Lucy Edwardes Jones

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.

BGF is the UK and Irelands most active growth investor, backing ambitious businesses with minority investment to help them scale on their own terms. Since 2011, we have invested more than £5bn in 650+ businesses across every region and sector. Today, with more than £3.5bn in assets under management, we continue to support a range of growing companies across early-stage and growth-stage. Through our 15 offices across the UK and Ireland, were close to the businesses we back, combining local insight with national scale to build trusted partnerships with entrepreneurs and management teams. Beyond investment, our portfolio companies benefit from the expertise of our 200+ strong team, as well as dedicated value creation support spanning talent, operational expertise and our Scale community – including a network of more than 8000+ experienced business leaders, sector specialists and board-level non-executives. Learn more: BGF UK: https://www.bgf.co.uk BGF Ireland: https://www.bgfireland.ie/

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.

BGF is the UK and Irelands most active growth investor, backing ambitious businesses with minority investment to help them scale on their own terms. Since 2011, we have invested more than £5bn in 650+ businesses across every region and sector. Today, with more than £3.5bn in assets under management, we continue to support a range of growing companies across early-stage and growth-stage. Through our 15 offices across the UK and Ireland, were close to the businesses we back, combining local insight with national scale to build trusted partnerships with entrepreneurs and management teams. Beyond investment, our portfolio companies benefit from the expertise of our 200+ strong team, as well as dedicated value creation support spanning talent, operational expertise and our Scale community – including a network of more than 8000+ experienced business leaders, sector specialists and board-level non-executives. Learn more: BGF UK: https://www.bgf.co.uk BGF Ireland: https://www.bgfireland.ie/