MATTHEW PACE

BIOINFORMATICIAN

Matthew began his career in Malta where he read for a Master's in Bioinformatics with a dissertation investigating the transcriptional effects of a phenolic compound on an acute myeloid leukaemia cell line. In parallel, Matthew worked with an academic lab to help them identify genes that regulate molecules that show deranged expression after SARS-Cov-2 infection, with the aim of finding suitable drug targets that will prevent COVID-induced cytokine storms.

Soon after the completion of his postgraduate dissertation and academic contract in 2022, Matthew joined an early-stage Cambridge-based gene therapy startup, OrthoBio Therapeutics, where he set up the bioinformatics infrastructure for the company and provided analytical support to the rest of the team. Here, Matthew developed a guide RNA (gRNA) performance prediction pipeline which was used to select top-performing candidates and supported the legal protection of viable gRNA sequences.

Matthew now extends his computational expertise to the fields of virology and immunology, joining the RQ Bio team in 2025. He hopes that his skills can help give vulnerable people a fighting chance against otherwise debilitating or deadly infections.