Bioventures on the Babraham Research Campus

Aitua Limited
Aitua's business is the commercialisation of Intellectual Property(IP) in the life science sector, creating value for its shareholders and partners. It actively designs, nutures and grows companies, building them around novel and defensible IP with prodcuts that address a significant market need. Aitua drives early commercial activity and ensures management and shareholder interest are aligned to achieve an early exit. Companies are focused to achieve exits either through IPO or trade sale.

Alpha Biologics
Alpha Biologics is a cGMP contract manufacturer of mammalian cell secreted proteins for use in pre-clinical and Phase 1 & Phase 2 clinical trials. Their cGMP facility is based on the Penang Biotech Park in the state of Penang, Malaysia and is managed by staff with extensive experience in the cGMP contract manufacturing. Alpha’s process development group is led by our highly skilled team, all of whom have cGMP experience, based in Cambridge, England. Alpha provide services from cell line generation, including stability and optimisation studies, GMP cell banking, upstream and downstream manufacturing process development and cGMP manufacture for clinical trials in Europe, North America and Asia.

Amura Limited
Amura is a structure-based drug discovery business specialising in diseases such as osteoporosis, bone metastasis, autoimmunity, chronic pain and malaria. Amura has a proprietary scaffold (AMcore™) that provides a turnkey solution for the discovery of small-molecule inhibitors against cysteine peptidases (e.g. cathepsin enzymes); which are commercially attractive therapeutic targets. Amura compounds, apart from being potent and selective, also exhibit highly desirable ‘drug-like’ properties thereby facilitating the rapid and innovative discovery of orally active drugs with the potential for application across several commercially attractive disease areas. Amura has assembled pre-clinical packages for its programmes demonstrating efficacy in disease-related animal models as well as safety pharmacology profiling; after which it intends to license out the programmes.
Amura has licensing opportunities for its AMcore™-based programmes, its anti-bacterials programme, based on ß-lactamase inhibitors, as well as its linker technology, based on AmLinker™.

Antitope Limited
Antitope is pioneering a new generation of immunogenicity testing and protein engineering technologies. Their mission is to apply these technologies to create improved non-immunogenic biologics.

Cambridge Biotechnology Limited
Cambridge Biotechnology Limited is the wholly owned subsidiary of Biovitrum AB. It operates as an autonomous drug discovery research company with a strategic focus in the discovery of novel therapeutics for the treatment of pain, inflammation and obesity.

Cambridge Theranostics Limited
CTL has identified a sub-set of Chlamydia antibodies from atherosclerotic lesions that have bacteriolytic catalytic properties ("abzymes"). The abzymes are produced by the body in response to a vascular Chlamydia infection. These antibodies are also able to cross-react with the host serum lipoproteins and cause their peroxidation - a key event in the development of atherosclerosis. The presence of these abzymes correlates with the level of stenosis of coronary and/or cerebral arteries, with the severity of angina.

Colonix Medical Limited
Colonix is a medical diagnostics research business, currently researching methods for mass screening for colorectal diseases.

Cyclacel Limited
Cyclacel is a biopharmaceutical company that designs and develops small molecule drugs that act on key cell cycle regulators to stop uncontrolled cell division in cancer and other diseases involving abnormal cell proliferation.

Discerna Limited
Discerna Ltd is a functional proteomics company specializing in protein discovery and evolution formed in June 2001 as a 50:50 joint venture between Babraham Bioscience Technologies (BBT), the Babraham Institute's trading subsidiary, and KS Biomedix Holdings plc (KSB). BBT provides Discerna with exclusive rights world-wide to develop the Institutes advanced ribosome display and protein array technologies. KSB is providing the joint venture with funding for two years, as a seed investment for validation and further development of Discerna's technologies.

