Jonathan Milner

LIfT Biosciences is a biotech bringing to market a first-in-class alpha neutrophil cell therapy that overcomes the limitations of current therapies in solid tumours by destroying tumours both directly and indirectly. LIfT’s Immunomodulatory Alpha Neutrophils (IMANs) turn the tumour microenvironment against the tumour as they recruit the rest of the immune system to destroy the tumour to give a durable response and lasting immunity. The patented breakthrough N-LIfT platform is produced from a patented process using exceptional stem cells (iPSC or HSC), a proprietary enhancement media and genetic engineering (e.g. CARs). The resulting CAR-IMAN cells give cancer patients potentially hundreds of times the cancer killing ability they naturally possess. The company is working with a range of pharmaceutical license partners to develop a portfolio of CAR-IMAN cell therapies to deliver complete remission across all solid tumours before the decade is out. LIfT BioSciences was founded by Alex Blyth following the death of his mother to pancreatic cancer. See www.liftbiosciences.com. We are now speaking to syndicate partners for our forthcoming Series A POC Clinical Trial, and co-development partners for commercialisation.

Chronic wounds affect ~100m people around the world, impacting quality of life & placing a huge burden on health systems. Despite the many innovations in wound care over the years, chronic wound healing rates have barely improved. Change is needed – patients, practitioners, and regulators across the industry are in urgent need of high-impact innovations in chronic wound care. SolasCure is at the forefront of addressing this demand, aiming to shift the current treatment paradigm with a high impact therapeutic approach to debridement, with the goal of enabling dramatic improvements in healing rates and patients’ quality of life. Aurase Wound Gel aims to address the huge unmet need for easy & effective debridement to return wounds to healing. It combines the enzyme Tarumase with hydrogel to debride wounds, reduce biofilm & promote healing. Tarumase is a highly-specific fibrinolytic enzyme cloned from maggot saliva, perfectly optimised by evolution for wound bed preparation. After successful Phase IIa trials, SolasCure is preparing for the next phase of clinical development to bring Aurase Wound Gel one step closer to improving the lives of millions of patients suffering from chronic wounds. For more information, you can find our peer-reviewed publications here: Clinical: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/iwj.14805 Preclinical: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/iwj.14079 The importance of our innovative technology has been widely recognised: - Innovate UK Global Incubator Programme (Innovate UK, the UK’s Innovation Agency), Texas Medical Center, 2024 - Biomedical Catalyst Grant (Innovate UK, the UK’s Innovation Agency), 2024 - EIC Accelerator Grant (European Innovation Council), 2023 - Life Sciences Innovator (UK Department for Trade and Business), 2023 - EIT Health Catapult, Biotech Category (European Institute of Innovation & Technology), 2022 - Winner 2019 URGO Mentorship Programme. Visit us at www.solascure.com

Developing antibacterials through an adaptable DNA-based platform to counter the clinical challenge of the rise of drug-resistant bacterial strains.

Back pain is debilitating and limiting. It forces changes to the way people live and affects their quality of lie. Gelmetix addresses the most common cause of this critical problem through an efficient, cost effective and drug-free approach to preventing pain and restoring functionality and movement. Our patented polymer gel helps to restore the natural integrity of the disc itself. Injected directly, it rehydrates and stabilises, bringing back load-bearing properties and restoring the movement of the patient. Our polymer gel technology also has the potential to be adapted and extended for other uses. Gelmetix was founded in 2012, as a spin-off from the University of Manchester. In December 2020, Gelmetix was named “one of the most promising biotech start-ups in Europe” by EIT Health Catapult.

DefiniGEN is a game-changing company headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with a mission to navigate drug development programs through uncertain terrain, minimizing risk while reducing costs and paving the way for a more efficient and effective future in the field of drug discovery. Our technology is revolutionizing liver models for efficacy and toxicology screening, utilizing a platform that enables the large-scale generation of hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) with functional relevance comparable to human primary cells. Our HLCs effectively simulate crucial aspects of disease pathophysiology across various liver conditions, providing a more accurate understanding for drug development. By integrating CRISPR/Cas9 technology, DefiniGEN replicates disease phenotypes catering to unmet needs for in vitro efficacy testing and enabling the study of previously inaccessible rare monogenic liver diseases. Our HLCs successfully replicate all aspects of hepatocyte pathophysiology, allowing them to replace primary liver cells in many aspects of toxicity testing. This breakthrough provides scientists with a reliable and consistent supply of highly functional hepatocytes for the first time.

Repositive is committed to accelerating the development of precision cancer therapies to the clinic by working with biopharmas and Contract Research Organisations (CROs) to improve the predictivity of pre-clinical cancer research. Through its Cancer Models Scout service, Repositive is helping biopharmas to optimise their pre-clinical cancer projects by identifying the most suitable cancer models for their requirements from its world-leading database of over 8000 models, as well as via outreach to an extended network of CRO contacts. Repositive works to connect researchers with the right CRO partners who have first-class expertise and years of experience in running similar studies, to ensure biopharmas receive the best advice for planning and conducting their oncology projects. Download our latest eBook on AI in drug discovery here: https://mailchi.mp/repositive.io/c1tpoe6oke

DefiniGEN is a game-changing company headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with a mission to navigate drug development programs through uncertain terrain, minimizing risk while reducing costs and paving the way for a more efficient and effective future in the field of drug discovery. Our technology is revolutionizing liver models for efficacy and toxicology screening, utilizing a platform that enables the large-scale generation of hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) with functional relevance comparable to human primary cells. Our HLCs effectively simulate crucial aspects of disease pathophysiology across various liver conditions, providing a more accurate understanding for drug development. By integrating CRISPR/Cas9 technology, DefiniGEN replicates disease phenotypes catering to unmet needs for in vitro efficacy testing and enabling the study of previously inaccessible rare monogenic liver diseases. Our HLCs successfully replicate all aspects of hepatocyte pathophysiology, allowing them to replace primary liver cells in many aspects of toxicity testing. This breakthrough provides scientists with a reliable and consistent supply of highly functional hepatocytes for the first time.

