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

Follow Reflection Therapeutics journey from start-up to funded reality

Reflection Therapeutics is creating a first in class treatment for motor neurone disease, that will protect motor neurons from an overactive immune system, prolonging their function and delaying disease progression. 

Reflection Therapeutics were part of the second cohort (2019/20) of Accelerate@Babraham, the Babraham Research Campus’ bio-incubator – a five month programme to support and nurture early-stage ventures with life changing ideas. We spoke to CEO, Tim Newton, to understand how being part of Accelerate@Babraham, and now being permanently located on Campus, has accelerated the company’s development.

Start-up Story

Follow Reflection Therapeutics journey from start-up to funded reality

Reflection Therapeutics is creating a first in class treatment for motor neurone disease, that will protect motor neurons from an overactive immune system, prolonging their function and delaying disease progression. 

Reflection Therapeutics were part of the second cohort (2019/20) of Accelerate@Babraham, the Babraham Research Campus’ bio-incubator – a five month programme to support and nurture early-stage ventures with life changing ideas. We spoke to CEO, Tim Newton, to understand how being part of Accelerate@Babraham, and now being permanently located on Campus, has accelerated 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 Passionate about fighting neurodegeneration

Start-up Profile

Tim Newton, CEO Reflection Therapeutics

“We enjoy sharing what we’ve learnt with other companies on Campus and I guess the two big areas that we have a depth of experience in are neuroscience and also T-cell biology, so they are the two things we love speaking to other people about and we are always glad to grab a coffee and talk shop about those things.”

Tim has a real passion to treat neurodegeneration, which is a real thief that steals people’s ability to live independently, move and communicate. He is really driven to find ways to cure these diseases and believes that CAR-Treg therapy is a game-changer in the way we can fight these horrible conditions. This is what gets Tim out of the bed in the morning and continues to motivate him to find ways to help these patients.

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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 2021

Investors invited to discover the next big thing in life science and medtech

Babraham Investor Conference 2021 (BIC), an event for investors focusing on early-stage and scale-up life science and med-tech companies, moved online for the first time in its 15-year history on 9 June. The virtual conference saw a day’s worth of content condensed into two hours including start-up and scale-up company presentations, keynotes from Daniel Mahony of Polar Capital and Martin Murphy of Syncona, as well as many interactive Q&A opportunities. 

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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, Head of Accelerate@Babraham, who...

In this article, Karolina Zapadka, 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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The key Campus ingredients: community, vision and evolution

The key Campus ingredients: community, vision and evolution

Chris Chapman, Director of Campus and Facilities, is responsible for the operation and development of the Campus and its estate and has worked at the Babraham Research Campus for 40 years.  In this article, Chris credits the successful development of the Babraham Research Campus to ‘The Six C’s’: Campus, Community, Connectivity, Culture, Capability, and Commercialisation: “We are committed to these important component parts. Collectively, they describe what you need to have in place to have a thriving campus; individually, each one has its own particular function that contributes to the wider experience and character of the Campus.”

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