Rod Benson (Managing Director): I was an undergraduate at the University of Sydney between 1985 to 1988 and was first introduced to fluorescence microscopy in my Honours research year when co-culturing motoneurons with Schwann cells. The motoneurons were labelled by the retrograde transport of rhodamine microspheres through the cell's neurites.

After graduating with a first, I completed my PhD at the University of Manchester examining several cytological conditions that occur when cells commit to apoptosis. In 2001 I obtained an 18 month Wellcome Showcase award for Innovative research where I explored the use of intrabodies tagged to fluorescent proteins to create an in-cyto immunoassay. The idea went by the acronym LADDERS (Live Antigen Detection Dual Epitope Reporter System). In 2003 I started working for AstraZeneca where I was employed in the Systems Biology group, Pathways. It was during my time in AZ that I learnt how to perform High Content Biology experiments using a Cellomics ArrayScan. I also developed the PlateMaker Wizard in response to the challenge of rapidly handing experimental data over to system modellers and mathematicians.

I left AZ in October 2007 to set up Imagen Biotech with my colleague Gareth Griffiths. AZ generously gave us a large equipment donation and the program I developed. I believe that High Content Biology is still a technique that is largely under utilised even within industry. Hence my aim is for Imagen Biotech to serve the scientific community, both in academia and industry, and to provide a High Content Screening service that is second to none. I am married to Helen, I have a young 3 year old daughter Grace and yes I very much enjoy skiing! ()

Gareth Griffiths (Science Director): I graduated from Leeds University with a degree in genetics and went on to do a Masters in Molecular Genetics at Leicester University. After this I went to Birmingham University where I did a PhD at the Medical School. This led to an interest in apoptosis and I took a PostDoc position at Manchester University studying Bcl-2 family member interactions. Several publications followed on the conformational changes in pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members. I then moved to the Paterson institute where I studied Src kinase before moving to AstraZeneca.

Initially, I worked in the Systems Biology department and published a paper where we used High Content Biology to determine the internalization rates of EGFR in response to ligand. This allowed large amounts of information to be obtained on a panel of EGFR inhibitors in different cellular backgrounds and this is now an assay we offer at Imagen Biotech. Subsequently, I took up a new position in the High Content Biology core facility at AstraZeneca. I spent 3 years developing a complete understanding of all the assays and programs available to perform comprehensive High Content Biology analysis and I now look forward to providing this expertise to our customers. ()