In 2014, Oliver Worsley was days away from starting a PhD in Cambridge. His then supervisor made him an offer that changed the course of everything that followed: forget Cambridge - come to Singapore instead and help open a brand-new lab. Oliver had never set foot in the country but said yes anyway.
That single decision set off a decade-long journey through Singapore, New York, and now Cambridge and has brought Sequential, the biotech company Oliver founded and now leads as CEO, to a new home at Babraham Research Campus.
The organ everyone forgot
While Oliver was building out the first lab, studying the molecular biology behind heart disease, a very different industry was taking shape around him: a wave of companies racing to map the human gut microbiome, promising consumers new insight into digestion, diet and wellbeing through a simple at-home test.
Almost nobody, Oliver noticed, was doing the same for skin, despite it being the largest organ in the human body, and home to a microbiome every bit as rich and individual as the gut.
So in 2019, Sequential became the first company in the world to launch a consumer skin microbiome test; pairing DNA analysis of the skin's own genetic markers with strain-level mapping of the microbes living on it, to build a picture of skin health no one had offered before.
When the world's biggest brands came calling
That first product did more than prove a scientific point. It caught the attention of some of the largest personal care companies in the world, who wanted to use Sequential's platform to understand how their own products were affecting the body at a molecular level. What started as a consumer skin test evolved, almost by demand, into a full research services business; Sequential now works with major global brands, like Johnson & Johnson, and 100 other B2B customers, to run the kind of rigorous clinical studies that used to be the preserve of pharmaceutical trials, spanning not just skin but scalp, intimate and oral health too.
It's a rare kind of validation: not something a young company claims about itself, but something the biggest names in an industry chose to pay for.
A pattern, not an accident
Look at where Sequential has chosen to build its labs, and a pattern emerges. First, the Genome Institute of Singapore - one of the leading genomics institutes in Asia. Then the New York Genome Center, home for four years to Sequential's US research operations. And now, Babraham Research Campus.
"Every time, it's been about the network," Oliver explains. "Being surrounded by that density of expertise - other scientists, other companies, the services that come with it - has been genuinely valuable everywhere we've done it. When we looked at Babraham, it combined a network with a professional standard required for our lab quality and certification."
It's a deliberate strategy that's paid off: Sequential has consistently grown revenues. They closed the first equity funding round in 2026, they are now working towards a Series A early next year and they continue building on a growing platform of clinical data drawn from its work across personal care and pharmaceutical research.
Just getting started
Sequential moved into its new lab at Babraham Research Campus in June 2026, with its UK operation now serving as the company's global headquarters, the base from which it directs research sites in Singapore and New York, and works with clients around the world.
It's still early days on Campus. But if Sequential's track record is anything to go by, it won't be quiet for long.
Sequential is based at Babraham Research Campus. To find out more, visit sequential.bio or connect with them on LinkedIn.