John Birch graduated in Microbiology from London University, where he also completed a PhD. After a period lecturing, he moved into industry, and held senior technical positions at Tate and Lyle, G.D. Searle and Celltech. He is currently Chief Scientific Officer at Lonza Biologics plc, Slough, Berkshire. He is also a visiting Professor in the Department of Biochemical Engineering at University College London. His scientific interests include the production of biopharmaceutical recombinant proteins, including monoclonal antibodies, mammalian cell expression systems, cell-culture technology and protein purification.