also works on development of collaborations with external partners to facilitate access to clinical samples, grants and wider areas of expertise.

Georgia Elgood-Hunt
Bioinformatician

Georgia obtained her integrated master’s (Msci) in cellular biology and mathematics at University College London (UCL) in 2021. During her master’s she focused on the use of bioinformatics to predict immune cell receptor specificity. Georgia joined Ludger ltd in 2021 as a Bioinformatician in the Development team. Her work focusses on the data analysis and modelling.

Dr Ashfaq Ahmad
Scientist

Ashfaq earned his undergraduate degree in Biotechnology from the University of Swat in 2016. He then pursued an MSc in Molecular Biology from Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB), KU Leuven, and Universiteit Antwerpen as part of the Interuniversity Program, graduating in 2019. Following his studies, Ashfaq joined the University of Warwick as a Marie-Curie Early-Stage Researcher and began his PhD journey as a part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie NanoCarb consortium.

During his doctoral research, titled "Glycosylated Nanoparticles and their Interactions with Lectins," Ashfaq focused on the recombinant production of carbohydrate-binding proteins, known as lectins, and their subsequent interactions with glycosylated nanoparticles. His work also involved analysing the glycoprotein corona of nanoparticles and exploring the diagnostic potential of glycosylated nanoparticles. He was part of the team at University of Warwick, who developed the first-of-its-kind glycan-based flow-through device for the detection of SARS-COV-2.

In 2023, Ashfaq became a part of the research and development team at Ludger. His current focus is on establishing protein biochemistry laboratories at Ludger, with a particular emphasis on developing robust protocols for the expression and purification of glycan-binding proteins, including carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes). Additionally, he is also involved in the development of high-throughput plate-based assays.

Carlos Perez
Scientist

Carlos joined Ludger in June 2024 as a Glycomics Scientist, focusing on developing, validating, and applying advanced glycan analysis techniques using robotic high-throughput plate-based methods. His role involves preparing clinical samples, conducting UHPLC-HRMS experiments, and utilising specialised software for glycan characterisation and biomarker discovery, with an emphasis on translational research for clinical applications.

Before Ludger, Carlos worked at Novartis in Basel, Switzerland, specialising in oligonucleotide analysis with UHPLC-HRMS. He studied chemistry in Tenerife, Spain, and San Luis, Argentina, and has over seven years of experience in clinical pharmacology and translational medicine for neglected diseases. His PhD research at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, covered drug metabolism, metabolomics-based biomarker research, and ultra-fast UHPLC-MS/MS methodologies applied in pop-PK and TDM. He has published on Chagas disease, toxoplasmosis, and paediatric refractory epilepsies, and consults on Chagas-HIV co-infection and syphilis projects.

Dr Christel Gudberg
Human Performance Lab Lead

Christel is a Neuroscientist and Psychologist. She gained her doctorate in Clinical Neurology and Neuroscience from the University of Oxford, specialising in the role sleep plays in brain plasticity and memory formation. Before this, she completed her clinical psychology training in Denmark at the University of Aarhus. Christel currently works on the development of new precision medicine approaches and technologies at Ludger and leads its recently launched Human Performance Lab.