Whilst 2018 was a year of huge uncertainty with regards to the political and economic landscape across the globe, many may feel it was one of great success when reflecting on the Life Sciences sector in the region, writes Tony Jones, CEO of One Nucleus. 

Such successes laid the foundations of what could be the tipping point of when the anticipated advances in fields such as genomics, AI and Machine Learning, digital health and engineering deliver the patient outcomes and investor returns envisaged over the past decade or more.

The region has been at the forefront of Precision Medicine approaches since the concept emerged as ‘stratified medicine’ many (super) moons ago, yet despite much expectation one could argue it has yet to deliver for all stakeholders. So why does it feel we are now closer than ever to achieving those goals?

Commitment to investing in critical research-based initiatives such as those developed by the Wellcome Genome Campus and the many world-class biomedical research institutions across the region, has anchored progress in the field here. 

The exciting news that the 100,000 Genomes Project had sequenced that number of whole genomes within the NHS was another clear exemplification of the collective desire of Government, NHS and private sector partners to use our understanding in science to improve lives. Innovating to change the world is in the DNA of the scientists, business leaders and investors in the region and that attracts great minds, capital and support from further afield who wish to enable and share in such success. 

Advances in fields such as data science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, diagnostics, robotics, protein engineering and the microbiome are seeing that Eastern promise progress ever closer to delivery. 

Major investments and corporate deals into businesses small and large over the past years have seen well in excess of £2 billion of private capital pour into the cluster. 

Whether collaborations secured by companies such as Microbiotica’s with Genentech, Mission Therapeutics with Abbvie and Crescendo Biologics with Takeda or the significant financing events by CMR Surgical, Artios or Acacia Therapeutics, there are numerous signs of the maturing asset and company pipeline in the cluster. 

Yet further evidence, if any were needed, emerged that whilst the region is highly inventive and entrepreneurial, the cluster is about much more than early stage research and spin-outs – now having a comprehensive portfolio of opportunity in which to engage.  

It would perhaps be remiss not to mention the ‘B’ word. Boston, together with Cambridge, Massachusetts is the envy of many and seen as the benchmark by which any Life Science cluster is measured. 

It is clear there is a gap to close still, but it could be argued that it is a similar comprehensive portfolio of opportunity that has rendered Boston so attractive to capital and the large Pharma seeking to populate their investment and development pipelines, respectively. 

A continuing supportive Government policy and investment strategy are clearly a requirement to increase the innovation capacity of any leading cluster. This has been evident in Massachusetts and, in no small way due to the MPs in our region, has also been the case across the East of England. 

Public sector alone, however, cannot fund a maturing pipeline of advanced therapeutics, precision medicines and health technologies. It is pleasing to see how the long-term public support has made the cluster attractive to private capital – the above deals being examples of just how attractive. 

Whilst the uncertainties around Brexit continue, with parliamentarians not yet showing themselves to be as adept at collaboration, compromise and dealmaking as our Life Science leaders, I still believe that we are poised for a very positive year. 

The Cell & Gene Therapy catapult recently highlighted how the Advanced Therapy pipeline has expanded; the corresponding Manufacturing Centre being located at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst driving growth is just one example of how innovative medicines are starting to come of age. 

Another is the exciting progress by rare disease companies such as Cambridge-based Healx, who will now be able to harness and apply the benefit of genomics and AI to benefit hitherto under-served patient groups. 

As a final example, the additional understanding of the microbiome as it relates to pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of therapeutics that will arise from institutions such as the Quadram Institute and their neighbours in Norwich, will enable future health and wellbeing advances as well as precision medicine development. 

Whilst Cambridge remains the jewel in the cluster’s crown, it is evident how the wider region combines to advance scientific understanding, increase our innovation capacity and attract global investment into new treatments and health technologies. 

In terms of One Nucleus, we are very proud to be based here and will be championing, connecting and supporting the region wherever possible. Leveraging our investment in a new website and contact management system we will continue our work with a focus on bringing together great science and technology, talent and investment through our events, online portal and collaborations. 

Discovering new medicines has always been challenging, yet persistence, creativity and dealing with regulatory change are common characteristics among researchers, entrepreneurs and their investors so I feel our sector is well placed to face any challenge. 

