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 Oxfordshire based Founder operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a Founder 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.
Sebastian Brunemeier
Founder & COO of Samsara Therapeutics
Sebastian Brunemeier is the Founder and COO of Samsara Therapeutics.
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About Cyclone Therapeutics, Samsara Therapeutics, U.S. Department of State, University of Oxford: Samsara Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that aims to discover therapeutics to treat rare genetic and neurodegenerative disease.
Andrew Barker
Co-Founder & Director of Intelligent Ultrasound
Andrew Barker is the Chairman at Oxford Brain Diagnostics .
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About Anchard Associates, Brainomix, Intelligent Ultrasound, Oxford Brain Diagnostics: Intelligent Ultrasound develops software that improves the quality, reliability, and diagnostic power of medical ultrasound.
James Noble
Founder & CEO of Adaptimmune
James Noble has served as our full-time Chief Executive Officer since March 2014 and part-time CEO from July 2008 to March 2014 and is one of our co-founders. From July 2008 until March 2014, Mr. Noble was also part-time CEO of Immunocore. Mr. Noble has 24 years of experience in the biotech industry. He has held numerous non-executive director positions, including at CuraGen Corporation, PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc, Oxford GlycoSciences plc, MediGene AG, and Advanced Medical Solutions plc. Mr. Noble is also Deputy Chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals plc and a non-executive director of Immunocore Limited. Mr. Noble is qualified as a chartered accountant with Pricewaterhouse Coopers and spent seven years at the investment bank Kleinwort Benson Limited, where he became a director in 1990. He then joined British Biotech plc as Chief Financial Officer from 1990 to 1997. Mr. Noble was previously Chief Executive Officer of Avidex Limited, a privately held biotechnology company that was our predecessor, from 2000 to 2006. Mr. Noble holds an MA from the University of Oxford.
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About Adaptimmune, Advanced Medical Solutions, Curagen Corporation, MediGene, Oxford GlycoSciences, PowderJect Pharmaceuticals: Adaptimmune develops T cell therapies to treat cancer, human immunodeficiency virus, and infectious diseases.
Michalis Papadakis
CEO & Co-Founder of Brainomix
Dr Michalis Papadakis is the CEO and co-founder of Brainomix. He leads the management team, commercial strategy, fund raising, and corporate partnerships. He has grown the company from the ground up, building the company’s global presence and has raised over £15 million of private investment and public funding. When he founded Brainomix he was the Scientific Director of the preclinical stroke lab at the University of Oxford. He has a BSc Honours in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a PhD in neurosciences from UCL School of Pharmacy. He has been an invited speaker at international scientific and innovation conferences
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About Brainomix: Brainomix specializes in the creation of AI-powered imaging biomarkers that enable precision medicine for better treatment decisions
Andrew Hopkins
Co-Founder and CEO of Exscientia
Andrew spent 10 years at Pfizer, where he was responsible for establishing new research foci including the concepts of druggability and network pharmacology. Andrew has raised a total of $50 million for academic and commercial research activities in his continuing role as Chair of Medicinal Informatics at the University of Dundee. He is the author of some of the most highly cited papers in modern drug discovery.
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About Exscientia, Kinetic Discovery Ltd.: Exscientia is a pharmatech company that uses an end-to-end AI platform to design and discover new drugs.
Prof James Davies
Co-Founder of Nucleome Therapeutics
James Davies is the Co-Founder of Nucleome Therapeutics.
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About Nucleome Therapeutics: Nucleome Therapeutics is decoding the dark matter of the human genome to uncover novel ways to treat diseases
Prof James Davies
Co-Founder of Nucleome Therapeutics
James Davies is the Co-Founder of Nucleome Therapeutics.
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About Nucleome Therapeutics: Nucleome Therapeutics is decoding the dark matter of the human genome to uncover novel ways to treat diseases
Prof Jim Hughes
Co-Founder of Nucleome Therapeutics
Jim Hughes is the Co-Founder of Nucleome Therapeutics and a Professor of Gene Regulation at the University of Oxford.
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About Nucleome Therapeutics: Nucleome Therapeutics is decoding the dark matter of the human genome to uncover novel ways to treat diseases
Prof Jim Hughes
Co-Founder of Nucleome Therapeutics
Jim Hughes is the Co-Founder of Nucleome Therapeutics and a Professor of Gene Regulation at the University of Oxford.
