Welcome to the Babraham Research Campus

The Babraham Research Campus is a leading location which supports early-stage bioscience enterprise and is distinct in its co-location of bioscience companies with the world leading discovery research of the Babraham Institute. Our Campus is a dynamic environment within 430 acres of parkland, home to over 60 companies, 2,000 employees and 300 academic researchers. It is where discovery research and business come together with a shared scientific focus that accelerates innovation and strengthens links between academia and the commercial world.

Start-up Story

Discover how Creasallis evolved from ‘just an idea’ to fully-fledged, funded start-up

Creasallis is an antibody solutions company providing novel protein engineering solutions for antibody-based therapeutics.  Its debut technology aims to enhance the penetration of antibody-based drugs into the tumour leading to safer, more efficacious and cheaper drugs to patients.

Creasallis was part of our 2021/22 Accelerate@Babraham bio-incubator cohort. Founded and developed at the Babraham Research Campus in 2018, Accelerate@Babraham gives selected ventures free access to the campus’ bio-incubator facilities, including communal equipped lab and flexible workspace, a 3-month taught programme, plus mentorship from experts who are highly experienced in their respective fields. We spoke to Zahra Jawad, CEO, Creasallis, to understand how being part of the programme and now permanently based on Campus continues to accelerate the company’s development.

Start-up Story

Discover how Creasallis evolved from ‘just an idea’ to fully-fledged, funded start-up

Creasallis is an antibody solutions company providing novel protein engineering solutions for antibody-based therapeutics.  Its debut technology aims to enhance the penetration of antibody-based drugs into the tumour leading to safer, more efficacious and cheaper drugs to patients.

Creasallis was part of our 2021/22 Accelerate@Babraham bio-incubator cohort. Founded and developed at the Babraham Research Campus in 2018, Accelerate@Babraham gives selected ventures free access to the campus’ bio-incubator facilities, including communal equipped lab and flexible workspace, a 3-month taught programme, plus mentorship from experts who are highly experienced in their respective fields. We spoke to Zahra Jawad, CEO, Creasallis, to understand how being part of the programme and now permanently based on Campus continues to accelerate the company’s development.

Discover more about how we nurture start-ups

Campus Companyfundraising is MONTHS The Campus Impact Report (commissioned in 2019) shows evidence that the support structure provided by the Babraham Research Campus is a key factor enabling companies to make an impact across local, national and international ecosystems. accelerated by

See the impact the Campus has on UK Science

Campus companyfundraising is MONTHS accelerated by

The Campus Impact Report (commissioned in 2019) shows evidence that the support structure provided by the Babraham Research Campus is a key factor enabling companies to make an impact across local, national and international ecosystems.

See the impact the Campus has on UK Science

Game-changing therapeutics

Start-up Profile

Zahra Jawad, CEO Creasallis

“We were quite unusual in terms of starting a company with just an idea - no data. Accelerate@Babraham really helped Creasallis get noticed and it elevated our profile, particularly within the investor community. The programme opened new doors for us. I can honestly say it has changed my life!”

Zahra is a protein and antibody engineer, with a career in the Cambridge antibody therapeutics sphere that spans over 15 years. Zahra believes that thinking creatively and simply about some of the common problems associated with drug discovery is the key to being able to cure cancer in our lifetimes.  She has lead teams and delivered therapeutic antibodies and antibody like formats to Investigational New Drug applications (IND) during her career and is passionate about building an organisation and seeing solutions reach patients. 

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Accelerate@Babraham Programme

Starting something new is hard – particularly within the fast-moving life science sector. Step forward Accelerate@Babraham, the Babraham Research Campus’ bio-incubator, founded out of a desire to support and nurture early-stage ventures; bringing to bear an unrivalled network of experts, mentors and investors to equip young enterprises with the skills, confidence and network connections to enable success. Since launching in 2018, we have supported 20 fledgling life-science companies. Each cohort brings with it a diverse set of skills, expertise and experience, but they all share a deep passion for their science or technology and a desire to make a difference to the lives of tomorrow’s patients. Applications for the 2023/24 cohort are now OPEN, click below to find out more and apply!

Visit AccelerateatBabraham.com

Scale-up Story

RxCelerate is an out-sourced drug development company, delivering complete preclinical drug development programmes and project management for virtual and semi-virtual companies. It specialises in bespoke experimental design and data-rich endpoints; maximising the chances that the projects it works on will reach the clinic.

RxCelerate was founded in April 2013, by David Grainger and Jill Reckless, with a vision to make world-class drug discovery and development capabilities available to anyone with a good idea. The business has been based at the Babraham Research Campus since inception and has grown organically on Campus, starting in a small incubator lab and now occupying over 25,000 sq ft of state-of-the-art space in the new BioMed@Babraham Dorothy Hodgkin building, designed specifically to enable life science ventures to scale-up and flourish.

Explore RxCelerate’s long-term organic growth on Campus

Jill tells us about what motivated her to pursue a career in life science and charts the growth of RxCelerate on Campus, from humble beginnings in an incubator lab all the way to own HQ within the Dorothy Hodgkin building.

