Promoting an academic culture of entrepreneurship at our first Innovation Summit
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We’re committed to creating an innovation ecosystem and fostering entrepreneurship in our research community. Our Innovation Summit and Innovation Prize are creating new opportunities to develop the translational and commercial potential of your breakthrough science.
At CRUK, our mission is to beat cancer sooner. We’re driven by the need to see our research ultimately make a difference for patients and people affected by cancer. That’s why we’re currently working to ensure that academic researchers have the right support to be able to take their research on the next steps of the translational journey.
In November, we gathered over 200 researchers for our first Innovation Summit. With a packed schedule of inspiring speakers, workshops, panel discussions and networking, the summit was a great way to exchange expertise and insight. Researchers at all career stages had the opportunity to learn from some of the most successful academics who have become entrepreneurs, and from leading commercialisation specialists, how to navigate the many different routes for translation of basic science.
The summit was opened by Professor Steve Jackson, Head of CRUK Laboratories at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge. Steve’s research has identified many DNA repair proteins, established how they function, and showed how their dysfunction yields cancer and other age-related diseases.
Alongside this bench work, Steve has founded or co-founded several spin-out biotech companies to translate his lab’s discoveries. One of these, KuDOS, generated the PARP inhibitor drug olaparib (Lynparza™) that is marketed worldwide by AstraZeneca for treating certain ovarian and breast cancers.
In 2010, Steve founded Mission Therapeutics to exploit recent advances in protein ubiquitylation and deubiquitylation to derive new medicines. Steve’s academic laboratory is currently further defining mechanisms of DNA repair and associated processes, with a view to identifying new therapeutic opportunities for cancer as well as various other genetic diseases.
During the Q&A session, Steve highlighted the valuable cross-talk between both aspects, academic and commercial, of his career, noting that they are mutually beneficial. He added that his team credibility combined with the vision and the passion to see the discovery in the clinic were key factors to win the investors.
Jackie Hunter gave our second keynote, with an overview of her entrepreneurial journey so far, and her tips from the top of biotech. Jackie has held numerous senior leadership positions in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and innovation industries, and is currently the CEO of Benevolent AI, a company that uses artificial intelligence to disrupt the drug discovery and development process.
Following on, there were two panel discussions:
In this panel session, Andy Richards (Biotechnology entrepreneur and business angel), Frederick Nicolle (Patent expert), Mark Pearson (Boehringer Ingelheim International), Rebecca Todd (Longwall ventures) and Alex Pemberton (Head of therapeutic Discovery Funding at CRUK), provided the audience with some top tips to embark on the journey from discovery to commercialisation and addressed the many questions from the audience.
The key tips were:
How do you decide what to invest in?
VCs are looking for a team that will create a strong and independent, standalone company that will be able to raise further funds down the road. There should be capability within the team to flex but also options in the technology too as very few companies succeed with plan A.
VCs want to help create a culture and partnership where the entrepreneur will call the investor and confide in them. For this there needs to be transparency.
There are more options now than in the past. Timing is critical; investors provide the time and space to allow entrepreneurs to get to the translational end-point, it is a partnership.
How can we best support up and coming entrepreneurs?
We need to provide people with the flexibility to allow people to shift their efforts over time, encourage more diverse teams (expertise, skills, disciplines, experience).
Is now the right time for Digital and AI?
There are many more investors moving into the digital health space, with pharma and other more traditional companies also moving into the sector. In addition, disruptors like Facebook and Google are continually improving access to data sets and evolving AI and machine learning technologies. These are all great steps forward, data has the potential to change the healthcare space, but there are issues/challenges to overcome.
In this panel session, Professor John Lyon (Professor of practice at Warwick Business School, serial entrepreneur and business angel), Billy Boyle (co-founders of Owlstone), Jason Carroll (Group leader at CRUK Cambridge Institute and co-founder of Azeria Therapeutics) and Angela Russell (Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Oxford and co-founder of OxStem) addressed questions from the audience and provided some top tips to embark on the entrepreneurial journey in relation to forming a pin-out company.
Funding and finance tips
Set backs tips
Starting up tips
Team
The Summit concluded with the launch of our Innovation Prize, creating a new opportunity for researchers to develop the translational and commercial potential of their discoveries. The prize provides seed funding and other support from our Commercial Partnerships team, and we can now announce the first recipients of the prize:
Geoff Macintyre and Anna Piskorz, CRUK Cambridge Institute
Geoff and Anna combine their expertise in computational biology and single cell DNA sequencing to select targeted therapies for cancers of unmet need.
Corinne Johnson-Hart, University of Manchester
Corinne brings together a multidisciplinary team to use information from imaging and deep learning approaches to reduce the use of invasive biopsies for patients with prostate cancer
Audrey Teh & Laura Ridgley, St George’s, University of London
With their combined experience in antibody plant manufacturing and oncology, Audrey and Laura are investigating the quality and efficiency of plant-produced antibody for cancer treatment.
We’re now planning regional events around the UK, and also working on new initiatives to promote entrepreneurship in our community. To be the first to hear about new events and opportunities, sign up for our Research Update email newsletter.
We wish to thank Alison Howe for her support in enabling us to share these learnings from our first summit.
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Promoting an academic culture of entrepreneurship at our first Innovation Summit
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