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About Nucleome Therapeutics: Nucleome Therapeutics is decoding the dark matter of the human genome to uncover novel ways to treat diseases
Dr. Danuta Jeziorska
CEO & Co-Founder of Nucleome Therapeutics
Danuta Jeziorska is the CEO & Co-Founder at Nucleome Therapeutics.
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About Nucleome Therapeutics: Nucleome Therapeutics is decoding the dark matter of the human genome to uncover novel ways to treat diseases
Dr. Danuta Jeziorska
CEO & Co-Founder of Nucleome Therapeutics
Danuta Jeziorska is the CEO & Co-Founder at Nucleome Therapeutics.
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About Nucleome Therapeutics: Nucleome Therapeutics is decoding the dark matter of the human genome to uncover novel ways to treat diseases
George Busby
CSO and Co-Founder of Allelica
George is a geneticist and a writer. He has been a researcher at the University of Oxford for more than 5 years and his scientific work has been published in Nature and Science. He was always fascinated by the possibility of using the information contained in our DNA to reconstruct the evolutionary history of human beings. He now leads the Allelica scientific team, bringing the predictive genomic accuracy of the Polygenic approach to the market for the first time.
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About Allelica: Allelica is a genomics software company driving the transition of Polygenic Risk Score from Genomic research to clinical application.
Martin-Immanuel Bittner
Co-Founder & CEO of Arctoris
Martin-Immanuel Bittner MD DPhil is a clinician-scientist and life sciences entrepreneur. He is a Rhodes scholar, an active member of several leading cancer research organisations, and an elected member of the Young Academy of the German National Academy of Sciences. Martin is a Co-Founder & CEO of Arctoris, the world’s first fully automated drug discovery platform.
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About Arctoris: Arctoris is a tech-enabled platform company in biotechnology, combining robotics & data science to accelerate drug discovery.
Thomas Fleming
Co-Founder & COO of Arctoris
Thomas Fleming is an award-winning chemist, cancer researcher, and SME Leader of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Tom is the Co-Founder & COO at Arctoris.
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About Arctoris: Arctoris is a tech-enabled platform company in biotechnology, combining robotics & data science to accelerate drug discovery.
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Kinetic Discovery Ltd.
Dr Iva Navratilova has over 17 years experience in biosensor technology development and is the pioneer of the application of SPR screening methods for membrane proteins.
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About Kinetic Discovery Ltd.: Kinetic Discovery Ltd offers drug discovery services as hit identification, confirmation and validation.
Edward Green
Founder & Chief Executive of CHAIN Biotechnology
Edward is a serial biotech entrepreneur, having founded Green Biologics and built it into a world leader for butanol fermentation. He is a microbiologist with over 25 years’ experience with anaerobic bacteria, obtaining a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. He has pioneered technical improvements in microbial strain improvement and fermentation process development for industrial biotechnology applications contributing to numerous scientific publications and patents. He recently founded CHAIN Biotech, a microbiome Company focused on development and commercialisation of microbial technology for the production and delivery of biotherapeutics. Edward participates in the IB Leadership Forum, several NIBB management boards; C1NET and LBNET and BBSRC advisory panels for Bioenergy and Industrial Biotechnology.
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About CHAIN Biotechnology, Green Biologics: CHAIN Biotechnology is a microbiome therapeutics company with a novel drug development platform targeting chronic gut-related diseases.
Constantin Coussios
Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of OxSonics Therapeutics
Professor Constantin holds BA, MEng, MA and PhD degrees in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, and was elected to the first statutory chair in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford in 2011, where he serves as the Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. He is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications and 16 patents in the fields of drug delivery, acoustic cavitation and therapeutic ultrasound. Prof. Coussios received the UK’s Institute of Acoustics’ Young Person’s Award for Innovation in Acoustical Engineering in 2007, was elected as Secretary-General of the International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound between 2006-2010 and was honoured with the Society’s Fred Lizzi award in 2012. He was elected as the youngest ever Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America in 2009 for contributions to biomedical ultrasound, and received the Society’s Bruce Lindsay award in 2012. Prof. Coussios leads the company’s technical development programmes.
