Rob Kirby PhD

Head of Client Research Services

Robert is a skilled pharmacologist with over 10 years’ experience in ion channel drug discovery. At Metrion Robert leads the team working on a major collaborative drug discovery project with an international pharma company. He also co-ordinates screening activities for CRO work including Metrion’s panel of CiPA cardiac assays.

Prior to his role at Metrion Robert was a Principal Scientist at Xention Ltd (UK) where he lead screening campaigns on behalf of clients for a variety of ion channel targets (Na_v1.x, Ca_v1.x, Ca_v2.x, K_v1.x, TRPx, K_irx, gIRK, ICrac, HCN and hERG) using automated patch clamp electrophysiology (QPatch, PatchLiner) and fluorescence-based screening platforms (FLIPR, FLEXStation).

Prior to this Robert obtained his PhD (Sheffield Hallam, UK) investigating a novel pharmacophore for BK potassium channel openers and spent a year at Drexel University (USA) researching the role of GPCR’s in autoimmune disease.