Community Connects: TechBio meets IP

Viscount Camrose

Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology), UK House of Lords

The Viscount Camrose (Jonathan William Berry) is a Conservative peer, having been elevated in April 2022. He serves as a shadow minister in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, having previously been a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the same department. Camrose is an officer of the APPG.

Manish Patel

CEO, Jiva.ai

Manish started his career as an academic, around the time when the human genome project was finishing, and therefore machine learning, mathematics and complex systems theory was becoming very dominant in the biological sciences. He pursued bioinformatics and systems biology where the seed of model fusion algorithms used in Jiva.ai were invented. The validity of the technology was proven out at doctoral level by showing life-like simulations of tumours could be created by fusing smaller models together – a concept that is extendible to any machine learning in general. This was published the book on multimodal/multimodel AI systems in 2011.

Manish has spent almost 10 years in investment banks and hedge funds building complex data systems, coding fast algorithmic trading engines and managing large international teams of developers. He is a determined entrepreneur, having founded two other tech startups in hospitality and software engineering, as well as joining a medical device startup as CTO before starting up Jiva in 2019.

As CEO Manish is responsible for executing the core vision and mission of Jiva – one that will see the democratisation of multimodal AI systems, AI agents and eventually super intelligence. 

Neil Ross

Director, Public First

Neil joined Public First in 2025 having been Associate Director for Policy at the UK’s largest technology trade body techUK and having worked in Parliament for two Labour MPs. Over his career Neil has developed a deep expertise in tech policy and an understanding of the intersection of politics and technological change. He has sat on a number of Government advisory committees including on data protection reform, the Government’s SME Digital Adoption Taskforce and played an important role in shaping UK Government policy on competition in digital markets, AI policy, regulatory innovation and data protection reform after Brexit.

Neil was recognised as playing an influential role in shaping the tech policy of the Labour Party ahead of the 2024 general election. He has regularly given evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees and is cited in a number of media outlets including the BBC, Politico, the Economist, WIRED and the Financial Times on technology issues. At Public First he brings his expertise and political insights to support our research with clients interested in technology and the effects of technological change on the economy and society.

Claire Smith

Partner, Bristows LLP

Claire is a member of the BIA’s IP Advisory Committee (IPAC), and chairs their sub-committee on IP policy in relation to AI & Data.  Along with other members of IPAC, she has been involved in putting together various submissions in response to government consultations on AI-related IP topics.  Recently, she has represented the BIA at various industry and stakeholder roundtable events on the AI & Copyright debate, and she is now involved in an expert working group which has been set up by the UK Government to help find solutions to the issues, ensuring that the voice of the life sciences industry is heard.  Outside of her BIA committee work, Claire is a partner at Bristows law firm, specialising in advising on life sciences transactions.  Before her legal career, she spent a number of years working in industry for Abbott Laboratories’ medical device business, in quality assurance and operational roles.

Linda Bedenik

Head of Biosolutions and International Policy, BIA

What does your role at BIA involve?
Linda leads on intellectual property (IP), engineering biology (EngBio), R&D and innovation policy and animal research. She provides the secretariat to BIA's two advisory committees - Intellectual Property (IPAC) and Engineering Biology (EBAC) as well as the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Life Sciences.

Previous experience & achievements
Prior to joining BIA, Linda worked as a Policy Analyst at a non-profit looking into university-business collaboration and knowledge exchange in the UK and as a researcher at a public policy-focused think tank identifying challenges to state-level public service delivery and rural health in India. Linda has an MA in Global Political Economy from the University of Sussex.

If you could invite any scientist or entrepreneur to dinner, who would it be and why?
Santos-Dumont and the Wright Brothers – to have them settle the debate over who flew first.

Dr Emma Lawrence

Head of Data Tech Policy and Public Affairs, BIA

What does your role at BIA involve?
Emma leads BIA's genomics, digital, data and artificial intelligence (AI) policy areas. She engages with members who work in these fields to understand their policy needs. Emma provides the secretariat for BIA's Genomics Advisory Committee (GAC) and looks after the TechBio community as part of this. Emma also leads BIA's influence agenda for these areas, engaging with civil servants and other senior stakeholders.

Previous experience
Prior to joining the BIA, Emma worked at the cross-party think tank Policy Connect on a Cell and Gene Therapy Parliamentary engagement programme. She has previously worked in the biomedical research sector understanding the barriers to accessing human samples and data for research. This included leading engagement at the UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre (UCL) and the Immunotherapy Trial Simulation Project (Imperial College London). Emma has a PhD in Immunology from the University of Manchester.

If you could invite any scientist or entrepreneur to dinner, who would it be and why?
Ada Lovelace, the godmother of computer programming because she was the first to recognise that a machine would have uses beyond calculations. We’d chat about maths and 19th-century gossip over cocktails.