David Roblin

Dr. David Roblin is a physician-scientist and biotechnology executive with more than 30 years of experience leading research, development, and innovation across global pharmaceutical companies, biotech startups, and academic institutions. He has held senior leadership roles, including Head of European R&D at Pfizer, executive positions at Bayer, and Chief Operating Officer and Chair of Scientific Translation at the Francis Crick Institute. Throughout his career, he has contributed to the development of more than a dozen approved medicines.

David is the CEO and co-founder of Relation, a next-generation biotech company developing AI-discovered therapeutics. Relation’s proprietary Lab-in-the-Loop™ platform integrates machine learning with high-resolution patient biology to uncover new disease insights and accelerate drug discovery. Under his leadership, the company secured $65 million in seed funding—one of the largest rounds of its kind—and entered into a multi-billion-dollar R&D partnership with GSK. David has been involved with Relation since its inception, having served as CEO of Juvenescence Therapeutics, one of the company’s early investors.

Prior to founding Relation, David served as President of R&D at Summit Therapeutics, where he led a strategic pivot towards infectious disease and oncology.

Before his time at Summit, David served as Chief Operating Officer and Director of Scientific Translation at the Francis Crick Institute. In this role, he oversaw the £1 billion construction and operational launch of the Crick’s one-million-square-foot biomedical research facility in central London—one of the largest scientific infrastructure projects in Europe. He also led the development and implementation of the Institute’s translational research strategy, resulting in the creation of 14 spin-out companies that collectively raised over £1 billion in external investment and generated hundreds of high-skilled jobs. David continues to serve as Chair of the Crick’s Scientific Translation Advisory Board and is a Senior Fellow at the Institute.

David is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He holds honorary professorships in Translational Medicine at St George’s Hospital Medical School and in Medicine at Swansea University. He also serves as Non-Executive Director of Nxera (TSE:4565), Non-Executive Chair of Centauri Therapeutics, and continues to advise leading scientific organisations on translational research and innovation strategy.