The maturing development pipeline, the positive mood music that we’ll see active M & A and perhaps IPO traffic through 2019 for investors and the continuing advancement in the areas of science that were only recently in their infancy, lends me to believe we are indeed on the cusp of delivering on that promise.

https://onenucleus.com/

US funding giants from Boston and San Francisco have led a thumping $24 million Series A for a Cambridge University biopharma spin-out that hasn’t even named its board yet.

Wren Therapeutics has been set up by academics from St John’s College to develop drugs to treat illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and more than 50 other related diseases.

The fledgling UK business  is set to expand by setting up a satellite office in Boston while remaining anchored within Cambridge University’s new Chemistry of Health Centre.

Wren raised the cash from an international syndicate led by The Baupost Group in Boston with participation from San Francisco-based LifeForce Capital and a number of high net worth individual investors.

The Baupost Group is a long-only hedge fund founded in 1982 by Harvard Professor William Poorvu and partners and is the eighth-largest hedge fund by assets under management ($29.2bn).

Several of Wren’s scientific founders are members of St John’s, including Professor Sir Christopher Dobson, Master of St John’s, Professor Tuomas Knowles, a St John’s Fellow, and Dr Samuel Cohen, the St John’s Entrepreneur in Residence.

Wren Therapeutics focuses on drug discovery and development for protein misfolding diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and was founded in 2016. 

Protein molecules form the machinery which carry out all of the executive functions in living systems. But proteins sometimes malfunction and become misfolded, leading to a complex chain of molecular events that can cause long-lasting damage to the health of people affected and may ultimately lead to death.

This group of medical disorders are known as protein misfolding diseases. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are widely recognised protein misfolding diseases, but others include type-2 diabetes, motor neurone disease and more than 50 other related illnesses.

Dr Cohen explained: “Protein misfolding diseases are one of the most critical global healthcare challenges of the 21st century but are highly complex and challenging to address. 

“Current strategies – in particular those driven by traditional drug discovery and biological approaches – have proven, at least to date, to be ineffective.

“Wren’s new and unique approach is instead built on concepts from the physical sciences and focuses on the chemical kinetics of the protein misfolding process, creating a predictive and quantitatively driven platform that has the potential to radically advance drug discovery in this class of diseases.”

Wren Therapeutics is a spin-off from the University of Cambridge and Lund University in Sweden. Professor Sir Christopher Dobson said: “Wren is built on many years of highly collaborative, uniquely integrated, interdisciplinary research that has uncovered the key molecular mechanisms associated with protein misfolding diseases.

“I am hugely enthusiastic about our ability to make tangible progress against these diseases and change the course of life for millions of people around the world suffering from these debilitating and increasingly common medical disorders.”

The company plans to announce its board of directors shortly.

• Image courtesy – University of Cambridge

Massive global expansion for Cambridge UK fraud detection and risk management business Featurespace has been underpinned by a $32.3 million funding round led by two US VC funds anchored in New York and Philadelphia.

The new round takes Featurespace’s fundraising to $70.5m since launch in 2008. The Series F was led by Insight Venture Partners, a New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm focused on high-growth investments in the technology sector, and MissionOG, a Philadelphia-based VC firm with significant operational and investment experience across the financial services and payments industries.

The round also included further funding from existing investors including IP Group plc, Highland Europe, TTV Capital, Cambridge angel and serial entrepreneur Robert Sansom and Invoke Capital, Mike Lynch’s European technology fund based in Cambridge.

The money will be used to support Featurespace’s international expansion and continued development of the company’s software capabilities. The company continues to hire fast on both sides of the Atlantic with scores of jobs to fill to meet demand for the capabilities Featurespace is delivering based on Cambridge University IP.

The investment will also support the continued distribution of Featurespace’s real-time ARIC™ platform, which uses Adaptive Behavioural Analytics to detect anomalies in individual behaviour for fraud and risk management.

Featurespace CEO Martina King said: “We have made tremendous progress over the last 15 months since our last fund raising – and this fund raise is the largest to date.

“The additional funds will enable us to continue rapidly growing the business internationally by focusing on our products, our people and our customers.

“Working very closely with our customers, we have developed a market-leading product to meet their fraud detection and prevention requirements. We have also significantly strengthened our senior management team and operational infrastructure, and opened an office in Atlanta, Georgia.

