Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top Cambridge based CEO’ operating in the Life Science space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Chris Mirabelli
President & CEO of Leap Therapeutics
Dr. Mirabelli has served as the Chairman of our Board of Directors since 2016 and has also served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since our inception in 2011. Dr. Mirabelli has been a managing director of HealthCare Ventures LLC since 2000. From December 1999 to May 2000, Dr. Mirabelli served as president of pharmaceutical research and development and member of the board of directors of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., following its merger with LeukoSite Inc., where Dr. Mirabelli had been serving as president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors since 1993. He was a co-founder of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IONS), where he held several positions including senior vice president of research, from 1989 until 1993. Dr. Mirabelli started his career at SmithKline and French Laboratories (now part of GlaxoSmithKline Plc) R&D Division. He is a member of the board of advisors of the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator Fund at Harvard Medical School and the Boston Biomedical Innovation Center. Dr. Mirabelli is a member of the Board of Trustees of Guilford College. He received his Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from Baylor College of Medicine and a B.S. degree in biology from State University of New York at Fredonia.
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About Leap Therapeutics: Leap Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.
Nick Davis
Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Theonys
Nick Davis is the Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of Theonys — a therapeutics company developing new small-molecule medicines to selectively stop the translation of disease-causing proteins in cancer, chronic inflammation and other serious human diseases.
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About Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Theonys: Theonys is harnessing the power of tRNA to pioneer an entirely new class of genomic medicines.
Hannah Sore
Founder and CEO of PharmEnable
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About PharmEnable: PharmEnable has developed a rapid and cost effective way to identify better chemical starting points to drive the discovery.
Paulo Garcia
CEO & Co-Founder of Kytopen
Dr. Paulo A. Garcia co-invented the Flowfect™ technology while he was a Research Scientist at MIT. He is currently leading the development and commercialization efforts of the proprietary cell engineering platform for therapeutic and biotechnology applications.
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About Kytopen: Kytopen developer of a cell therapy platform for non-viral delivery of molecules into hard-to-transfect immune cells.
Richie Bavasso
Founder and CEO of nQ Medical
Mr. Bavasso is one of the early pioneers of use of digital media, devices and the web as tools to support pharmaceutical sales and marketing strategies and tactics. Since 1999, he has worked with top 25 Pharma clients globally to introduce the Closed Loop Marketing (CLM) function. He has set procedure and precedent in the areas of sales force effectiveness, business-rule driven content management, multichannel marketing, and mobile technology. A frequent speaker at industry conferences and events, Mr. Bavasso serves as an advocate for the industry in promoting digital conversation as integral to the various enterprise functions within pharma and the medical community. Prior to his seven years as co-founder and President of Exploria SPS, Mr. Bavasso served for sixteen years as CEO of Pharmedica Holdings, LLC, and President of its INFLUENT Division, at the time one of the largest medical education companies in the world. He built Pharmedica holdings from its start as a meetings planning company in 1992, doubling its revenues each year until its sale in 2001. This growth included an ACCME accredited entity (Center for Medical Education, LLC), a digital content division (Influent, LLC), and a call center (ContextMedicus, LLC). He opened offices in California, Connecticut, Illinois, and North Carolina. After his three-year earn out, Bavasso partnered to co-found Exploria SPS, LLC, as the mobile devices division of Exploria, Inc. Within three years, Exploria SPS became the market leader for CLM with offices in Connecticut and France and currently licenses software in 33 countries and 18 languages. Mr. Bavasso’s introduction of CLM and subsequent influence over the growth and expansion of CLM globally led to his recognition in 2007, by PharmaVoice magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in pharma. Foreseeing the trends in Pharma that have impacted its selling model and the changing influence dynamic of payors on prescribing, Mr. Bavasso incubated a new and disruptive concept meant to serve as the transaction-fed, new marketplace for healthcare. This led to the incorporation of RIMEDIO, Inc. in October 2012 intent on reshaping the dynamic of how healthcare interacts and transacts to achieve mutual stakeholder objectives. RIMEDIO leverages the power of social utilities with eCommerce, content management and communications tools to consummate transactions between healthcare stakeholders. He is currently co-founder and CEO of nQ Medical, Inc., a machine learning computational biomarker company leveraging keyboard data to manage neuromotor diseases. Everyone has a unique typing signature. Research has revealed that the way we interact with computers and mobile devices can reveal with startling accuracy the presence of certain neuro-motor diseases. This Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered/Michael J. Fox Foundation validated artificial intelligence tool (neuroQWERTY) has opened a broad opportunity to better diagnose diseases, track disease progression, and monitor medication effectiveness and symptoms. Mr. Bavasso is also a licensed hospital administrator having served from 1981 to 1992 leading two health care systems in New England. A graduate of Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration, he received his MBA in health care management and finance from Bryant University, Smithfield, RI.
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About nQ Medical: nQ Medical is a neurotechnology company allowing Data Defined Disease Management via digital biomarkers using AI.
Andrew Lynn
Chief Executive Officer of Fluidic Analytics
Andrew Lynn is an entrepreneur and executive with a focus on early-stage life-sciences and technology opportunities. Andrew founded the regenerative medical device company Orthomimetics Ltd, based on his PhD thesis at the University of Cambridge. He then led the company as CEO from incorporation to successful trade-sale exit. During his tenure at Orthomimetics, the company raised £7.5 million in venture capital and grant funding, established commercial-scale manufacturing capabilities and brought the flagship product through pilot clinical trials to market. In 2009, he led a process that culminated in the successful sale of the company. Andrew Lynn subsequently led solid-state-lighting venture CamGaN Limited as CEO from the commencement of operations to a successful exit in 2012. His efforts have earned him recognition in Europe as an inaugural winner of a Science|Business Academic Enterprise Award and in the US as a member of Technology Review Magazine’s TR35 list of the world’s top young innovators, leaders and entrepreneurs.
