In 1905 a group of intellectuals began to meet at the London home of the artist Vanessa Bell and her sister Virginia Woolf: the Bloomsbury Group was born. Later, they would meet for tea, good poetry and bad economic theory at the Orchard Tea Room, in Granchester. Now, friends, I just cannot get over the fact that Bloomsbury Genetic Therapies has emerged from stealth with founders from UCL and C-Suite from Orchard Therapeutics. Shout-out to the brains behind the naming operation(*) (and behind the wonderful science underpinning its mission). Frankly, this week has been hectic in every possible front with big news in all areas, so I will let you get on with the reading without further due. Only one thing: winter is coming but this time I do not mean the patent one. Make sure you swing by the Beyond Biotech section to see the brilliant work Cambridge Solidarity Fund is doing to help people to get by. It did inspire me to collaborate and hopefully it does to you too. Music? World-class. The Paul Smith Quartet, the West Berlin Deutschlandhalle, and Ella Fitzgerald holding the mic. Let’s dive in!

(*) Actually, the company has not disclosed the story behind the naming so this is my own interpretation or —as some would say— my own research, but it would be too good to not be true.

Bloomsbury Genetic Therapies has emerged from stealth raising £5 million seed funding. The round was led by the AlbionVC-managed UCL Technology Fund. Bloomsbury, based in London, has span out from University College London. It is developing treatments for rare neurological and metabolic diseases, based on clinically proven gene therapy technologies. The company has two programs: Liver-targeted therapies (Ornithine Transcarbamylase Deficiency, lead program) and CNS-targeted therapies (Dopamine Transporter Deficiency Syndrome, Niemann-Pick Disease Type C, and Infantile Neuroaxonal Dystrophy). The company is co-founded by Prof Paul Gissen, Prof Manju Kurian, Prof Ahad Rahim, and Prof Simon Waddington, world-leading experts in metabolic and CNS-related diseases, as well as gene and cell therapy therapeutic routes. The leadership team is formed by Adrien Lemoine (CEO), who joins from Orchard Therapeutics (senior commercial, strategy and operation roles at AstraZeneca and GSK); John Illet joins as COO and Chief Legal Officer (former Chief of Staff at Orchard Therapeutics, ex-Oxford GlycoSciences, ex-Cephalon, ex-BioMarin and Consort Medical); Leigh Shaw joins as Senior VP, Head of Regulatory Affairs and Non-Clinical GLP Safety/Toxicology (ex-Nightstar Therapeutics, United Neuroscience and GenSight Biologics). Joining the Board: Frank Armstrong, Chairman (ex-CEO for Fulcrum Pharma, CuraGen, Bioaccelerate, Provensis and Phoqus); Michael Diem, Non-Executive Director (Chief Business Officer and Principal Finance Officer at Century Therapeutics); and Andrea Spezzi, Non-Executive Director (Co-Founder, President and CEO of Rejuvitas, co-founder and ex-Chief Medical Officer at Orchard Therapeutics).

London-based Acurable has raised $11 million Series A. The round was led by Kibo Ventures and participated by Mundi Ventures, Kindred Capital, and Comprador Holdings among others. The proceedings of the round will be used to accelerate the international expansion of its first product AcuPebble SA100. The product simplifies obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) detection and monitoring by enabling fully automated testing of patients at home. AcuPebble SA100 is the first wearable medical device to obtain a CE mark in Europe for the automated diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnoea at home and has received FDA 510(k) clearance in the US. Acurable was founded by Prof Esther Rodriguez-Villegas, co-CEO and inventor of the technology at the Imperial College London.

Solvemed has raised $3.5 million funding to develop an artificial intelligence-based ocular biomarker engine. The round was participated by Atmos, APEX, Tensor, Preface and Techni, alongside Sunfish Partners, which contributed at pre-seed stage in 2020. The proceedings of the round will be used to advance the company’s technology and clinical work and contribute to fund initial regulatory process in EU and US. The aim is to enable portable diagnosis of neurological diseases using the eye as a window into the brain.

