Accelerate@Babraham picks eight finalists for new incubator
First start-up competition at Babraham includes Campus facilities as prize
The first Accelerate@Babraham start-up competition has shortlisted eight firms who vie for the five free places on its incubator programme.
The competition was launched in May and, having received numerous applications, the Accelerate@Babraham team has narrowed down the short-listed finalists to eight.
The finalists will pitch to a panel of expert judges, including David Grainger, partner at Medixci and John Trainer, VP and head of partnering and strategy at MedImmune, at the competition final in The Cambridge Building at the Babraham Research Campus on July 11. The event follows on from the final day of the One Nucleus ON Helix conference and is likely to attract a large audience, all keen to support the next generation of start-ups. The event is free to attend and open to all, including ON Helix delegates.
Following the presentations, the five winners will be announced.
Successful ventures will attain access to Accelerate@Babraham’s bio-incubator facilities, including communal equipped laboratory space, flexible workspace within the Babraham Research Campus’ stimulating and supportive environment and access to its community hub, which includes office, meeting and social spaces.
The programme is supported by strategic partners, AstraZeneca, Medimmune, One Nucleus, Rxcelerate and Lilly. In addition, various other professional service companies have committed to providing clinics and guidance to these early-stage opportunities.
Dr Karolina Zapadka, Accelerate@Babraham’s business acceleration manager, said: “We have been delighted with the response to our first Accelerate@Babraham Start-up Competition.
“All eight finalists put forward strong business cases coupled with a real passion for life sciences spanning diagnostics, computational modelling, accelerated drug development technology and genomics.
“I have no doubt that those chosen to move forward to the programme itself will find the process an exciting and motivating learning curve and I’m sure we will also learn quite a bit along the way from them too.”
The eight firms are:
- Antiverse Ltd: Accelerated drug discovery. One day return instead of the industry standard of 3-18 months. Also an animal-free process.
- Flomics: Developing proprietary novel blood-based diagnostic tool to identify pattern changes in circulating long RNA molecules of patients.
- Kalium Diagnostics: Developing the world’s first blood potassium test for home and bedside use for 2 million people with renal disorders, including dialysis patients.
- Oppilotech Ltd: Building model for use in developing first-in-class antibacterial drugs that will address the looming antibiotic resistance crisis.
- Qkine Ltd: Qkine manufacturers high quality growth factors and cytokines. Spun-out from Cambridge University.
- Sixfold Bioscience Ltd: Has developed RNA nanoparticles to deliver gene editing drugs such as CRISPR exclusively to cancer cells.
- SNPr Ltd: Platform links genomic variants (SNPs) in non-coding genomic regions to their target genes.
- VisusNano Ltd: VisusNano has developed drug-releasing lens implants for use in cataract surgery, providing sustained, controlled release of drugs within the eye, without compromising the optical properties of the lens implant.
Here for further details.
