Mr Mervis has 20 years of experience in life science company start-ups, having been co-founder of Barrier Therapeutics (J&J dermatology spin-out) and Cardiokine (therapy for hyponatremia) as well as Chairman of Intercept Pharmaceuticals (therapies for liver disease) and Chairman of CoDa Therapeutics (therapies for wound healing). He is also currently Chairman of Auckland Uniservices Life Science Investment Committee.

Prof Wilson has been responsible for discovery of two hypoxia-activated prodrugs (PR-104, jointly with Prof Bill Denny, and SN30000, jointly with A/Prof Hay) and is actively involved in the ongoing development of both agents – particularly through development of predictive biomarkers. He is a founder of Proacta Inc. He has authored over 220 peer-reviewed papers in drug development, tumour biology, tumour hypoxia and cancer pharmacology.

Assoc. Prof Hay's main research focus is anti-cancer drug development selectively targeting the tumour microenvironment through bioreductive mechanisms and/or selective target inhibition. He has developed the hypoxia-activated prodrug SN30000 in conjunction with Prof Bill Wilson, as well as the discovery of agents that selectively target hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) in collaboration with Prof Amato Giaccia, Stanford University.