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About OrganOx, OrthoSon, OxSonics Therapeutics, University of Oxford: OxSonics® Therapeutics’ proprietary drug delivery platform technology, SonoTran®
Colin Story
Co-Founder & CEO of OxSonics Therapeutics
Colin Story brings over 20 years of medical technology and life sciences industrial experience, the majority held in commercial roles. After graduating with a BSc degree in Biological Sciences and a PhD in Molecular Biology he started his career at Amersham plc (now GE Healthcare) in 1997. Initially he held Product Development and Project Management roles in R&D and then latterly held a commercial role where he managed a £20m product portfolio. In 2005 he joined Isis Innovation Ltd, where he initiated, led and concluded a range of multi-£m transactions. In 2008 he went on to recruit and direct a Business Development team that managed over 200 medical science innovations emanating from Oxford University. In 2011 he joined OrganOx Ltd as Operations Director where he handled all operational and contractual aspects of the business that saw the company take a class III medical device from prototype into, and successfully through, first in man clinical trials. In January 2014 he became Co-Founder, Executive Director and the Chief Executive Officer of OxSonics® Ltd.
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About OrthoSon, OxSonics Therapeutics: OxSonics® Therapeutics’ proprietary drug delivery platform technology, SonoTran®
Chris Spencer
Co-Founder and Head of Innovation of Genomics
Chris Spencer is Founder of Genomics PLC and serves as its Director. Chris Spencer’s collect, curate, analyse and interpret very large amounts of genetic data to help understand human diseases. His career has happily coincided with an era of collaboration it made major inroads into understanding of human genetics. He has played a lead analytical role in the International HapMap project and the Wellcome Trust Cases Controls Consortium. As a young scientist, his early work in large scale human data was awarded the Corcoran Memorial Prize from the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford, which is awarded every two years for outstanding graduate work. His works are Cell-Mediated Immune Mechanisms, Visceral Leishmaniasis and Large Vessel Ischemic Stroke.
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About Genomics: Genomics plc aiming to lead the genomic transformation of healthcare.
Gil McVean
Co Founder & Director of Genomics
Gil McVean is Professor of Statistical Genetics at the University of Oxford and Head of Bioinformatics and Statistical Genetics at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. After an undergraduate training in Zoology, he obtained a PhD with Laurence Hurst in Cambridge and worked with Brian and Deborah Charlesworth in Edinburgh before joining Oxford in 2000. His research focuses on understanding the molecular and evolutionary processes that shape genetic variation in populations and the relationship between genetic variation and phenotype. He has made contributions to our understanding of areas including recombination hotspots, historical patterns of natural selection, the male mutation rate, human genetic variation, the role of HLA in complex disease and genealogical processes. He has played a leading role in the HapMap and 1000 Genomes Projects and currently works on organisms from HIV to malaria.
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About Genomics: Genomics plc aiming to lead the genomic transformation of healthcare.
Nick Skaer
Founder and CEO of Orthox Ltd.
Nick Skaer has over 20 years experience in life science and materials research, and 10 years as a medtech CEO raising over £10m to fund development of FibroFix™ technology. In 2008 he founded Orthox with Prof. Oliver Kessler, securing a Translation Award from Wellcome Trust. Since then he has led the scientific and commercial programmes at Orthox, with further awards from the Technology Strategy Board, Wellcome Trust, and NIHR. Before this he was CSO, then CEO of Oxford Biomaterials from 2004 to 2009 where he developed the FibroFix™ technology and implemented the medical device programme. During this period he co-authored 5 patents, including the three assigned to Orthox, secured over £2 million in public grants and private investment and formed 3 spin out companies from Oxford Biomaterials to commercialise biomaterial technologies. Between 1992 and 2003 he studied Molecular Biology at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Strasbourg France, where he obtained his PhD.
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About Orthox Ltd.: Orthox develops tissue regenerative implants that address large injuries to cartilage tissues in which early osteoarthritis may be present.
Oliver Kessler
Founder, Medical Director and Chief Medical Officer of Orthox Ltd.
Oliver Kessler is a practising knee surgeon based in Zurich with a strong track record of biomaterials research and a focus on meniscal and cartilage repair systems and joint kinematics. He spent 6 years at Stryker Orthopaedics as Director of Orthobiologics supervising a major meniscal tissue engineering programme. He has extensive contacts within both the orthopaedic industry and the surgical community and is responsible for overseeing clinical development of Orthox’s product pipeline.
