Rumours have turned out to be true, for a change. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by assets, has just launched up a a healthcare venture capital firm led by Stephen Squinto, co-founder of Alexion (acquired by AstraZeneca). Abeona Therapeutics has announced $35 million private placement to celebrate overcoming FDA’s Phase III hold for its cell therapy candidate. If you have not been catching up much on the Mereo Pharma drama, know that the biotech and Rubric Capital have finally reach an agreement. More on this under Talent and Operations. Spoiler, the Chairman survived. Talking about talent, BiologiC has appointed ARM’s co-founder to its Board of Directors and Excientia has won the Prix Galien USA 2022 Digital Health Solution Award, which is as good as it gets when it comes to awards. Excientia has also expanded its AI-platform to perform antibody discovery. Good news on the cultivated meat industry: Edinburgh-based Roslin Technologies has raised £11 million Series A and a partnership between Newcastle-based 3D Bio-Tissues (3DBT) and Cambridge-based Qkine wins the Cultivated Meat Innovation Challenge. For those fearing a plot twist, platforms are still raising funds: Eagle Genomics has raised $20 million for its AI-augmented drug discovery engine and BIOS Health’s algorithm keeps on giving. The Interesting readings and podcasts features Daniel Rooke from Start Codon, LifeArc and the Medical Research Council being amazing and Verge Genomics joining the short-yet-impressive list of companies starting clinical trials for candidates discovered using AI. Music? Joe Cocker(sigh…). Let’s dive in!

Cambridge-based Eagle Genomics has raised $20 million first close funding. The investment was led by abrdn Plc and participated by existing investors Environmental Technologies Fund and a consortium of led by Granpool Innovative Investments. The current round will remain open to allow for additional participation up to a further USD 10 million. The proceedings of the round will be used to advance e[datascientist], Eagle’s AI-augmented (multilayer hypergraphs) knowledge discovery platform and to continue with the company’s international expansion. Eagle Genomics currently focuses on “One Health” challenges impacting the industrial application of microbiome science (e.g. soil engineering, plants, farming, environmental health, etc). e[datascientist] aims to bridge the ‘translation gap,’ making scientific knowledge from different sources across industries applicable as robust product claims (Personalised and functional nutrition, ingredient manufacturing, microbiome therapeutics, etc.).

Edinburgh-based Roslin Technologies has raised £11 million Series A. The round was led by Novo Holdings and participated by Kairos Capital Group, Nutreco, Future Planet Capital, Esco Lifesciences, Alchimia, and other private investors. In addition, Roslin was originally supported by the Scottish Enterprise, the University of Edinburgh’s venture capital fund (Old College Capital), and Future Planet Capital’s BIF Opportunities LP. The company was founded in 2017 and is developing and commercialising animal stem cells for the nascent global cultivated meat industry. The proceedings of the round will be used to expand the company’s cell line portfolio and to further develop the protocols for scale up of its cells into cost competitive cell biomass for meat production. In addition, it will expand its insect venture which focuses on breeding better insects for the emerging insect protein sector.

Birmingham-headquartered The Binding Site Group has been acquired by ThermoFisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO) in an all-cash transaction valued at £2.25 billion. The Binding Site was owned by a shareholder group led by European private equity firm Nordic Capital. The Binding Site specialises in diagnostic assays and instruments to improve the detection and management of blood cancers and immune system disorders and will become part of Thermo Fisher's Specialty Diagnostics segment. Currently, the company has more than 1,100 employees globally and it reports to be on track to deliver more than £190 million of revenue in 2022.

London-based Healios has raised £14 million in follow-on investment with participation from Autism Impact Fund(AIF) and existing investors AlbionVC and InHealth Ventures. The proceedings of the round will be used to expand its mental healthcare services across the US via its subsidiary Meliora. Healios is a digital mental health startup supporting children, young people, and families dealing with conditions like autism and ADHD. It provides self-management apps, online video sessions with clinicians, cognitive behavioural therapy. Healios previously raised £7m in a Series A funding round in May 2021.

Cambridge-based BIOS Health has announced its technology is moving into 8 worldwide clinics to enable a $21 million clinical programme funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study (Research Evaluating Vagal Excitation and Anatomical Links, REVEAL) will take place over 3 years in collaboration with University of Minnesota, Mayo Clinic, Stanford University. REVEAL’s aim is to collect and analyse neural data from 144 patients and investigate the potential for neural therapies, delivered electrically by pacemaker sized devices on the vagus nerve, to treat a wide range of chronic diseases including heart failure, epilepsy, arthritis, respiratory conditions, among others. BIOS’ AI-driven platform allows to identify neural biomarkers. The resulting datasets will also form the foundations for the development of new drugs and medical devices to treat a wide range of chronic diseases related to the nervous system.

