Start-up Zone

Global pharma start-up success stories

7 July 2022

From AI to 3D deep-learning research to biologics, Lu Rahman selects some interesting global start-ups pushing the boundaries in drug discovery. Owkin French-American startup, Owkin is focussed on using artificial intelligence (AI) to discover and develop better treatments for unmet medical needs, starting with the fight against cancer. Using AI, the company identifies new drug […]

Spotlight: Tackling the issue of scientific data waste

28 February 2022

More than half of all scientific research is irreproducible, and more than 80% of scientific research data is being lost within 20 years. In the biomedical field alone, irreproducible research costs the industry £28 billion (US$38 billion) every year. Megan Thomas talks to Founder of Labstep Jake Schofield, about this issue. MT: Huge amounts of scientific data […]

Ten start-ups selected for KQ Labs accelerator programme

24 November 2021

Ten start-up companies working at the interface of biomedical and data science are to receive personalised mentoring and coaching as part of the KQ Labs accelerator programme, run by the Francis Crick Institute and funded by the medical research charity LifeArc in partnership with Cancer Research UK and UK SPINE. What will the selected companies receive? The new cohort, consisting […]

The start-up changing the game for IBD

16 November 2021

Jenny Bailey, CEO of Ferryx tells Lu Rahman how its leading product FX856 came to life and how it’s a game-changer for inflammatory bowel disease since it can act during active inflammation. Ferryx is an innovative bio-tech start-up. It is a University of Bristol spin-out with a focus on gut health and IBD in particular. Its mission is to […]

Cancer Research UK and University of Edinburgh start-up boost

23 September 2021

A University of Edinburgh business-support programme has partnered with Cancer Research UK to help build startup companies focused on tackling cancer. The charity will fund up to ten participants in the second round of the university’s Data-Driven Entrepreneurship (DDE) Venture Builder Incubator, which supports postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and academic staff to develop their startup ideas for three months. […]

Digital brain biomarker start-up appoints Acacia founder to board

19 August 2021

Monument Therapeutics, a stratified medicine company, today announced Monument Therapeutics the appointment of Dr Julian Gilbert to its Board as a Non-Executive Director. Monument recently raised £2.625 million in seed funding and applies a novel drug development strategy, leveraging digital assessments of cognition to match patients with new pharmaceutical treatments. The company has a pipeline of […]

Biotech start-up takes another stride toward flu cure

19 August 2021

Covimro, a British biotech start-up, has developed a food-grade compound which has demonstrated its efficacy against the flu virus in an animal model study carried out by A-IR Clinical Research and Pharmidex Pharmaceutical Services. The in vivo testing analysed Covimro’s antiviral capability against an infection of Influenza A H3N2, a flu variant consistent with the seasonal, non-lethal viruses familiar to humans. Once […]

Angelini Pharma and Lumira Ventures launch the ALBF

17 August 2021

Angelini Pharma and Lumira have launched the Angelini Lumira Biosciences Fund (ALBF), which has been established to invest in early-stage companies in Canada and U.S. markets that are developing pharmaceutical therapies for central nervous system disorders (CNS) and rare diseases. The ALBF will be managed by Lumira Ventures and Angelini Pharma will commit $35 million […]

Starting line: focus on Canadian start-ups

11 August 2021

DDW Editor Lu Rahman selects three Canadian start-ups worth watching: AbCellera Biologics, BlueRock Therapeutics and Deep Genomics. AbCellera Biologics AbCellera Biologics was founded in 2012 as a spin out from the University of British Colombia. The company searches, decodes, and analyses natural immune systems to find antibodies that can be developed into drugs to prevent […]

Biotech company win Tech-Xpo 2021

14 July 2021

Ferryx won ‘Best Elevator Pitch’ at SETsquared Bristol’s Tech-Xpo. Tech-Xpo is a flagship pitch, demo, connect showcase, providing a platform for start-ups to showcase their innovative technologies and raise investment in Bristol, UK. Founded in 2019 as a spin-out from the University of Bristol, Ferryx is dealing with the lack of effective treatment for gastrointestinal […]

Tech lets bioentrepreneurs run start-ups from coffee shops

21 April 2021

Scispot.io, a life science digitisation and automation company, has launched a digital operating platform for life science leaders and scientists which will allow entrepreneurs to start and virtually run their biotech startups from garages, coffee shops or anywhere innovation is born. The company’s mission is to create a digital life science ecosystem, powering over 10,000 […]

How a soccer ball and a computer inform new vaccines

14 April 2021

RSV is a complicated virus, and traditional vaccine methods have not worked. But UW’s Institute for Protein Design may have solved the problem using computational design. With the help of an innovative computer program, Icosavax has constructed virus-like particles (VLPs) using a two-part assembly (like a soccer ball). Adam Simpson, CEO of Icosavax, talks to […]

Is this start-up a game changer for drug discovery?

18 January 2021

Jane Theaker, Kinomica explains why she was so impressed with the preclinical datasets predicting for drug response that the company could produce, she decided to join as CEO. Kinomica is a spin out offering phosphoproteomic analyses to the pharmaceutical industry. Theaker has R&D expertise in novel diagnostic technologies. Her experience includes genomics with AstraZeneca and […]

The start-up that knows one size doesn’t fit all

29 September 2020 , By Lu Rahman

Luis Valente, CEO & Co-Founder of iLoF, has been recognized by Forbes as one of the top 30 under 30 for science and healthcare. He told Lu Rahman what’s behind his start-up that recently secured $1 million in investment from Microsoft’s Venture Fund, M12 and Mayfield Fund and won the EIT Health Wild Card competition […]

Biorelate offers researchers free access to AI-based drug discovery tool

24 August 2020 , DDW editorial

The UK based AI start-up is offering all researchers free use of Galactic, its cloud-based web tool, to support biomedical research while lab access is restricted around the world. According to Biorelate, the cognitive computing platform behind Galactic can speed up the research process by collecting and curating more than 30 million biomedical research text […]

Start Codon debuts companies from life science business acceleration programme

24 August 2020

Start Codon, life science and healthcare business accelerator, has showcased its first cohort of start-ups. The company aims to minimise risk and translate early stage research into successful start-ups, ready for funding and partnership. Start Codon has been working closely with four life science and healthcare companies that were enrolled into the programme in February […]

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