Cambridge-based techbio company Qureight has appointed Dr Simon Walsh as chief scientific officer.

Qureight’s digital infrastructure houses and curates multiple types of medical data for analysis and biomarker development. The company has ongoing strategic collaborations and research partnerships with healthcare, research and pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Vicore Pharma, and several NHS trusts.

Walsh will initially focus on scaling Qureight’s science team, developing its machine learning tools for integration into clinical trials and extending the company’s research relationships and data-sharing arrangements with pharmaceutical companies. He will also take a leading role in driving product innovation.

Walsh has 15 years’ interdisciplinary experience in imaging-based biomarker development. He is an NHS consultant thoracic radiologist at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Foundation Trust and a clinician scientist at Imperial College London, positions he will continue to hold alongside his role at Qureight.

He has a specialist interest in fibrotic lung disease, acting as an advisory board member for multiple treatment trials in pulmonary fibrosis and having co-authored more than 200 publications on the subject. He is also a co-founder of The Open Source Imaging Consortium.

Walsh said: “I’ve dedicated my career to developing tools that harness cutting-edge machine learning research to improve treatment trial execution in interstitial lung diseases and other complex lung diseases. Joining Qureight in the CSO role allows me to apply my academic experience to drive forward innovation and, critically, implementation of the latest ML science.

“Qureight’s agile, iterative model of working is exactly what is needed to accelerate innovation in this sector. The team is constantly prototyping, testing and pivoting based on experimentation, which means that their technology represents a significant advance on existing products.

“I’ll be extending and integrating their already strong relationships with industry and academic collaborations with my own established network to help increase the scope and calibre of Qureight’s partnerships.” 

Dr Muhunthan Thillai, founder and chief executive of Qureight, said: “Welcoming Simon into Qureight’s senior leadership team is a pivotal moment in Qureight’s scale-up journey. His combination of thoracic imaging and machine learning skill experience places him in a unique position when it comes to clearly defining clinical problems and providing clinical oversight to the technical team working to solve these problems. His interdisciplinary skills and unrivalled professional network will also be incredibly valuable as we look to recruit top talent across several departments.”

In April, Qureight announced an $8.5 million Series A raise to accelerate the development of its product portfolio and expand into new diseases including lung cancer.