Profile
Mark Seymour
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About Me:
I live in Yorkshire, with my partner and cat. I have 3 grown up children. Before I retired, I worked in the drug development industry. I play the saxophone (still a beginner, but improving slowly!) and enjoy running and walking in the hills (I’m very fortunate to live just half an hour’s drive from the beautiful Yorkshire Dales).
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Since retiring, I have taken up playing the alto saxophone. I’m making steady progress, and recently started practising with a local concert band, which has been challenging but great fun!
I have been running off and on since I was at school and competed at 800 and 1500 m (trying to emulate my heroes Seb Coe and Steve Cram!). In 1988 I ran my first marathon, in London, and have completed 10 more since, including 5 of the 6 Marathon Majors (just Tokyo to go!). My favourite race so far was New York.
As well as the Yorkshire Dales, I enjoy walking in the Lake District. So far I have completed 56 of the 214 Wainwright fells, so still plenty to keep me interested!
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I am a DMPK scientist. DM stands for Drug Metabolism, which is the study of how the body chemically alters drugs (and any other chemical that enters from the outside world, known as a xenobiotic) and tries to get rid of them. PK stands for PharmacoKinetics, which involves using maths to describe how drugs move around the body. It is useful for understanding how drugs work (or don’t work), and any harmful side-effects they may have. PK can be used to predict what will happen if something changes, like how much medicine we take or if we give it to young children or babies.
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My Typical Day:
When I was working, I usually went to work at 8am, or earlier on days when I was doing an experiment. On those days, I would spend the first part of the day getting things ready, then start the experiment. Sometimes the experiments took several days to finish, so I had to work as part of a big team. When I wasn’t working in the lab, I spent most of my time either writing down what had happened in previous experiments or planning the next experiments. I usually got home at around 5pm, and spent the evening with my family.
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Preparing for an experiment might include making up solutions of chemicals or preparing record sheets so that the results of the experiments could be written down. It is useful to have a sheet that reminds people what needs to be recorded, when, so that the remember to do it. It is also important that results are recorded as soon as possible, so that the person writing them down can remember everything correctly and does not forget any details.
Not all my time was spent doing experiments. I also had to do a lot of training, so that I knew how to do things the correct way, and there was always lots of administration to do. This was not my favourite part of the job, but it was necessary to make sure that everything ran smoothly: for example, ordering test tubes and chemicals so that we had enough of the right kind to do our experiments!
One of bits of the job that I enjoyed most was talking to the customers and working with them to design the experiments they needed to do to make sure their new medicine was safe. It was also fun when things didn’t go quite how we expected, and we had to try to work out what had happened!
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Education:
Sexey’s School, Bruton
University College, Cardiff
St Mary’s Medical School, London (now part of Imperial College)
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Qualifications:
O-levels (including English, Maths, Biology, Physics, Chemistry & Astronomy)
A-levels (Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Further Maths)
University Degree: Biochemistry
PhD: Drug Metabolism
MBA (studied part-time whilst working)
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Work History:
1986-1999: Horseracing Forensic Laboratory. Tested racehorses for performance-affecting drugs. Started as a Research Scientist and ended up as Deputy Head of the Research Department.
1999-2007: Covance Laboratories. Contract research organisation, carrying out drug safety studies for pharmaceutical companies.
2007-2015: Xceleron Ltd. Small company, spun out of University of York, carrying out early human drug trials using tiny amounts of radioactive tracer and an ultra-sensitive instrument called an Accelerator Mass Spectrometer.
2015: Vitalea Inc. Similar to Xceleron, but based in California, USA.
2016: PharMAS Consulting. Set up my own DMPK consultancy.
2016-2020: Covance (again).
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Current Job:
Retired in September 2020. As well as learning to play the saxophone and walking in the hills, I have published an introductory textbook on pharmacokinetics and continue to do some consultancy.
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
Professional cricketer (but, failing that, a doctor)
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Sometimes, but never seriously
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Bruce Springsteen
What's your favourite food?
Steak (medium rare) and chips (with mushrooms and onion rings)
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Stay healthy; run the Tokyo Marathon; own an Aston Martin
Tell us a joke.
How does a scientist freshen their breath? Answer: With experi-mints!
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