Julian is Chief Scientific Officer and is responsible for the global scientific strategy of Leica Microsystems as well having oversight of strategic aspects of product development and marketing. As part of Danaher Life Sciences he also supports the strategy for Beckman Coulter, Molecular devices and ABSciex. Julian Burke joined Leica Microsystems as the result of the acquisition of Genetix Group plc in January 2010. His work with Genetix started in November 2000 after selling his own businesses (Genpak Limited and Genpak Inc) to the Group. He was one of the 3 executive directors who then completed the IPO of Genetix on the LSE. Reporting to the CEO and Board his responsibilities included strategic marketing, patent filing strategy and mergers and acquisitions. While a faculty member at the University of Sussex he founded Genpak to develop reagents for DNA sequencing and robotics for DNA microarraying. He lectured in biochemistry and molecular genetics and his principle research interest was in neurobiology and neuropeptide signaling via G protein coupled receptors. In this context he has consulted for GSK, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and OSI. He has also consulted for McDonalds and was a marketing consultant for Amersham Intl.
Previously he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Medical Research Council, and the Roswell Park Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY. USA. He serves on and has chaired 3 government BBSRC committees and has over 70 refereed publications and 6 patents. He is a trustee of The Company of Biologists, a “not for profit” which publishes three leading scientific journals, Development, Journal of Experimental Biology and Journal of Cell Biology. It employs 64 people including editorial staff and graphics designers. He is married and has 3 children, all left home.