London-based Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS) has raised £2.4 million follow-on funding. The round was participated by ACF Investors and angel investor Dr Nicolaus Henke, ex-chairman of Quantum Black and ex head of Global Healthcare practice at McKinsey. OMS is developing a Virtual Reality-enabled healthcare training, which can recreate up to 6,000 clinical scenarios per month, which contrast with figures from conventional training centres (up to 200 simulations/ month). The tool creates immersive VR simulations with AI-controlled patients to train healthcare professionals. The proceedings of the round will be used to expand the product offering and double down inn the company’s expansion across the US.

Bristol-based OKKO Health has raised £2 million pre-seed round led by Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures (Digital Health Fund). OKKO is developing a range of sight monitoring apps to detect and analyse macular degeneration, one of the leading causes of sight loss. OKKO’s apps can be played regularly to inform clinicians of changes in visual acuity, sensitivity to contrast, distortion, and colour vision. The proceedings of the round will be used to supports the creation of new aggregate datasets to train OKKO’s machine learning algorithms. In 2019, OKKO raised £225,000 from Bristol Private Equity Club, who followed on in OKKO’s 2020 raise (£900,000 total). In addition, OKKO was selected as one of Bayer’s ‘G4A ophthalmology companies’ granting OKKO access to an extensive loan. The company has created a CE marked product, co-developed with support from Innovate UK and The Macular Society in the UK.

Oxford-based Xerion Healthcare (University of Oxford’s spinout) and Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) have been awarded an Innovate UK SMART grant. Xerion is developing a nanoparticle-based therapy to increase the effectiveness of radiotherapy whilst minimising tissue damage. The partnership aims to investigate tumour regrowth in the presence and absence of nanoparticles, which will be released into the areas of remaining tumour using in-vivo model. The funding will enable to advance the therapy and potentially reduce the post-surgical radiotherapy on aggressive brain tumours. In addition, the data obtained from the study will form the basis of a submission to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), enabling Xerion to take the novel therapeutic approach to clinical trials.

London-based CardioCrown has been awarded Innovate UK funding. CardioCrown is developing a wearable smart medical system (CardioCore) which uses proprietary technology to prevent blood clot formation in the lower limb, a condition known as Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT). The company has recently been successful in various tech and venture development university programs.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by assets, has launched a healthcare venture capital firm. The VC practice has been created through J.P. Morgan Private Capital, a growth-equity and private-credit investment group within J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Stephen Squinto will lead Life Sciences Private Capital as managing partner and chief investment officer. Squinto co-founded Alexion (acquired by AstraZeneca for $39 billion) and was executive partner at healthcare investment firm OrbiMed Advisors. Gaurav Gupta (founder of Ascendant BioCapital) and Anya Schiess(co-founder and was general partner of Healthy Ventures) join as co-managing partners. The fund will invest from early to late stage in biotechs targeting genetic medicine, autoimmune diseases, cardiometabolic diseases and rare disorders. Joining as advisors are: Laurie Glimcher (president and CEO of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Jeffrey Leiden(executive chairman and ex-CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals), Fred Moll (a robotic-surgery pioneer and executive at Johnson & Johnson), Stephen Oesterle (former senior vice president for medicine and technology at  Medtronic Plc), and Robert Stockman (co-founder and ex-CEO of REVA Medical).

Cambridge Network is celebrating its 25th year anniversary supporting the Cambridge ecosystem. The original idea originated from discussion in 1997 between the then Vice-Chancellor of the University, now Lord Broers, with entrepreneurs Hermann Hauser, David Cleevely, Nigel Brown, Fred Hallsworth and Anthony Ross. Currently, the Nertwork fosters business relationships, facilitates training and collaboration, connects people and companies enabling recruiting and fuels cooperation within the region and beyond.

State-owned British Business Bank has launched a £200 million regional fund (South West Investment Fund I) to invest in small and medium-sized businesses located in the South West region (initial focus on Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire). Loans of £25,000 to £2 million and equity investments of up to % million will be made available from 2023. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are also to receive their own regional fund. Additional funding will also be available for the Midlands and the North of England.

Cambridge Enterprise has become part of Impact 12, a program to establish collaboration between twelve universities to showcase the role academic institutions can play in social and sustainable enterprise. Impact 12 is led by the Oxford University Innovation and joined by the University of Cambridge, the University of Northampton and Coventry University and joined by universities part of the MICRA project (Aston, Birmingham, Cranfield, Keele, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick).