ERBI Ltd
With over 300 members from major pharma, biotech, medtech and specialist service providers, ERBI is Europe’s leading biotech industry group.
Established in 1997, ERBI has a successful track record in delivering events and activities that make a significant contribution to the global competitiveness of our members. These activities include hosting two annual conferences showcasing Cambridge’s latest products and services to international audiences. Evening network meetings, training courses and special interest groups are held throughout the year. The latter provide a forum for members to meet and discuss topical issues such as recruitment, HR, business development, health and safety, facilities management, operations and raising finance.
ERBI also provides a bespoke service for companies seeking to find partners and explore business opportunities in the Cambridge area. For more information please contact jeanettewalker@erbi.co.uk

F-Star
f-star is an antibody engineering company which develops improved therapeutic antibodies and antibody fragments based on its Modular Antibody Technology, which allows the introduction of additional binding sites into antibodies and antibody fragments by engineering the non-CDR loops of constant or variable domains. Using Modular Antibody Technology, antibody fragments with antibody functionality and long half-life but much smaller size (Fcab™) or full antibodies with additional functionality (mAb2) can be created. f-star has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria and recently opened a second research site in Cambridge, UK

Horizon Discovery Limited
Horizon Discovery is striving to provide drug discovery researchers with key missing tools that will accelerate the search for new and more effective ‘targeted' or ‘personalised' drugs.
Central to realizing this vision is the creation and utilisation of genetically-defined ‘isogenic' cell-lines, which represent accurate laboratory based models of human genetic diseases and their matched normal cell-types. Isogenic cell-lines speed-up and reduce the cost of discovering novel ‘personalised' drugs that target the fundamental causes of diseases such as cancer.
Horizon Discovery will lead the way, via provision of a range of models already developed for the main cancer genotypes being studied in academia, biotech and pharma today.

Immunobiology Limited
ImmunoBiology Limited (ImmBio) is a biotechnology company developing the next generation of vaccines for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases by applying its proprietary HspC™ vaccine technology platform to development of breakthrough products.

Innova Biosciences Limited
Innova Biosciences is building a portfolio of innovative reagents and kits for high throughput drug screening. The company is currently developing a universal kinase assay that will work with any combination of enzyme and substrate, and on multiple instrument platforms. The system will effectively eliminate assay development work for kinase targets and thus greatly accelerate kinase-based drug discovery project.

Isogenica Limited
Isogenica’s in vitro CIS display technology can be applied to the discovery of new antibody, peptide and polypeptide drug candidates, to the discovery of high specificity diagnostic compounds and to the isolation of the target validation and other research reagents, purification reagents, environmental detection reagents and more. Isogenica has established a number of key alliances and collaborations with corporate partners in both Europe and North America. The company is seeking to secure further partnerships with companies that require high affinity, fine specificity antibody, peptide or polypeptide ligands to chosen targets.

Lectus Therapeutics Limited
Lectus Therapeutics Limited is a UK-based drug discovery and development company, specialising in the discovery and development of best- and first-in class ion channel therapeutics for urinary bladder disorders, pain and angina. Lectus began operations in the summer of 2003 and utilises the power of its proprietary proteomics platform to discovery ‘next-generation’ ion channel modulator drugs that are anticipated to possess desirable clinical profiles with commensurate economic benefit.

Lonza Biologics Limited
Lonza-Advanced Protein Technologies (APT) applies proprietary AggreSolve technology to the identification and improvement of biopharmaceuticals, with a especial emphasis on protein aggregation, stability and manufacturability. APT's service offering combines state-of-the-art computational tools with molecular biology and protein engineering expertise and well established know-how in the area of protein manufacturing.

MultiProSys Limited
MultiProSys Ltd. is a Life Sciences start-up company that is currently developing a technology for enabling more effective methods for solubilisation, stabilisation and targeted extraction of the important membrane proteins. The technology will be developed into products that can suitably complement existing methods for protein capture and purification, which are poorly suited for membrane protein analysis, and thereby extending their capabilities to this important sub-class for proteomics and drug discovery research. A key feature of the technology will be the ability to retain the structural integrity of the target membrane proteins to enable crystallization studies.

NovaThera Limited
NovaThera specialises in pioneering applications of biomaterials and stem cell biology for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering to
provide innovative therapeutic solutions. Novathera’s intellectual property spans the regenerative medicine space from biomaterials technology, through bioprocessing to achieve scale up of cellular production and, into cellular biology to enable careful, controlled production of specific cell types. NovaThera aims to build and commercialise its regenerative medicine technologies from the ground up, starting with the most straight forward applications and gradually increasing the complexity as the science catches up with medical needs.