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Babraham Ecosystem:

A Place Where Life Science Ventures Flourish

ON TAP Knowledge & Expertise Facilitating access to a passionate, collaborative community of scientists, entrepreneurs and investors who have been there, done it and now want to share that experience to help other life science ventures grow and succeed. SUPPORT Shared Services & Unlocking a wide range of scientific and operational services including equipment and facilities hire, technology help and scientific expertise on a pay as you go basis, as and when our Campus companies need them to help facilitate growth and further develop their science. FUNDING Unparalleled access to Bringing together regional, national and international funding streams and finance from both the public and private sector to support the continued development of infrastructure on Campus and investment in our Campus community. World-Leading RESEARCH INSTITUTE Providing a dynamic environment, with the Babraham Institute at its core, where discovery research and business come together with a shared scientific focus that accelerates innovation and strengthens links between academia and the commercial world. Find out more THRIVE Space to Delivering adaptable spaces, developed by specialists in lab/office building design to support all stages of life science venture, from communal bench space - to nurture and accelerate an idea - to fully fitted, high-tech lab and office space ideal for those scaling-up.
World-leading RESEARCH INSTITUTE Providing a dynamic environment, with the Babraham Institute at its core, where discovery research and business come together with a shared scientific focus that accelerates innovation and strengthens links between academia and the commercial world. FUNDING Unparalleled access to Bringing together regional, national and international funding streams and finance from both the public and private sector to support the continued development of infrastructure on Campus and investment in ourCampus community. SUPPORT Shared Services & Unlocking a wide range of scientific and operational services including equipment and facilities hire, technology help and scientific expertise on a pay as you go basis, as and when our Campus companies need them to help facilitate growth and further develop their science. ON TAP Knowledge & Expertise Facilitating access to a passionate, collaborative community of scientists, entrepreneurs and investors who have been there, done it and now want to share that experience to help other life science ventures grow and succeed. THRIVE Space to Delivering adaptable spaces, developed by specialists in lab/office building design to support all stages of life science venture, from communal bench space- to nurture and accelerate an idea - to fully fitted, high-tech lab and office space ideal for those scaling-up.

Find out more about the Babraham Ecosystem

Investor Profile

Dr Vishal Gulati, Venture Partner, Draper Esprit

“…don’t ever apologise for your imperfections – if you wait until everything is perfect it’s too late. With the right combination of ambition and naivety you can do anything!”

Dr. Vishal Gulati is a venture partner at Draper Esprit a leading European venture capital firm. His investment interests include healthtech, omics and synthetic biology. Vishal has led Draper Esprit’s investments into some of Europe’s leading companies in these sectors including Clue, PushDr, Lifesum, Ieso Digital Health, Fluidic Analytics, Horizon Discovery and Evonetix. He is also an investor in Kheiron Medical, Repositive, Mimi Hearing Technologies, Quit Genius, MyRecovery and Project Sapien. In addition to Vishal’s role at Draper Esprit, he is chairman of Digital Health Forum and serves on Innovate UK’s Major Award Committee. Vishal also mentors first time founders who are leaving academic careers to start technology businesses.

Venture Partner & Investor Mentor to first time founders

Investor Hub

The Babraham Research Campus network is a unique part of our ecosystem that contains many people and organisations, both public and private sector, with extensive knowledge, experience and active roles within life science investing. Our Investor hub aims to unlock their insights for the benefit of all those looking to engage in life sciences investment.

Babraham Investor Conference 2022

Investor conference returns in new hybrid format

Building on the online-only format developed over the past two years, the Babraham Investor Conference 2022 (BIC) returned to a full-scale, hybrid event in June after the pandemic transformed how the event is delivered. The must-attend event for investors featured an afternoon of rich presentations from a selection of guest speakers and start-up and scale-up companies, beginning with with a keynote from Sir Harpal Kumar, President of GRAIL Europe, in conversation with Dr Andy Richards.

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Investor Insights

The emerging themes of the Cambridge Cluster: pace, diversity and connectivity

The Cambridge Cluster is well known as a hub for innovation and life sciences, but what does its future look like? Having recently stepped down from his role as Chair of the Board of Babraham Research Campus Ltd (formerly Babraham Bioscience Technologies (BBT)), which develops and manages the Babraham Research Campus, life science entrepreneur and investor Dr Andy Richards CBE shares his forward-look on clusters, connections and alternative thinking.

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Explore our Investor Hub

News & Insights

In this section we explore a wide range of topics with our resident experts – from what it takes to create an ideas incubator to establishing the ideal built environment for innovation success. We probe them for their insights and opinions into crucial areas of Campus development, the evolution of the wider cluster and life as part of those communities.

Investor Insights: From humble beginnings to influential science

Investor Insights: From humble beginnings to influential science

From making antibodies on Campus in the 1990s to mentoring new Acce...

From making antibodies on Campus in the 1990s to mentoring new Accelerate@Babraham start-ups, Dr Jonathan Milner has a long, dedicated and collaborative relationship with the Babraham Research Campus. In this article we explore Jonathan’s experience as an entrepreneur and investor with a passion for supporting UK life science and high-tech start-ups. He has provided investment and support to more than 70 companies and is currently CEO of Meltwind Advisory offering guidance for early-stage healthcare and biotech companies.

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Creating a successful incubator: Recycling success by paying it forward

Creating a successful incubator: Recycling success by paying it forward

In this article, Karolina Zapadka, former Head of Accelerate@Babrah...

In this article, Karolina Zapadka, former Head of Accelerate@Babraham, who is passionate about facilitating and accelerating opportunities and growth for early-stage life science ventures explores the key ingredients needed to develop a successful incubator initiative. She explains the key role the Campus community and the power it’s intrinsic knowledge of building commercially viable life science businesses plays in facilitating others’ successes.

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From ‘a metaphorical slap around the face’ to ‘life-saving’ - how life science start-ups view Accelerate@Babraham

From ‘a metaphorical slap around the face’ to ‘life-saving’ - how life science start-ups view Accelerate@Babraham

The latest cohort of five life science start-ups to complete the 2021/22 cycle of Accelerate at Babraham may have had the added pressure of a pandemic throughout the five-month programme but all made great strides to develop their business propositions, which in turn promises to change patient outcomes.

 

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