Dr Chris Burns

Chris has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Melbourne and undertook postodoctoral studies at Penn State, USA. He started his career at Pfizer UK for 5 years, then returned to Australia as a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney and then with biotechnology company Ambri. Chris moved to the Melbourne-based biotech Cytopia in 2001 as Head of Medicinal Chemistry and later as Research Director. Over this time he led teams in the discovery of two drugs that entered clinical trials and led a multi-million dollar collaboration with Novartis. The lead asset from that period, Momelotinib, is slated for approval by the FDA in September this year. In 2010 Chris joined WEHI as a Laboratory Head before taking on executive and leadership roles with a number of privately-held biotechnology companies. Dr Burns is an inventor on over 30 distinct patents and a co-author on over 60 scientific publications. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Chris was a founder of Amplia Therapeutics and has sat on the Board since 2018. He was appointed as CEO and Managing Director in December 2022.