“And we have grown our financial services customer base and now are working with 17 banks across continental Europe, the UK, US and Latin America. “Equally important, we have become the technology partner of choice to a number of payment processors and merchant acquirers that have embedded our real-time fraud prevention technology in their anti-fraud solutions.”

The company’s big-money US backers are excited about the prospects for Featurespace. Jeff Horing, co-founder and managing director at Insight Venture Partners, said: “We have been following Featurespace’s growth for over two years.

“Following extensive customer and product due diligence, we were delighted with market feedback around the product and team. We welcome Featurespace into our portfolio and look forward to helping the company drive international growth.”

And Gene Lockhart, chairman and managing partner at MissionOG, echoed: “Martina King, David Excell and team have built a dynamic culture that has led to a well-defined and successful market focus.

“Their efforts are evidenced by strong sales momentum with notable clients in various segments, including multinational banks, payments companies, issuer processors and merchant acquirers. “We’re excited to partner with Featurespace and introduce our network and platform to continue to drive value and growth.”

Cambridge and Sandy property company Kier Group plc is changing chief executive in a bid to steer a fresh era of growth.

Haydyn Mursell has stepped down with immediate effect after eight years as FD and CEO and the search for a new chief exec is already underway.

As an interim move chairman Philip Cox will act as executive chair working closely with the FD Bev Dew and chief operating officer Claudio Veritiero. They will jointly oversee operations until a new chief executive has been appointed. 

Cox said: “The board believes that, following the completion of the recent rights issue, now is the right time for a new leader to take Kier forward to the next stage of its development. 

“The board would like to thank Haydn for his contribution during eight years, firstly as finance director and then as chief executive.”

The infrastructure services, buildings and developments & housing group also announced a trading update covering the period since its previous update on November 16. It is due to post its half-year results on March 21 but says it is on track to meet FY19 expectation.

During the period, the Infrastructure Services and Buildings businesses won a number of new contract awards and now have 100 per cent visibility of the forecast revenue for FY19 and an order book of more than £10 billion.

Recent key contract awards included the renewal of a three-year c.£70 million utility services deal in the South West and being appointed to three lots on the North West Construction Hub three-year £1.5bn framework.

Also, more than £500m of regional building projects were secured during November and December, including a major office development for Argent at King’s Cross in London, a new research facility for the Pirbright Institute in Surrey, a flagship development for the Royal College of Art and a new hospital for Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.  

The balance sheet at December 31 was strengthened following the receipt of the £250m net cash proceeds of the recent rights issue and Kier remains on track to report a net cash position at the year-end (June 30, 2019). 

• PHOTOGRAPH: Outgoing Kier CEO, Haydn Mursell

Statistics show that 75 per cent of global candidates are ‘passive job seekers’ – How are you positioned to take advantage of every opportunity out there? Tristan Drane, founder and managing director of The One Group, reports.

Passive candidates can be defined as individuals who are not actively seeking a new job role, due to either being satisfied in their current role, being part of an ongoing project or simply a lack of motivation to seek opportunity. 

An active candidate takes action to find a better vocation, to improve career prospects and in theory give themselves more opportunity for change.

Is it better to be an active or passive candidate?

The type of candidate you should aim to be is highly dependent on which sector or type of industry you work within. Sectors such as administration, customer service and sales are often seen as more ‘disposable’ skill sets, with willing replacements said to be easier to find. 

As a candidate working in this employer led environment, you cannot afford to be as passive and will likely benefit from actively making yourself accessible to potential employers either via numerous jobs applications, adding your details to a CV database or engaging with recruitment agency. 
 
On the other hand, industries prizing more niche or deeper skill sets, such as Technology, Engineering or Scientific, candidates are often in high demand and so can afford to be a little more passive in their approach. 

Forbes found that only 30 per cent of the global tech workforce are actively seeking for more – putting greater emphasis on the employer to go out and find them. The question for this group of candidates is, even if you have a desirable skill set to offer, are you in the right places to be discovered?

As a short answer, no it is not better to solely an active or passive, the first question you need to ask yourself is where do I fit on the scale below? Are you in a low skilled environment needing to work that bit harder to find new opportunity, are you highly skilled and can afford to take a foot off the gas or like most of us are you somewhere in the middle just looking to make yourself that little bit more desirable to a potential employer?