Alloy Therapeutics has raised $42 million series D. The round was led by existing investors 8VC and Mubadala Capital and joined by return investors Thiel Capital, Presight Capital, Founders Fund and other undisclosed family offices and sovereign wealth funds. The proceedings of the round will be used to support the development of new drug discovery technologies and explore partnership opportunities. Alloy launched in 2017 and raised Series C in March 2021. Alloy Therapeutics is a biotechnology ecosystem company and partners can access its current and future technology pipeline across six modalities, including antibodies, TCRs, genetic medicines, peptides, cell therapies, and drug delivery, via flat annual fee through Alloy’s Innovation Subscriptions offering. The company has operations in Cambridge, UK, Boston, MA, Basel CH, San Francisco CA, and Athens, GA. Alloy runs 82VS, its venture capital arm, which invest in scientist-entrepreneurs with seamless access to its cutting-edge technologies and discovery services. 82VS companies are often the first customers of Alloy’s innovations.

London-based LabGenius has been awarded a SMART grant from InnovateUK to accelerate the development of its immune cell engager lead optimisation capability. The aim is to advance the company’s ML-driven drug discovery platform (EVA), which is currently being used to co-optimise mono- and multi-specific single domain antibodies for biochemical and biofunctional properties.

US-headquartered NAMSA, a medtech contract research organisation, has acquiredPerfectus Biomed Group, a UK-based laboratory providing customised microbiological services. The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. Perfectus was founded in 2012 and is one of the leading players in the United Kingdom Accreditation Body (UKAS) ISO 17025 biofilm testing industry.

Investment in Leeds-based tech startups has raised up by 88%. UK’s Digital Economy Council shows that so far in 2022, tech startups and scaleups in Leeds have raised £288m in investments, a significant increase from the £153m raised over the same period last year. Now, how much of that has gone into biotech, techbio or else, we do not know. Perhaps part of levelling up comes from levelling up the quality of reporting too when it is outside the London area.

Scotland-based Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) has launchedthe Biotech Innovators Accelerator, currently the only biotech-dedicated accelerator in the region. Startups will gain access to the wider IBioIC network and will be provided with commercial and technical expertise, one-to-one mentoring, events and workshops. Applications are now open to pre-launch stage or up to 2 years post-funding biotech startups connected to Scotland.

The University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School has reported the business angel syndicate Archangelsgenerates £1.4 billion for the Scottish economy. Archangels has 120 angels and 20 early-stage companies in its active portfolio worth a combined £211.29 million. According to the report, every £1 invested by Archangels generates £7.11-£8.45 for the Scottish economy. Now that we are at it, if you want a short but brilliant book for the weekend, read The Archangels’ Share: The Story of the World’s First Syndicate of Business Angels, by Kenny Kemp, Graham Lironiand Peter Shakeshaft.

British-Israeli venture capital firm 83North has closed £357 million fund setting its assets under management in excess of £1.9 billion. The hands-on fund will invest across the US, Europe and Israel. 83North has invested in medtech and related software such as London-based Ibex Medical Analytics (AI-based cancer diagnostics in pathology) or StuffThatWorks(patient reported knowledge base for every chronic condition).

London-based Ada Ventures has reached a first close of £36 million for its Fund II. Ada Ventures is an early-stage investor with a focus on healthcare, ageing, climate, and economic empowerment. The capital was raised from British Business Bank, Plexo Capital, University of Edinburgh, Taavet+Sten and the co-founders of Supercell, among others. Ada was founded by Check Warner and Matt Penneycardand invests starting from £500,000. The firm has invested in RGrig (software for making clinical trials more efficient), Oxford Medical Products (non-surgical weight loss technology), inoviv (tailored biomarker tests to identify patients, Juno.bio (vaginal microbiome testing), among others.

The European Union has appointed Alter Domus, as external fund manager, to lead the European Innovation Council (EIC) deeptech investment scheme. The fund offers up to €2.5 million in grants and up to €15 million in equity investments, for a maximum of 10-20% of equity stake. The fund aims to invest €3.5 billion in around 500 to 700 deeptech companies. Currently, it is the Europe’s most active deeptech investor by number of deals. EIC will carry out the selection process, the European Investment Bank will perform due diligence and Alter Domus will execute the final investment decision.