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About Fluidic Analytics: Fluidic Analytics designs, develops and manufactures tools that seek to revolutionise the way proteins are characterised.
Rodolphe Clerval
Chief Executive Officer of Coave Therapeutics
Chief Executive Officer at Coave Tx (formerly Horama).
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About Coave Therapeutics, Coave Therapeutics, Coave Therapeutics, ENTEROME, TcLand Expression: Horama develops gene therapies for rare inherited ocular and CNS (central nervous system) diseases.
Alan Hirzel
CEO of Abcam
Prior to joining Abcam, Alan spent 14 years with Bain & Company helping companies grow organically and through acquisition. Earlier in his career, he led product innovation efforts for several brands at Kraft Foods. He was trained as a life scientist and published research in plant biochemistry. He also has a passion for social enterprise as a trustee and was founder of the Social Business Trust, providing advice on how to grow and succeed with these enterprises to social entrepreneurs and government organisations globally. Alan brings the Abcam Board an impressive combination of a strong scientific background, global business and leadership experience as well as strong consumer knowledge. Alan has a keen focus on the consumer, helping Abcam’s strategic vision to be a successful global business by placing the customer at the heart of the business.
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About Abcam: An innovator in life science reagents and tools serving life science researchers globally to achieve their mission, faster.
Bo Cumbo
President & Chief Executive Officer of AavantiBio
Alexander Bo Cumbo, based in Greater Boston Area, is the Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Sarepta Therapeutics. He has a BS in Laboratory Technology from Auburn University. Formerly, Bo was on the Board of Ra Pharmaceuticals. Prior to his work with Sarepta, Bo served at Ra Pharmaceuticals. For more on Alexander Bo Cumbo, be sure to follow him online for the latest insights and updates.
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About AavantiBio: AavantiBio is a biopharmaceutical company that provides gene transfer and gene editing therapies to treat genetic diseases.
Fabrice Chouraqui
Chief Executive Officer of Cellarity
Fabrice Chouraqui is the Chief Executive Officer at Cellarity.
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About Cellarity: Cellarity’s platform digitizes the molecular information in cells to elucidate how they behave in health and disease.
Jason Mellad
CEO of Start Codon
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About Start Codon: Translating disruptive research into successful start-ups, the Cambridge way
Caroline Loew
President & Chief Executive Officer of Glympse Bio
Caroline Loew is the President and Chief Executive Officer at Glympse Bio.
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About Glympse Bio: Glympse Bio is a biotechnology company that transforms disease detection and predict treatment response.
Ulrik Nielsen
President and CEO of Tidal Therapeutics
Ulrik Nielsen is the President and CEO at Tidal Therapeutics.
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About Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals, Tidal Therapeutics: Tidal Therapeutics is a preclinical biotech company with a novel mRNA-based approach for reprogramming immune cells.
Adam Keeney
President & CEO of NodThera
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About NodThera: NodThera is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of new treatments for diseases.
Erik Gatenholm
Co-Founder & CEO of Cellink
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About BICO, Cellink: Cellink is a biotechnology company optimized bench-top bioprinter for the ultimate bioprinting of human tissues.
Michael Chen
Co-founder and CEO of Nuclera
Michael Chen is the Co-founder and CEO at Nuclera.
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About Nuclera: Nuclera makes biology accessible through desktop enzymatic protein and gene synthesis.
Frank F. Craig
CEO of Sphere Fluidics
Dr Frank F. Craig has around 15 years of international, general management experience gained from GlaxoSmithKline, Amersham Biosciences (as a Vice-President of R&D) and several start-up firms. He was responsible for managing product development of Green Fluorescent Protein (first identified by the 2008 Nobel Prize Winners for Chemistry) and many other cell-based products and services for the Life Sciences industry. Frank was a (co)-Founder of Aurora Biosciences (San Diego, USA), which had a peak market cap. of £1.8 billion and was acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals for £420 million. He was also a co-Founder and CEO of Smart Holograms (Cambridge, UK) – named as the UK’s Fastest Growing Company. Frank has raised £22 million in Private Equity, £25 million via an IPO on NASDAQ and has delivered many commercial partnerships with global Life Sciences and Energy firms – resulting in recorded deal values of £180 million. He has been a Board Director of Smart Holograms and TekCel (Hopkinton, USA), and helped form Sphere Fluidics before becoming its CEO in May 2010. He has a PhD in Cell Biology and Microbiology from Glasgow University and an MBA from Warwick Business School.
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About BioChannel Partners, Sphere Fluidics: Sphere Fluidics develops products for use in single cell analysis and characterization, and provides associated collaborative R&D services.
Andrew Baker Campbell
CEO of LEX Diagnostics
Andrew Baker-Campbell is the CEO of LEX Diagnostics.
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About LEX Diagnostics: LEX Diagnostics is a medical device company that specializes in molecular diagnostics for primary care.
Andrew Baker Campbell
CEO of LEX Diagnostics
Andrew Baker-Campbell is the CEO of LEX Diagnostics.
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About LEX Diagnostics: LEX Diagnostics is a medical device company that specializes in molecular diagnostics for primary care.