How desirable do you think you are?

As mentioned, your ability to be recognised and plucked from the talent pool will be relative to the environment in which you work, the demand for your particular skill set and your competition. There are three fundamentals to making yourself desirable to potential employers.

A candidate, either passively or actively searching for a new role while still in full time employment is far more desirable than an individual who is currently unemployed. 

Your worth and value as an employee is far easier to demonstrate – with recruiters and employers able to see the difference your role is making in real-time, without having to rely on a snippet from your CV. 

Don’t wait until you’re at the end of the road to start your job search, whether you are looking or not keep an open mind, flag yourself as open to new opportunities.  

Many passive and even some active candidates continue to rely on outdated CV’s and old profiles, if you haven’t added those latest qualifications, skills or work placements, how can you expect recruiters and prospective employers to know your true potential. Is there something that could add to push you up the skills scale? Is this something you already have in your armoury? Or is this something new you could explore?

All the statistics point to passion and drive being the way to fill a skills gap. According to a survey conducted by The Polling Company, 70 per cent of talent acquisition leaders, and 51 per cent of recruiters push forward candidates with greater motivation and drive.

Although difficult to demonstrate on paper, research also backs this up suggesting that 9/10 recruiters preferred to hire active candidates; could this be the route to making yourself more desirable if you are lower on the skills scale?

Five tips for making yourself accessible 

You have decided where you sit on the in skills model, you know how active or passive you need to be to create a new opportunity for yourself and you have updated your profile to help maximise your potential and saleability. Here’s five steps to ensure you’re making yourself discoverable and taking advantage of every opportunity that comes your way.

1. Build your online brand
How discoverable are you? Could a potential employer find you with a quick search? According to research conducted by Aberdeen Group, a staggering 73 per cent of millennials found their last job through a social networking platform.

1. Upload your CV to relevant job boards (Completing additional profile information where applicable)
2. Update LinkedIn profile – Does this match your CV? Have your declared yourself as open to opportunity?
3. Do your other social media platforms give the right impression?  

2. Talk to a recruiter 
Not all recruiters are created equal. Upload your CV to relevant local and specialist recruiters.

3. Fill a skills gap
Look at your peers, is there a skill or qualification that could complement your current skill set or make you eligible for your dream job?

4. Be confident 
Approachability and preparation are key to success when searching for a new role – be confident in your ability, be willing to clearly communicate experience and explain your career choices.

5. Be Motivated 
Show passion and drive within your role and towards any potential opportunity: According to a survey conducted by The Polling Company the top reason (51 per cent) for passive candidates not being successful in their new roles is due to showing a lack of passion and commitment. 

theonegroup.co.uk

Gamechanging VC firm Draper Esprit believes Cambridge’s Science & Technology innovation brilliance is helping to transform the international investment paradigm.

CEO and co-founder Simon Cook is presiding over a golden age for the London-quoted investor and is escalating Draper Esprit’s ambitions just as Cambridge S & T trailblazers ramp their own fundraising expectations.

Cook, who cut his tech teeth in Cambridge as well as Canada and Silicon Valley, says the cluster’s top innovators are now raising much bigger sums – rounds at last commensurate with the potential of their propositions.

Having just exited from Grapeshot after its spectacular sale to US giant Oracle and led a $31 million round in Cambridge life science company Fluidic Analytics, Draper Esprit is perfectly primed to take the temperature of the  global investment climate.

Cook says he is not surprised that brilliant Cambridge science and technology is finally realising optimum valuations. And he is convinced that major acquisitions creating new millionaires at companies like Arm and Grapeshot will lead to more exciting tech startups – and fresh opportunities to breed internationally influential unicorns.

Cook’s team intends to drive home those points at an exciting Cambridge event on February 6 at the Tamburlaine Hotel in Station Road at the heart of the city’s burgeoning tech quarter.

Cutting edge entrepreneurs will share their success stories and underline the unprecedented opportunities awaiting new generations of Cambridge startups. Among them will be John Snyder, founder and CEO of Grapeshot, Andrew Lynn (CEO of Fluidic Analytics), Sarah Bateup, chief clinical officer of Ieso Digital Health; Tim Brears, CEO of Evonetix; Kerry Baldwin, managing partner of IQ Capital and Dr Vishal Gulati, venture partner with Draper Esprit.