Cambridge Enterprise has licensed the Cambridge Prostate Biopsy Device (CamPROBE) to JEB Technologies. CamPROBE was invented by Prof Vincent Gnanapragasam and his team at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust with the support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research. The device aims to decrease the risk of infection during transrectal biopsies at a fraction of the current cost. Transrectal biopsies are the traditional procedure to diagnose prostate cancer.

London-based Complement Therapeutics has been awarded Innovation Passport for CTx001 by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The Innovation Passport has been granted under the new (2021) accelerated Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (ILAP), designed to expedite therapies for high unmet medical needs. CTx001 is designed as AAV gene therapy for visual impairment due to geographic atrophy.

Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have announced new MRI dementia test is going to be trialed for the first time. The clinical trial will investigate the effectiveness of a new method to enable very early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. The method is called Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST). CEST can image brain glucose using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which does not expose patients to ionising radiation like current methods such as positron emission tomography (PET).

Alderley Edge-based INFEX Therapeutics has announced the company’s lead candidate RESP-X has entered Phase I clinical trials. RESP-X is a humanised monoclonal antibody designed to treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections, a hard to treat drug-resistant pathogen. The trial is being carried out at the NIHR Liverpool Clinical Trial Unit.

Cambridge-based Azadyne has won the o2h discovery kickstarter competition. Azadyne was span out from Trinity College Dublin and founded by Prof Stephen Connon, Prof Vincent Kelly, Prof Mike Southern and Dr Jason Rutt(CEO). The company focuses on an unexplored (sic) pathway within the body involved in autoimmune diseases. Azadyne has observed efficacy in pre-clinical studies via the tRNA guanine trans-glycosylase (TGT) enzyme pathway against a range of autoimmune diseases. As part of the kickstarter program, the company will receive small molecule synthetic chemistry from o2h discovery.

Cambridge-based Optibrium and Leeds-based Lhasa have published joint research on novel predictive models for drug metabolism to improve drug design and reduce toxicity and costs. The paper, ‘Predicting Regioselectivity of AO, CYP, FMO and UGT Metabolism Using Quantum Mechanical Simulations and Machine Learning’ has been published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Current predictive models of metabolism usually target the human Cytochrome P450 enzyme family and this works aims to advance predictive modelling beyond leveraging in-house AI driven solutions.

Newcastle-based QuantuMDx Group Limited and A.Menarini Diagnostics S.r.I. (France) have entered an exclusive distribution agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Menarini will commercialise and service QuantuMDx’s SARS- CoV-2 assay and its new SARS-CoV-2, Flu A/B, RSV Respiratory Panel test during the next five years. A.Menarini Diagnostics is part of the Menarini Pharmaceutical Group, founded in 1886 an currently operates in 140 countries.

Cambridge-based BiologiC Technologies has appointed Jaime Urquhart as Non-Executive Director. Mr Urquhart was co-founder of ARM Holdings Plc, world leading $40 billion semiconductor technology provider, where he was Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Chief Operating Officer when the company floated on NASDAQ and the LSE, and most recently Chief Strategy Officer. BiologiC Technologies has developed proprietary digital hardware that allows rapid development and execution of novel biological applications on a powerful biocomputer platform.

A partnership between Newcastle-based 3D Bio-Tissues (3DBT) and Cambridge-based Qkine has been awarded€100,000 at the EIT Food Venture Summit 2022 (Cultivated Meat Innovation Challenge). The aim of the collaboration is to develop innovative solutions to reduce the cost of cultivated meat. Other winners are BioBetter (israel), LenoBio(Germany) and S2AQUAcoLAB (Portugal)

Cardiff-based Ceryx Medical has been awarded the 2022 Business Start-Up winner award. The company is developing bioelectronic therapeutic devices for treating diseases such as heart failure and other neurological disorders. The device helps restoring the lost physiological functions mimicking cell membranes and ion channels. This enables the system to interpret signals directly with the body in real-time and generate realistic, biological output signals. The company raised £3.8 million seed round in April 2022, backed by Icehouse Ventures, the Development Bank of Wales, Parkwalk Advisors, Business Growth Fund and a group of angel investors.

RQ Biotechnology has appointed Špela Binter as Systems Immunology Lead and Simon Watson as Head of Computational Biology. RQ Biotechnology is based on broad-spectrum monoclonal antibodies that can provide provide rapid and long-lasting immunity for people at risk of severe disease from viral infections. The company launched in May 2022 by Mike Westby, Paul Kellam and Jane Osbourn OBE, and it is currently led by Hugo Fry (CEO).

