Angela Pine, BSc MSc PhD FIBMS FHEA

About me

I am an academic, researcher and founder. I teach at the University of Essex where I also have my own research group. Here we research Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and HPV-related cancers, in particular how and why some can control the virus whilst in others it persists resulting in cell changes and sometimes cancer. I examine this through a gender and sex specific lens, because HPV affects men (penile cancer) as well as women (cervical, vaginal and vulval cancers) via anal and head and neck cancers.

I am an advocate for women's health. I now dedicate my working life to closing the gender data gap for women, in particular in areas relating to health.

Women are underrepresented, under diagnosed and under cared for in just about every healthcare system and setting around the world. When women are considered it is now often by those in the 'business of health'. Women's health has suddenly become a quick and easy way for the unscrupulous to make money. A lot of money.

I believe in holding women's health or 'FemTech' innovators, entrepreneurs, CEOs and investors accountable for the products they build and fund. I also believe 'good science' should form the basis of any medical or scientific advancement that aims to benefit women's health. Without robust data, innovations and services are no more than snake oil and quackery. You can only be empowered about your health if you know how to tell a breakthrough from a get-rich-quick scheme, and not everyone has a doctorate or MD.

Therefore, it is my responsibility as someone who spends their day-to-day studying, researching and teaching science and medicine to help separate the facts from the fiction, the good science from the dubious and downright malignant.

I founded 10zyme during the global pandemic. Maybe not the best time to found your first startup. However, at the time I had changed my research focus from developing new treatments for disease, to diagnostics, designing a new test for SARS-CoV-2. My PhD trained me as a molecular engineer. I had used molecules from a group called functional nucleic acids (FNAs) to target metastatic prostate cancer tumours in patients who had become resistant to all other treatments. Yes, I spent the first years of my scientific career working solely in men's health. However, as a women I was acutely aware of the gap in data and funding for women's health research. I had also been using HPV as a control during my PhD experiments, so it was a target with which I was becoming increasingly familiar. Moving into the diagnostics space allowed for me to put my expertise in FNAs to a different use, and I designed both a new diagnostic that didn't require a laboratory for results, as well as a powerful AI-driven platform that means the test can be validated in-silico (using computers) against almost any disease-causing target, not just HPV.

Working with HPV I became increasingly aware of the amount of misinformation online, in print and even coming from medical professionals about the virus. The UK had introduced primary HPV screening as part of cervical screening across most of the devolved nations. An HPV vaccination programme was running in schools for girls and then boys. BUT, people still didn't know what HPV was. When they did find out, they were left feeling ashamed due the stigma attached with the term STI (sexually transmitted infection). None of this sat well with me. As founder and CEO of 10zyme I launched the 'Education Station', an online resource for anyone wanting evidence-based information about HPV and HPV-related cancers. The aim of which is to empower readers with information that separates fact from fiction, edited by medical and scientific professionals and not Dr. Google.

10zyme has also undertaken research beyond the usual R&D for-profit seen by most companies with projects in collaboration with; the University of Chester “Navigating HPV and Cervical Cell Change Diagnoses: A Qualitative Study of Patient Experiences in the UK Cervical Screening Program”, and the Murarijyoti Welfare Foundation “Understanding cervical cancer knowledge among the public and healthcare workers in rural Bihar, India.” Both projects have resulted in soon to be published white papers and academic publications, not to mention future work with the potential to positively impact the lives of women around the world.

As an HPV scientist I have also worked as the COO of UK Cervical Cancer, a charity dedicated to raising awareness of cervical cancer around the world and been a member of the UK HPV Coalition. A group of experts in the field writing a roadmap towards the elimination of HPV-related cancers. One of my proudest moments came from this work when I attended meetings with MPs and advisors in Westminster and 10 Downing Street.

I was born and raised in Essex, UK and graduated from the University of Essex with honours in Biomedical Science after returning to study as a mature student in my late twenties. In 2015 I became a registered Biomedical Scientist and gained my MSc in Cell & Molecular Biology. In 2021 I completed my PhD and started a postdoctoral research associate post at King’s College London in infectious diseases and SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics. I am a fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science and Higher Education Authority (as I am a university lecturer). That’s why I have so many letters after my name.

I am married but sadly have no pets. I’m not sad about not having any children, that was by choice and the topic of one of our podcast episodes!

Thanks for reading and listening!

Angela