Simon Bornschein

CEO & co-Founder, Coding Bio

Dr. Simon Bornschein is the co-founder and CEO of Coding Bio, a startup advancing immunotherapies by combining high throughput screening and machine learning. With a PhD in cancer immunology from the University of Leuven, Simon previously developed CAR therapies at Celyad and Quell Therapeutics, focusing on oncology and autoinflammatory diseases.

Emma Lawrence

Senior Policy and Public Affairs Manager, BIA

What does your role at BIA involve?
Emma leads BIA's genomics, digital, data and artificial intelligence (AI) policy areas. She engages with members who work in these fields to understand their policy needs. Emma provides the secretariat for BIA's Genomics Advisory Committee (GAC) and looks after the TechBio community as part of this. Emma also leads BIA's influence agenda for these areas, engaging with civil servants and other senior stakeholders.

Previous experience
Prior to joining the BIA, Emma worked at the cross-party think tank Policy Connect on a Cell and Gene Therapy Parliamentary engagement programme. She has previously worked in the biomedical research sector understanding the barriers to accessing human samples and data for research. This included leading engagement at the UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre (UCL) and the Immunotherapy Trial Simulation Project (Imperial College London). Emma has a PhD in Immunology from the University of Manchester.

If you could invite any scientist or entrepreneur to dinner, who would it be and why?
Ada Lovelace, the godmother of computer programming because she was the first to recognise that a machine would have uses beyond calculations. We’d chat about maths and 19th-century gossip over cocktails.

Debesh Mandal

CEO, Nanograb

Debesh is a founder and the CEO of Nanograb. Debesh's expertise lies in the implementation of molecular simulations having completed a PhD at Imperial College in simulating controlled drug delivery systems. In previous roles, he was the first software hire at the industrial biotech company FabricNano. He founded Nanograb along with PhD supervisor Stefano Angioletti-Uberti, Christopher Lau, Shanil Panara and Dame Professor Molly Stevens in 2023, spinning out from Imperial. Debesh has led the company through successful initial financing and has managed the development of Nanograb's platform that generates the best combination of binders for targeted drug delivery, taking advantage of recent advances in AI for biomolecular modelling as well as bespoke molecular simulations. The company now has an office and lab in Notting Hill, in West London and develops targeted gene delivery vectors.

Rory Ryan

Co-Founder & CEO, PentaBind

An experienced MedTech entrepreneur (3X founder; 1 Exit), Rory co-founded PentaBind in November 2021 with Phil Haynes (Drug Research) and Miguel Gonzalez (AI and Data Science). Before this Rory founded a VC-backed aptamer diagnostics company which he ran for 6 years, including 3 years in Shenzhen, China and then exited. Rory also founded Valatoa.com, a software offering exit strategy advice and business valuations to private equity. 9 years in the aptamer industry, inventor of 2 patents and past advisor for a health policy think tank, Rory also holds Master’s degrees in Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Management (Imperial College) and Engineering (University of Leeds).

Jason Yip

CEO & Co-Founder, Tailor.Bio

Jason Yip is CEO and Co-Founder of Tailor Bio, a pioneering startup that's redefining precision medicine for deadly cancers. Tailor Bio's innovative technology decodes Chromosomal Instability (CIN), a genomic phenomenon found in 80% of cancers, yet often overlooked by current precision oncology approaches. By leveraging cutting-edge computational and AI-enabled techniques, Tailor Bio is pushing the frontiers of precision medicine to create new possibilities for patients in need.