Cook told me: “Our heritage is Cambridge although we have not done anything quite like this event before. We were always very active in Cambridge but in a new and vibrant climate we felt it was a good time to reinforce the proposition.

“We back brilliant teams with global ambition. Building a business is tough and going global even harder. If you are a founder join us at the Cambridge event and meet entrepreneurs who are doing just that.”

Cook believes the days of Cambridge companies underselling their propositions are long gone and that CEOs of exciting new tech startups are starting to raise the kind of money their propositions warrant. 

Giving the lead, Draper Esprit is willing to make investments that accelerate growth and make a difference on the world stage – injecting £20m-£30m sums rather than less effective amounts.

He said: “The ability to write bigger cheques and take more risks in order to build a bigger upside has changed quite a lot in Silicon Valley. Now Europe is catching up quite fast.

“We have seen major investments and acquisitions led from the US in the past and now Asia is becoming significant; especially China and Japan. Draper Esprit has been instrumental in starting a flow of Asian investment into the UK and Cambridge. We helped sell Neul to Huawei which is now investing heavily in the cluster. 

“We recognised early on the interest from Asia in Cambridge. While the Neul-Huawei deal price in itself was not massive, the investment Huawei has since injected into Cambridge and the UK and the potential growth for the cluster as a result is proving highly significant.

“Until fairly recent times, Europe had seemed a better route for our companies  looking internationally than Asia but a lot of relationships have developed over the last five years between Asia and Europe. They will not slow down.

“In all our years’ experience in Cambridge, the UK and globally no-one has done investments on the scale that we are witnessing and helping to drive right now. 

“Entrepreneurship is better understood. Cambridge has always had some of the best science in the world but sometimes its entrepreneurs have not been able to explain the story effectively enough to attract the right amount of investment. 

“Entrepreneurship is now embedded in younger businesses; science is a more recognised career path. There have always been one or two massive companies like Arm able to get the required uplift to grow internationally but now, with a lot more entrepreneurs on the scene, capital is really starting to flow in.

“And when you get a significant acquisition such as SoftBank’s of Arm it creates more entrepreneurs who are prepared to stay on the Cambridge scene and invest in startup opportunities.”

Cook says the situation is even more encouraging because it is no longer just the bosses who have entrepreneurial ambitions of their own; he has seen the spirit of entrepreneurship driven down to the most junior members of staff who are inspired by senior role models.

Cook believes that Cambridge entrepreneurs are also more prepared to build a global business in their own right rather than selling out short-term at the first sign of success – creating a pool of serial entrepreneurs helping to cross-pollinate new enterprises.

Draper Esprit’s strategy is to ramp up the size of its investments in truly exciting plays. Cook says: “We raised £160 million in June 2017 but you can never have too much money so our future fundraising plans remain flexible.

“Our plan is to get to a position where we are lending bigger and bigger amounts but are self financing. We invest in risk businesses so have to be prepared to lose money. 

“VCs were once prepared to lose, say, £2-3m but are now willing to lose lots more. I am really excited that we can write £20-30m cheques and absorb it.”

Cook believes that good science & technology has a habit of finding its time and opportunity to shine. He says John Snyder and Grapeshot have always had excellent technology but the explosion of fake news and web trust issues had heightened its appeal to Oracle.

Similarly CSR’s Bluetooth technology was rubbished at the outset – particularly in the US where rival technologies were being promoted – but the unrelenting push for safe, hands-free communication in cars accelerated the Cambridge proposition into overdrive based on market forces. The end result was CSR’s acquisition by US chip maker Qualcomm for $2.4 billion in 2015.
 
Cook says opportunities to invest in ahead of the curve technologies have always been around – but he adds: “What has changed is the cheque sizes. “While $10 million Series As have been normal for a while, what haven’t are the $50 million Series Bs. 

“The ability to write bigger cheques and take more risks in order to build a bigger upside has changed quite a lot in the Valley. And now, Europe is catching up quite fast.

“The funds that can break out from $150m to $500m are going to become market leaders for a long time.”

