Breakthrough startups pitch bold visions for better patient care and outcomes at Accelerate@Babraham demo day

22/07/2025

 

Our next generation of value creators took centre stage at the Accelerate@Babraham 2025 demo day earlier this month, showcasing bold solutions to some of the most pressing unmet needs in healthcare. The event marked the end of the accelerator programme’s eight-week ‘bootcamp’ - a hands-on phase of expert-led workshops, mentoring, and business development support.

Founders from the five early-stage ventures which make up the current cohort: AAB Therapeutics, AmnioCam, Cycle Therapeutics, MabGalaxy and Sysora Health, shared how they are redefining patient care across oncology, wound healing, women’s health, chronic inflammation and oral health. Each has fine-tuned its value proposition and is now set to advance towards commercial and clinical milestones. 

What’s Next for the 2025 Cohort?

AAB Therapeutics
Led by CEO Eline Koers, AAB is developing engineered extracellular vesicles as a safer, scalable alternative to CAR T-cell therapy for B-cell lymphoma. The treatment aims to eliminate cancer cells with fewer side effects and lower costs. The team is now focused on generating in-vitro data and preparing for IND-enabling studies.

AmnioCam
Based on the research of Peter Rugg-Gunn and Maria Rostovskaya at the Babraham Institute, AmnioCam offers lab-grown alternatives to donor-derived amniotic cells for chronic wound healing. Thanks to funding from Innovate UK, Entrepreneurial Lead Aljona Kolmogorova has secured global clinical and investor engagement, and the team has established partnerships in principle with CROs that will help AmnioCam on the next proof of concept studies. The goal is an affordable, off-the-shelf regenerative product for diabetic foot ulcers, burns and potentially even eye injuries.

Cycle Therapeutics
With term sheet secured, co-founders Léa Wenger and Kevin Chalut are developing a tissue-based discovery platform to identify non-hormonal therapies for endometriosis and related chronic diseases. Over the next 18 months, the team will collect patient data, validate its models and preliminary targets and expand lab capabilities. They aim to close the gender health gap and bring innovation to a long-stagnant field.

MabGalaxy
Combining AI with the natural immune system, MabGalaxy wants to compress the early discovery timeline by around three years to deliver life-changing therapies faster. Head of R&D Vivian Wong outlined plans to target chronic inflammatory diseases like eczema and IBD, affecting over 300 million people globally. The team’s next steps include closing a Series A, validating its platform, and securing pharma partnerships - laying the path to clinical trials by 2029.

Sysora Health
Sysora is tackling oral health’s hidden link to systemic disease. Their antibacterial gel selectively targets P. gingivalis, the bacterium behind severe gum disease that has links to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s, rebalancing the microbiome. With plans to distribute through major US and European dental chains, the company is now moving toward proof-of-concept studies and regulatory preparations.

Fellows on the frontier

The day also featured pitches from Cambridge NeuroWorks Frontier Fellows, including innovations in stroke rehabilitation (Sam Kamali), wearable fall prevention (Iwan Roberts), and anxiety management (Lucy Jung). Their participation was supported through a collaboration with ARIA, the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency.

Programme Manager Jenny Hirst said: “Although this cohort is multidisciplinary, they grapple with very similar problems and issues, which has enabled them to form a strong bond. As they continue on together it’s been a real pleasure to play a small part in their collective journey to date.”

“We’re not just building companies; we’re building futures for patients who deserve better. The level of purpose and ambition demonstrated by this cohort is extraordinary.  And, as they move into the labs they will benefit further from the wealth of expertise on Campus and the cross-fertilisation of companies sharing experiences in our communal lab space.”

As the ventures now move into LiveLabs, they’ll receive continued support from the on-site technical team and the wider Babraham community and can take advantage of wrap around support, 1-2-1 mentoring and detailed feedback at every stage. With commercial review meetings set for October, all eyes are on what this group of high-potential future game-changers achieves next.