Harren is a structural biologist and co-founder of Astex Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of drugs in oncology and diseases of the central nervous system.

As Chief Scientific Officer and then President and CEO, Harren built up Astex to become one of the world’s leading drug discovery and development companies. Before founding Astex in 1999, he was head of Structural Biology and Bioinformatics at GlaxoWellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline) in the UK.

Harren came to Birkbeck’s world-renowned crystallography department and in 1986, completed his MSc in X-ray Crystallography, followed just three years later with his PhD. He is famous for applying crystallography to drug design.

Harren’s scientific achievements have been recognised by the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Royal Society of Biology and The Academy of Medical Sciences. He has also received the UK Bioindustry Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, he was made a Fellow of Birkbeck.