Ludger Staff

Dr Daryl Fernandes
is the founder and Chief Executive of Ludger. Daryl has over twenty five years experience in development of glycoanalysis methods for glycoproteins of the immune system and biopharmaceuticals. He gained his doctorate at the Glycobiology Institute, University of Oxford, was a consultant to Monsanto and G.D. Searle, and went on to become Process Development Manager and then Head of Analytical Services at Oxford Glycosciences (OGS). Daryl helped develop the hydrazinolysis chemistry used in the OGS GlycoPrep 1000 automatated hydrazinolysis instrument which was used for characterisation and QC of biopharmaceutical glycosylation by many biopharmaceutical companies throughout the US and Europe. Daryl left OGS to found Ludger in 1999. His aim for the company is to develop and manufacture reliable glycoprofiling technology for the design and production of biopharmaceuticals.

Dr Louise Royle
Louise is Head of Glycoprofiling at Ludger. Louise has over ten years experience in analytical glycobiology, particularly in HPLC and LC-MS analysis of O-glycans, N-glycans and glycosphingolipid head groups. She spent eight years working with Prof. Pauline Rudd and Prof. Raymond Dwek at the Oxford Glycobiology Institute before spending a year in Ireland at NIBRT as head of the analytical group. Louise is particularly interested in making glycan analysis robust and rapid. She is an author on over 70 peer-reviewed articles, over 40 of which are on glycobiology.  She graduated in Biochemistry from Manchester University before working at the Medical Research Council Radiobiology Institute and then gaining a PhD in Chemistry from Durham University on radio-immunotherapy and imaging. She also spent 3 years at Reading University developing Capillary Electrophoresis methods for the analysis of foodstuffs.

Dr. Daniel Spencer
Daniel is Head of Development at Ludger, with responsibility for developing into readily usable kits new methods in glycoanalysis. Daniel gained his PhD in 1997 at the University of Nottingham working on mucin O-glycans. He then worked at University College London for several years on a project to reduce the immunogenicity of a cancer therapeutic and performed N-glycan analysis before moving into the field of mass spectrometry in industry. Daniel founded the glycoanalytical services at Ludger and has many years experience in HPLC and mass spectrometry based techniques for analysis of complex carbohydrates.

Dr. Claire Morgan
Claire is the Business Development Manager at Ludger Ltd. She liaises with new clients in order to set up glycoprofiling projects and beta testing of new products and also oversees the companyÕs marketing campaigns. Claire has a background in immunology, gaining a PhD at The Royal London Hospital Medical College (University of London) and with post doctoral experience at the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust (the Royal Free Hospital, London) and the Immunopathology Department at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. Prior to joining Ludger, Claire worked for several years at the scientific events company EuroSciCon where she was in charge of Marketing and PR.

Carol Murray
Carol is Project Manager at Ludger, overseeing projects in the company's manufacturing, development and glycoprofiling departments. She was previously Laboratory Manager at Ludger and Cancer Research UK, and has worked in Glycoanalytical services at OGS.

Dr Richard Gardner
is Senior Chemist at Ludger with expertise in chemical glycan release methods, including both N-glycan and O-glycan release, and glycan derivatization for MS and HPLC analysis. He is also responsible for biopharmaceutical glycoprofiling projects. Richard has an extensive chemistry background and gained his doctorate in bio-organic chemistry at the University of Leicester with a post-doctoral position at in organic chemistry University of Central Florida.

Dr Dominic Ehrismann
Dominic is a Senior Scientist responsible for the design and manufacture of glycans and enzyme products at Ludger. Dominic has graduated in chemistry from the University of Basel and gained his PhD at the Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford. His expertise comprises chemical biology with focus on enzymes and small molecules. Before joining Ludger he held a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and he is currently pursuing an Executive MBA at Imperial College London.

Simon Peel
Simon works for Ludger as a Chemistry Technician. He is involved in Glycan production and analysis. His previous experience includes several years as an Analytical Chemist in the pharmaceutical industry and also as a HPLC Service Engineer.

Rad Kozak
Rad is a chemist at Ludger, working on chemical glycan release methods including O-glycan and N-glycan release and glycan derivatization for HPLC analysis. Rad also works on new product development. Rad has a degree in organic chemistry.

Darragh O'Brien
Darragh is a glycoprofiling technician who works closely with both Richard Gardener and Louise Royle in the analysis of both N-linked and O-linked glycans. Darragh has a first class degree in Bio-analytical science and over two years experience working to GMP, GLP and GCP standards.

Deirdre McGill
is a Production Technician who works with Louise Peedell on manufacturing of the Ludger glycoprofiling kits and reagents. Deidre's scientific training includes a degree in biochemistry.

Louise Peedell
Louise is part of the production team responsible for the manufacture of Ludger products. She has over ten years experience, both as a technician here at Ludger and at her previous position in an analytical QC lab.

Mick Charlesworth
is a consultant responsible for developing Ludger's systems and training schedules for Health and Safety. Mick has considerable experience in this area. He has worked as a parachute instructor and implemented safe working practices in a major construction company.

Karen Pearce
Karen is the Sales & Purchasing Manager at Ludger. Karen co-ordinates all worldwide customer orders & prepares them for shipment, as well as overseeing the purchasing for the company.

Magdalena Sharma
Magda is the Purchase Ledger Administrator at Ludger. She is responsible for processing all purchase ledger transactions, liaising with suppliers and dealing with queries. She is also assisting with day to day administration, and helping with shipment of customer orders.

Helen Bailey
Helen is the Accounts Assistant at Ludger. Helen is responsible for the purchase and sales ledger along with all general company finance.

Rosa Charlesworth
Rosa is the Administrator at Ludger. As part of this role Rosa is responsible for Human Resources and coordinates legal documents.


John Froude
John is the Laboratory and Facilities Manager at Ludger. He is responsible for the maintenance of our Laboratory equipment, the building fabric and running the non scientific services. John has more than 20 years experience as a Facilities manager for a varied range of organisations from pharmaceutical companies to central government.

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