Expedeon Protein Solutions
Expedeon is a biotechnology company seeking to commercialize and further its proprietary protein processing technology. The company is addressing the need for protein purification and refolding techniques that are robust, high-yielding and easy to scale-up for industrial production. Expedeon is currently implementing its business plan that placed them as a runner-up in the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs Competition and has since won a DTI SMART award.

Phico Therapeutics Limited
Phico Therapeutics is an early stage biotechnology company developing a novel platform technology to produce therapeutic anti-bacterials active against all species of bacteria. Initial products in development are targeted at antibiotic resistant bacteria, including MRSA.

Population Genetics Technologies Limited
To develop technology invented by Nobel Laureate, Sydney Brenner, for obtaining sequence information from thousands of genomes simultaneously. Applications include the discovery of genetic variations affecting common diseases and the development of safer more effective drugs. Current technologies can only analyse one genome at a time.
The Wellcome Trust has granted £1.1m to begin development of the technology, pending receipt of additional Venture Capital investments. The IP and related patent applications underlying the technology were licensed from Compass Genetics LLC, a partnership formed by Drs Sydney Brenner, Sam Eletr and Philip Goelet.

Pronostics Limited
Pronostics' UltraPlex™ system provides multiplexed biomarker detection assays. The validated assays include analytes tagged by barcoded microparticles for simultaneous tracking and analysis of multiple tests. UltraPlex™ provides quicker results, the generation of more information from each sample and decreased labour, sample and reagent usage. UltraPlex™ has moved the barcode from the reagent bottle to the reagent.

Rapid Biosensor Systems Limited
Rapid Biosensor Systems Ltd is an innovative technology and business development Company with experience in development and commercial exploitation of IPR for rapid screening infectious diseases. Their skills are in business management, technology development, photonics, biochemistry, and medical consultancy. RBS can assist with the concepts right through to production. Their first product is a "Breathalyser" style device for screening Tuberculosis (TB) at the Point-of-Test. The product is designed to be small, rugged, simple to use and low cost. Furthermore, the device minimizes both the need for training and the risk of infection of the operator.

Senexis Limited
Senexis is developing novel inhibitors of amyloidosis: a fundamental mechanism of toxicity associated with twenty ageing-related diseases. We have identified the most potent and selective amyloidosis inhibitors known and our drug candidates fro Alzheimer’s disease have already shown pre-clinical efficacy in models of memory and learning. Senexis is building a pipeline of drug candidates for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as diabetes. It is then planned to enter the clinic with at least one of our drug candidates, while partnering others.

Stem Cell Sciences Limited
Stem Cell Sciences plc (SCS) is a global biotechnology company focused on the provision of stem cells and technology for biopharmaceutical research and clinical applications. SCS’ business strategy is accelerating product development by working in partnership with academia and industry in developing cellular products and technologies. SCS’ core business objective is to develop proprietary stem cell products for the treatment of neurological and muscular disease and injury.

Total Scientific Ltd

Twist Dx Limited
Twist Dx Ltd is a company developing proprietary technology in the area of DNA amplifications and sequencing. Their novel approach to acquiring sequences from individual DNA strands, Direct Nucleic Acid Sequencing (DNAS), will permit the analysis of entire genomes in only days or hours. Twist Dx Ltd is also exploring novel and improved ways of amplifying target DNA sequences for applications in the life sciences.

Urosens Limited
UroSens is developing a simple and highly sensitive test for bladder cancer based on detection of the marker protein Mcm5 in patients' urine. The test will be used in differential diagnosis in patients with haematuria or other symptoms and for surveillance and disease monitoring. There are over 140,000 new cases of bladder cancer a year in Europe and the US and over a million people live with the disease. The condition has a high recurrence rate, therefore frequent post-treatment testing is required. UroSens' test addresses the key disadvantages of invasiveness and high cost associated with bladder endoscopy, the current gold standard diagnostic method.

XiangCam TCM Research Centre Limited