GeoSpock enables data fusion for the connected world. Engineered for dynamically fusing any-scale connected device, smart city, or IoT data, GeoSpock unlocks next-generation use cases, whilst also reducing the complexity, cost, and operating latency when compared to competing database solutions. GeoSpock DB is a next-generation database built for high-performance analytics across any scale of data. Our unique Cambridge-built technology enables you to carry out dynamic data fusion and rapidly execute complex queries using SQL. The logical upgrade to your existing analytics technology – GeoSpock DB is built to power your data-driven future.

Eagle Genomics applies network science to biology. We are revealing the impact of the microbiome on humans, animals and the environment to secure a sustainable future for our food, water, soil and the health of our planet. Our mission is to deliver insight from the microbiome to profoundly change our understanding of wellness and even our fundamental assumptions about life on earth. Our platform transforms scientists’ journey to insights, unifying constellations of complex, multi-dimensional data (the data fabric) to explore and extract signals and networks of relationship, otherwise not detectable by humans alone. This is the frontier of science today and nowhere are the opportunities and challenges more significant than in the burgeoning field of the microbiome.

Horizon Discovery, formerly of PerkinElmer, and now part of the Revvity family, drives the application of gene editing and gene modulation to enable world-leading academic institutes, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as clinical diagnostic laboratories, to identify the genetic drivers behind human disease, develop and validate diagnostic workflows, and deliver new therapies for precision medicine. With more than a decade of experience in the engineering of cell lines, Horizon offers innovative tools and services based upon the ability to modulate, or permanently alter, the function of almost any gene in human and other mammalian cell lines. Horizon is headquartered in Cambridge, UK with offices in USA and Japan.

LIfT Biosciences is a biotech bringing to market a first-in-class alpha neutrophil cell therapy that overcomes the limitations of current therapies in solid tumours by destroying tumours both directly and indirectly. LIfT’s Immunomodulatory Alpha Neutrophils (IMANs) turn the tumour microenvironment against the tumour as they recruit the rest of the immune system to destroy the tumour to give a durable response and lasting immunity. The patented breakthrough N-LIfT platform is produced from a patented process using exceptional stem cells (iPSC or HSC), a proprietary enhancement media and genetic engineering (e.g. CARs). The resulting CAR-IMAN cells give cancer patients potentially hundreds of times the cancer killing ability they naturally possess. The company is working with a range of pharmaceutical license partners to develop a portfolio of CAR-IMAN cell therapies to deliver complete remission across all solid tumours before the decade is out. LIfT BioSciences was founded by Alex Blyth following the death of his mother to pancreatic cancer. See www.liftbiosciences.com. We are now speaking to syndicate partners for our forthcoming Series A POC Clinical Trial, and co-development partners for commercialisation.

Chronic wounds affect ~100m people around the world, impacting quality of life & placing a huge burden on health systems. Despite the many innovations in wound care over the years, chronic wound healing rates have barely improved. Change is needed – patients, practitioners, and regulators across the industry are in urgent need of high-impact innovations in chronic wound care. SolasCure is at the forefront of addressing this demand, aiming to shift the current treatment paradigm with a high impact therapeutic approach to debridement, with the goal of enabling dramatic improvements in healing rates and patients’ quality of life. Aurase Wound Gel aims to address the huge unmet need for easy & effective debridement to return wounds to healing. It combines the enzyme Tarumase with hydrogel to debride wounds, reduce biofilm & promote healing. Tarumase is a highly-specific fibrinolytic enzyme cloned from maggot saliva, perfectly optimised by evolution for wound bed preparation. After successful Phase IIa trials, SolasCure is preparing for the next phase of clinical development to bring Aurase Wound Gel one step closer to improving the lives of millions of patients suffering from chronic wounds. For more information, you can find our peer-reviewed publications here: Clinical: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/iwj.14805 Preclinical: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/iwj.14079 The importance of our innovative technology has been widely recognised: - Innovate UK Global Incubator Programme (Innovate UK, the UK’s Innovation Agency), Texas Medical Center, 2024 - Biomedical Catalyst Grant (Innovate UK, the UK’s Innovation Agency), 2024 - EIC Accelerator Grant (European Innovation Council), 2023 - Life Sciences Innovator (UK Department for Trade and Business), 2023 - EIT Health Catapult, Biotech Category (European Institute of Innovation & Technology), 2022 - Winner 2019 URGO Mentorship Programme. Visit us at www.solascure.com

Kind Consumer is a healthcare research and development company specialising in respiratory drug delivery and tobacco harm reduction. An example of our innovative work is Voke*, a next generation nicotine inhaler launching later this year and licensed by the Department of Health. With revolutionary valve technology it provides rapid nicotine absorption and craving relief. Headquartered in London, we at Kind Consumer believe that significant progress can be made through new technologies and scientific breakthroughs to improve public health. In order to achieve this, Kind works with a range of stakeholders, organisations and regulators to make sure our products are thoroughly assessed for quality, safety and efficacy. *Voke 0.45mg Inhaler contains nicotine and can be used to reduce, replace or stop smoking. Requires willpower. Always read the leaflet.

Developing antibacterials through an adaptable DNA-based platform to counter the clinical challenge of the rise of drug-resistant bacterial strains.