Cambridge-based Domainex has been selected by global leader in targeted protein degradation Amphista Therapeutics to provide integrated drug discovery services to support its research programmes. Domainex has experience in targeted protein degradation (TDP) in regards to designing, synthesising, and profiling targeted heterobifunctional protein degraders. The company will provide support from target expression to pre-clinical development candidate nomination. Amphista’s proprietary Eclipsys Platform allows to overcome the limitations associated with traditional efficacy and applicability in TPD. It is backed by Forbion, Gilde Healthcare, Novartis Venture Fund, Advent Life Sciences, BioMotiv and Eli Lilly & Company.

Lexington and Cambridge-based NodThera has announced positive Phase 1 results for the NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors NT0796 and NT0249. NT0796 has complete Phase 1 and shows blood-brain barrier penetration and reduced inflammatory biomarkers supporting advancement in neuroinflammatory and peripheral inflammatory diseases. NT0249 (peripherally restricted inhibitor) has achieved positive interim results that support the selected dosage. NodThera is developing a novel class of selective NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors for the treatment of diseases driven by chronic inflammation. The company was founded in 2016 backed by Epidarex Capitaland financed by 5AM Ventures, Cowen Healthcare Investments, F-Prime Capital, Novo Holdings, Sanofi Ventures and Sofinnova Partners.

UNEEG Medical has been granted the i4i Challenge Award from the National Institute for Health and Care Research. The award will fund The Real World Testing and Cost-effectiveness Analysis of Subcutaneous electroencephalogram (REAL-ASE) trial, which is being led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience(IoPPN) at King’s College London. The trial will recruit 33 people with drug resistant epilepsy and implant a miniaturised electroencephalogram device under their scalp. Each person’s brainwaves will be monitored over the next 6 months. The study aims to gather enough evidence to bring the procedure and device to the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE) and commissioners.

London-based Vivan Therapeutics has launched TuMatch. Vivan is developing a personalised cancer therapeutics platform pioneered at the US-based Mount Sinai Medical Center. According to the company, TuMatch is a ‘’software that matches a colorectal cancer patient’s unique tumour profile with the most effective drug therapy’’. Vivan is backed by KQ Labs Accelerator Program, cLab Ventures and the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst.

Cambridge-based Astrea Bioseparations has launched its Nereus LentiHERO™ lentiviral vector (LVV) purification technology. LentiHERO incorporates the company’s proprietary nanofiber material AstreAdept, which addresses the challenges associated with purifying the large and fragile products used in cell and gene therapy. Astrea specialises in bioseparation products and services, and this constitutes the first product of its solutions for cell and gene therapy development and manufacturing.

London-based RQ Bio has announced its Executive Committee. Prof Paul Kellamhas been appointed as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). Prof Kellam co-founded RQ Bio and is Professor of Virus Genomics at Imperial College London. Formerly, he was Vice President of Infectious Diseases & Vaccines at Kymab. Dr Mike Westby has been appointed as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Dr Westby co-founded RQ Bio and formerly carried out leadership roles at Roche and Pfizer, where he led Pfizer’s Opportunities for Partnership in Medicine Research Unit. Alison Seekings has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Ms Seekings is a chartered accountant and chartered tax advise, ex-Deloitte and former partner at Grant Thornton. RQ Bio was founded in 2022 by Jane Osbourn, OBE, alongside Dr Westby and Prof Kellam. The company is currently backed by LifeArc and the University of Oxford. In signed a $157 million deal with AstraZeneca, which covers a portfolio of early-stage antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2.

Cambridge-based Babraham Research Campus has signed a £26 million joint venture a California-based and Blakstone’s portfolio company BioMed Realty to expand the life sciences hub. The partnership will develop 40,000 sq ft facility with lab and office space. The works will start imminently and completion is expected by Q4 2023. BioMed Realty has also become a strategic supporter of the Babraham Research Campus Accelerate Babraham Programme. BioMed initiated operations in the Cambridge market in 2012 and currently owns 1,000,000 sq ft of lab and office space in the region.

