Aled Edwards is the founding and current CEO of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC),a public-private charitable partnership that generates research tools and knowledge to support basic science and drug discovery. Edwards is also the founder of M4K Pharma, a drug discovery company whose mission is to invent new medicines for rare and common diseases of children, and price them affordably.
Aled is a pioneer of open science and open partnerships with the private sector. Since 2003, under his leadership, the SGC has adopted a policy not to file for patents on any of its research output, while over the same period has attracted well over 0M in funding from global pharma, and a similar amount from governments and foundations. M4K is the first drug discovery company to eschew patents and prioritize rapid data sharing.
Aled is a Professor at Toronto, Oxford and McGill Universities. He studied biochemistry at McGill and Stanford Universities.