Oxford-headquartered Excientia Plc (NASDAQ: EXAI) has won the Prix Galien USA 2022 Digital Health Solution Award. Prix Galien recognises scientific excellence and is regarded as the most coveted award in biopharmaceutical research. Earlier this year, the company announced its platform clinically demonstrated to guide treatment selection and improve cancer treatment outcomes (landmark study EXALT-1).

Mereo BioPharma (LON:0A9G) and its biggest shareholder Rubric Capital Management have reach an agreementover board and pipeline issues. Rubric (owner of just over 14%) wanted to remove board chair Michael Wyzga, deputy chair Peter Fellner, Anders Ekblom, and Deepika Pakianathan and appoint instead its own nominees. The demand was rejected by the company indicating some of the nominees were under-qualified. Mereo has just announced it will replace four of its board members, but only one of the four belongs to the list Rubric initially wanted out. Deputy Chair Fellner, Brian Schwartz, Abdul Mullick, and Anne Hyland will step down but Chair Michael Wyzga will remain. Rubric will get the four board members initially listed: Annalisa Jenkins, Daniel Shames, Marc Yoskowitz, and Justin Roberts.

Oxford-headquartered Excientia Plc (NASDAQ: EXAI) has expanded its generative AI platform to allow for biologics design capabilities, such as human antibodies. The current platform already allowed precision medicine patient tissue models to analyse antibodies. Current approaches to optimise antibodies, including those using AI/ML, rely on experimental screening methods for discovering antibodies. Incorporating generative AI design would allow investigation of a broader antibody space for specific target epitopes without the need for screening. The company’s new facilities will add 8,000 sq ft to the Oxford Science Park headquarters.

GSK Plc (LSE/NYSE: GSK) has been granted Priority Review by US FDA for its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) older adult vaccine candidate (AReSVi-006). The FDA grants Priority Review to applications for vaccines that, if approved, would offer significant improvements in the safety or effectiveness of the treatment or prevention of serious conditions when compared to standard applications. There are currently no RSV vaccines for older adults approved anywhere in the world. This is the third major regulatory milestone for GSK’s RSV older adult vaccine candidate following regulatory submission acceptances by the European Medicines Agency and Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. AReSVi-006 is a contains a recombinant subunit prefusion RSV F glycoprotein antigen (RSVPreF3) combined with GSK’s proprietary AS01E adjuvant, which contains QS-21 Stimulon adjuvant licensed from Agenus-owned Antigenics Inc.

Abeona Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ABEO; LON:0H7R) has overcome an FDA clinical hold showing Phase 3 evidence for its EB-101. EB-101 is design as an autologous, gene-corrected cell therapy for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. This achievement opens up for a FDA filing in the coming new year. Among the 11 patients with chronic wounds (VITAL trial), EB-101 led to 50% wound healing and reduced pain, meeting the co-primary endpoints.

More on Abeona Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ABEO; LON:0H7R) has announced $35 million private placement. Abeona has entered into a securities purchase agreement to sell 7,065,946 shares of its common stock ($4.60 per share). The private placement included participation from new and existing institutional investors including Adage Capital Management LP, Armistice Capital, Deerfield Management Company, L.P., EcoR1 Capital and Nantahala Capitalas well as other specialist investors. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. acted as sole placement agent on the transaction.

EU antitrust regulators have renewed interim measures mandating Illumina (ILMN.O) to keep Grail (GRAL.O) as a separate entity pending an order to unwind the takeover completed before the deal had been approved. Failure to comply would trigger penalty payments up to 5% of Illumina's average daily turnover.

Cambridge Tech Podcast has talked to Dan Rooke, COO of Start Codon, about his career journey, the role of Start Codon in the ecosystem and how accelerators can make a difference.

LifeArc and the Medical Research Council have elaborated a toolkit to address drug repurposing, considering steps at each development stage starting from building a Target Product Profile

BlackRock-backed Verge Genomics has started human trials with drug discovered using AI. The drug candidate VRG50635 is designed to target ALS. Verge joins the list of biotechs that have recently started clinical trials for drugs developed using AI (Exscientia, Evotec and Insilico Medicine).

SSI Strategy podcast has talked to Usman "Oz" Azam, CEO at the recently launched Empyrean Neurosciences. Long, interesting conversation on his personal journey, industry insights and how Empyrean is genetically engineering fungi and plants to create human therapeutics to treat neurological disorders.

Predictive validity in drug discovery: what it is, why it matters and how to improve it

Serial biotech entrepreneur and bit.bio’s CEO Mark Kotter’s TED talk on synthetic biology 101 and biology and engineering can collaborate.