Cambridge-based Qkine has appointed Dr Johnathan Frampton as Head of Business Development. Dr Frampton joins from Metisox Cell Networks where he was Chief Commercial Officer. Previously, he held senior commercial positions at Abcam, Diagenode, and Horizon Discovery. Qkine is leveraging proprietary technology developed at the laboratory of Dr Marko Hyvönen’s at the University of Cambridge. The company manufactures highly pure bioactive recombinant proteins and novel growth factors under an ISO 9001:2015 for stem cell, organoid, cellular agriculture and regenerative medicine applications.

Cambridge-based Milner Institute has appointed Alexandra Huener as Head of Entrepreneurship. Huener managed and coordinated IMPULSE, the University of Cambridge’s Maxwell Centre’s entrepreneurship program and has a wealth of experience creating networks to help early-stage entrepreneurs and scientists. This newly created role aims to fuel innovation in Cambridge through the Milner Frame Shift bio-incubator, the Affiliated Venture Partner network and the Bio-Spark Fellowship programme being run together with Cambridge Gravity.

Edinburgh-based Cytomos has appointed David Rigterink as Chief Executive Officer and to its Board of Directors. Mr Rigterink joins from biopharma startup Single Use Support and has held positions at Sartorius Stedim Biotech. Dr Lindsay Fraser has been appointed as Chief Scientific Officer and has previously held senior roles at Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Service, Milteny Biotech, and Roslin CT. Gordon Sharphas been promoted to interim Chief Technology Officer. Mr Sharp brings 30+ years of experience in the microelectronic and instrumentation industries.

Oxford Drug Design has appointed Dr Richard Cooper as Head of Machine Learning (former Head of Chemical Crystallography at the University of Oxford) and Prof Xiang-Lei Yang (Ernest W. Hahn Endowed Chair and Professor of Molecular Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute) to its Scientific Advisory Board. The appointments strengthen the company’s competencies in AI-powered drug discovery and the use of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS) targets, an enzyme family with a vast range of potential uses in oncology and other major diseases.

TauRx Pharmaceuticals has appointed Dr Richard Stefanacci as Chief Medical Officer, an established global leader in Alzheimer’s. Dr Stefanacci will continue serving as the Chief Medical Officer for EVERSANA, a role that he has held for over 11 years. In addition, TauRx has enlisted regulatory legal counsel at King & Spalding, and UK-based advisors, Niche Science & Technology, to support regulatory submissions.

Health Data Research UK has announced five new trustees to the Non-Executive Board: Dr Claire Bithell (Science Communications Consultant, senior roles at the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Human Tissue Authority, The Institute of Cancer Research); Prof Lord Darzi of Denham (Co-Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery); Andrew Elder (Deputy Managing Partner at Albion Capital Group LLP, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons); Sir Mark Walport(Honorary Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Imperial College, former CEO of United Kingdom Research and Innovation); and Alison Wilcox (held leadership roles with international businesses Hay Group, Vodafone and BT plc).

Nottingham-based Phenotypeca has expanded operations and is moving to the Innovation Building at BioCity, which was founded by the University of Nottinghamand Nottingham Trent University in 2003. Phenotypeca raised£700,000 seed funding up until June 2021 and was awarded £1,000,000 million Gates project to develop its technology platforms.

Zetta Genomics has appointed Andy Etheridge (ex-marketing Services Director at IQVIA) as Director of Strategic Partnerships and Liam White as Head of Product (ex-Congenica, ex-Prenetics). The appointments aim to identify, recruit and collaborate with technologies complementing XetaBase, which is already compatible with the Microsoft Azure and AWS cloud computing platforms.

Cambridge-based Optibrium has appointed Michelle Harrison as Head of Strategic Marketing, Chris Khoury as Associate Director of Business Development, and Imran Ghauri as Business Development Manager. Optibrium is developing a suite of computer-aided drug discovery technologies which are currently deployed by more than 170 organisations worldwide, including five of the top ten global pharmaceutical companies.

London-headquartered BenevolentAI (Euronext Amsterdam: BAI) has announcedAstraZeneca has selected an additional two novel targets to enter its drug portfolio, two for chronic kidney disease (CKD) and three for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The collaboration initiated in 2019 and expanded in January 2022 for a further 3 years into two new areas — heart failure and systemic lupus erythematosus. BenevolentAI integrates AstraZeneca’s data into its biomedical Knowledge Graph which is then interrogated by scientists of both companies to discover underlying disease mechanisms, frame and test hypotheses and identify novel targets.