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About Orthox Ltd.: Orthox develops tissue regenerative implants that address large injuries to cartilage tissues in which early osteoarthritis may be present.
Sarah Gilbert
Co-Founder & Professor of Vaccinology of Vaccitech
Professor Sarah Gilbert is Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University and the programme director for a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award on Human and Veterinary vaccines at the Jenner Institute. She is a member of the Oxford University Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility management committee, and an acknowledged expert in the preclinical and clinical development of viral vectored vaccines.Professor Gilbert’s chief research interest is the development of vaccines that work by inducing strong and protective T cell responses, in addition to working on the development of the viral vector platform technology and its application in rapid vaccine development for emerging pathogens.
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About Vaccitech: Vaccitech is creating novel vaccines that elicit strong responses from helper and cytotoxic T-cells.
Marcelo Bravo
Co Founder & Chief Executive Officer of OxVax
Marcelo Bravo is the Executive Chairman & Founder of Oxford Phamascience Group & he attended University of Oxford in 2017.
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About Oxford Phamascience Group, OxVax: OxVax focused on the development of an advanced next-generation dendritic cell vaccine platform for the treatment of solid tumor cancers.
Charalambos Antoniades
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Caristo Diagnostics
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About Caristo Diagnostics: Caristo Diagnostics utilises standard CT scans to identify potentially heart-stopping plaques
Mikhail Shchepinov
Founder and CSO of Retrotope
did postdoctoral research in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, UK, from 1995 to 2000, focusing on the overlap of bioorganic, combinatorial and surface chemistries. From 2000 to 2002 (San Diego, USA), and from 2002 to 2006 (UK) he worked in the biotech industry developing chemical tools for genomics and proteomics. At Retrotope, Dr. Shchepinov has focused on the use of stable isotopes as a fortification of essential nutrients to protect against diseases of aging and age-related oxidative stress. Dr. Shchepinov received his MS in chemistry and biotechnology from the Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology, Moscow, USSR, and a PhD in bioorganic chemistry from the Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, in 1994.
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About Retrotope: Retrotope is a developer of a new category of drug platform to preserve and restore mitochondrial health in degenerative diseases.
Simon Draper
Co-Founder of SpyBiotech
Simon Draper is the Co-Founder of SpyBiotech.
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About SpyBiotech: SpyBiotech Operators of a biotechnology platform intended to generate next-generation vaccines.
Mark Howarth
Co-Founder of SpyBiotech
Mark Howarth is the Co-Founder of SpyBiotech.
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About SpyBiotech: SpyBiotech Operators of a biotechnology platform intended to generate next-generation vaccines.
Philipp Kukura
Founder and Director of Refeyn
Philipp Kukura is the Founder and Director at Refeyn.
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About Refeyn: Refeyn is specialising in label-free single molecule imaging and mass measurement.
Paul Townsend
Founder of Karus Therapeutics
Paul Townsend is Founder at Karus Therapeutics.
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About Aptamer Group, Deep Med IO, Karus Therapeutics, Manchester Cancer Research Centre, University of Surrey: Karus is a pharmaceutical company focused on the design and development of molecular-targeted, small molecule drugs to treat cancer.
Jonathan Allis
Co-Founder & CEO of Blue Earth Diagnostics
Jonathan Allis is the founding CEO of Blue Earth Diagnostics. Prior to this role, Jonathan was the General Manager for PET at GE Healthcare Life Sciences, and had global responsibility for GE Healthcare’s PET agent and PET synthesis platforms business. He has previously held positions in R&D, Marketing and Product Development at GE Healthcare, Amersham plc., Siemens Medical Solutions and Oxford Magnet Technology, in the UK, USA and Germany. Jonathan has an undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Cape Town and a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Oxford.
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About Blue Earth Diagnostics: BlueEarth Diagnostics mission is to transform the clinical management of recurrent prostate cancer
Charlie Curtis
Founder of DryGro
Charlie Curtis is the Founder of DryGro.
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About DryGro: DryGro is an agriculture technology company that grows animal feed crops on arid, otherwise unproductive land.
