Speakers
Kristen Albright
Sara Holland
Karen Polizzi
Oliver Sexton
Panel session
Engineering biology has a long and proud history in therapeutic development, leading to a number of success stories. However, recently engineering developments outside healthcare have drawn a lot of interest, and these “deep biotech” solutions promise to help address an entirely different landscape of challenges. Join this session as we discuss what lessons these newer companies may be able to learn from their therapeutic forbears, and where their solutions must differ.
Karen Polizzi is a Professor of Biotechnology in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, the co-Director of the Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology, Vice Director of the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, and co-director of the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre. Her research applies synthetic biology to upstream bioprocess engineering with projects in cell engineering and development of biosensing technology.
Oliver is an Investment Director at UKI2S. Specialising in life science investments he has managed the enlarged £33m engineering biology sub-fund since its inception in 2014. He has invested in a broad range of companies in sectors as diverse as therapeutic, agritech and clean biotech.
He sits on multiple boards and has overseen exits including the £85m sale of Quethera to Astellas. He is also a member of the Future Planet Capital ESG steering group.
Prior to joining UKI2S, Oliver worked at the venture fund Imperial Innovations as well as other roles in the industry. He has a background in strategy analysis and consultancy including roles in New York and has a masters from the University of Bristol and commenced a PhD in bioremediation at the University of Nottingham.
Dr David Venables is CEO of Laverock Therapeutics, a gene-silencing company with a uniquely powerful technology which harnesses the cell’s natural gene regulatory mechanisms to develop a new generation of programmable advanced therapies. Prior to this he was President, AskBio Europe, following the acquisition of Synpromics Ltd, where he was CEO. Synpromics was a market leader in gene control and synthetic promoter development. He previously has served as: VP – CMC for NightstaRx, an ophthalmology focused gene therapy company acquired by Biogen; CEO of Anatara Therapeutics which he took through to IPO in Australia; CEO of Ark Therapeutics with responsibility for leading the company through a transition to a viral contract development and manufacturing service model and sale.
He also serves on the Boards of NovalGen, Concinnity Genetics, and Axol Biosciences, and is Honorary Professor at Edinburgh University.