London-headquartered Autolus Therapeutics plc (Nasdaq: AUTL) has announcedcollaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) (NYSE: BMY) for the use of Autolus’ proprietary RQR8 Safety Switch system. Financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. The collaboration grants BMS the right to incorporate RQR8 safety switch into an initial set of selected cell therapy programs on a oncologic target-by-target basis. Safety switches allow the use of pharmacological agents to selectively eliminate a cell therapy in case of severe adverse side effects. RQR8 switch works by administration the approved pharmaceutical antibody, rituximab. Rituximab binds to the engineered CD20 epitopes on the surface of the cell therapy and triggers selective cell death.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has approved a new treatment for breast cancer patients at high risk of recurrence. The approval follows a trial led by Prof Stephen Johnston (Head of the Breast Unit at The Royal Marsden). Abemaciclib is used in combination with hormone therapy to treat high-risk HR+ and HER2- breast cancer. The approval was based on results from the Phase 3 monarchE trial (+5,600 patients, 38 countries).

Oxford Biomedica (LSE:OXB) has announced its refinancing of the $85 million secured 12-month loan facility from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. The company has partially repaid the outstanding amounts under the Short-Term Loan Facility and amended it into a new senior secured 4-year term loan facility provided in a principal amount of $50 million with a variable interest rate capped at 10.25% per annum.

Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, has acquired Lexington-based LogicBio Therapeutics (NASDAQ: LOGC). LogicBio, a genomic medicine company, has had a year of struggles as clinical hold plus biotech bear markets have dragged its stock down 94% (27 cents). Alexion has agreed to pay $2.07 per share, a 666% premium over the closing price. Alexion focused on LogicBio’s ability to develop genomic medicines rather than in the current pipeline. LogicBio has developed a genome editing platform (GeneRide), a gene delivery platform (sAAVy), and a proprietary manufacturing process (mAAVRx). The details of the deal will be made public in 4-6 weeks.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is catching up! EMA has launched PRIME, a new pilot program to help academic and non-profit organisations developing cell and gene therapies, as well as other advanced therapies. For the pilot program, 5 participants will be selected and guided through the regulatory process, including best practices for manufacturing and clinical development planning. The first participant is the Hospital Clínic Barcelona with ARI-0001. ARI-0001 is a CAR-T product derived from patients’ own T cells which has already received authorization for relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia from the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices under a “hospital exemption” approval pathway.

From miner’s daughter to leading biotech ventures: the story of Jill Reckless, founder of Cambridge-based RxCelerate.

The Global Innovation Index (WIPO Statistics Database, 2022) has reported the world’s largest top 100 science and technology (S&T) clusters. Looking at the top S&T clusters by intensity, that is, the sum of their patent and scientific publication shares divided by population, the ranking is as follows: 1) Cambridge; 2) Eindhoven; 3) Daejon; 4) San Francisco; 5) Oxford; 6) Boston; 7) Ann Arbor; 8) San Diego; 9) Seattle; and 10) Lund-Malmo. Bonus track: Cambridge has been named UK’s top city for start-ups eyeing 2023 launch.

Manjari Chandran-Ramesh, PhD, Partner at Amadeus Capital has talked to Alex Housley, CEO at Seldon, and Alberto Rizzoli, CEO at V7 in Amadeus and Friends, the firm’s podcast. Good insights on scaling machine learning architecture. Ps UK AI investment has reached record $3.6 billion despite economic downturn.

Those of you who watched —and thus enjoyed— Mad Men will remember the series of episodes when Don Draper tries to change the way tobacco companies advertise their now-we-know rather unhealthy products. The spin Don did not see coming is converting tobacco plants into factories to produce the growth factors required for the cultivated meat industry, among others. Israel-based BioBetter is on it.

LifeArc is a self-funding medical research charity. Good overview article on their mission and how they contribute to innovation.

3 years and over 240,000 human genomes: Our UK Biobank Journey