• For more details of the Cambridge event see the advertisement on Page 4 or go direct to www.draperespritevents.com/cambridge/bw

Scale-up Science & Technology businesses have sparked a fresh gold rush for office and laboratory space in Cambridge – and the smart operators are negotiating pre-lets to ensure their growth plans are not torpedoed by lack of options.

New research from YouGov commissioned by Bidwells reveals that the demand for office and lab space in Cambridge is close to 1.3 million sq ft – the highest level since 2014 when AstraZeneca decided to move from the UK’s North West to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. This takes account of current pre-let commitments. 

The race for space is set to quicken as S & T businesses plan to dramatically ramp up their spend on Research & Development. The faster they grow their operations and scale headcount, the more urgent becomes their need to broker sufficient space to accommodate them into their expansion strategies.

Bidwells’ director of research, Sue Foxley, told Business Weekly: “Our latest analysis of the Cambridge office and laboratory market finds that 0.6 million sq ft of new space will complete during the first half of 2019. 

“This is the largest increase in supply in over a decade which perhaps sounds alarm bells for some given the apparent slowdown in demand for labs and offices combined to 1.154m sq ft at the end of 2018.

“The reality of the market paints a different picture. The vast majority (85 per cent) of this space is pre-let or already under offer. This, in theory, leaves a total of 91,000 sq ft available during 2019. 

“Given our understanding of current requirements, we expect more than 50 per cent of this space will be let shortly after practical completion.” 

Given such unrelenting demand there is inevitably a price to pay. The pre-letting activity, combined with a slight increase in take-up in 2018 compared to 2017, underpinned a further increase in rents. 

During the second half of 2018 the prime office rent rose to £41.50 psf, with increases also seen for all grades of second hand space. The prime rent for laboratory space rose by 1.4 per cent during 2018 to £34.50 psf.

Foxley added: “These latest lettings figures are consistent with the findings of research undertaken by Bidwells on the location and property requirements of major R & D companies. The research, undertaken by YouGov on our behalf, underlines the importance of location. 

“The ability to recruit highly skilled staff, combined with the requirement to be near the centre of research ideas and innovation are the determinants of location for such businesses. 

“With a global outlook these companies will consider location from an international perspective and therefore are compelled to be exacting in their requirements. 

“These requirements need to be taken seriously: 52 per cent of the global R & D companies participating in our survey expect their R & D budget to grow over the next five years, while 30 per cent think it likely they will take new floorspace, predominately due to expectations of business growth. 

“The availability of property to grow a business was considered extremely important, considerably more so than the cost or lease terms of that space.” 

The top three location considerations for global R & D businesses were:-

• Ease of recruiting and retaining staff
• Ultra-fast and high-volume data connectivity
• Availability of property to grow R & D activity

Foxley added: “This clearly has implications for location decision-making on top of concerns over access to skills and innovation which preoccupy all knowledge based businesses. 

“Given the recent tightness in the Cambridge office and laboratories market, particularly in the accessible in demand locations, it is therefore unsurprising that such companies are opting for pre-lets. 

“With the business priority to keep pace with expectations for “continuous innovation” as noted by many of our respondents, taking the risk on the market to supply the goods, particularly for specialised laboratory space, is increasingly not an option. 

“This long term perspective towards occupational requirements of incoming and expanding companies, combined with pressures from the ecosystem of new businesses in Cambridge’s science and tech sectors in particular, will place further pressure on rents. 

“While the wider economic and political backdrop clearly remains uncertain, we expect these underlying market pressures to underpin prime rental value growth of between 2-3 per cent in 2019.”

• PHOTOGRAPH: Bidwells’ director of research, Sue Foxley

Japanese investors Global Brain and 31Ventures along with data tech company KDDI Supership have chipped into a fresh £10 million funding round for Cambridge UK extreme data specialist GeoSpock. 

It takes the total raised by GeoSpock to date to £19.5m – just under $25m – and is designed to fast-track transformational GeoSpock engagement with the massive Asian markets of Japan and Singapore.

GeoSpock’s unique spatial big data platform enables companies to access dynamic contextual data visualisation and programmatic analytics.

The latest investment was led by existing backers Cambridge Innovation Capital jointly with Parkwalk Advisors and Japanese firms Global Brain and 31Ventures. Japanese data tech company KDDI Supership joined as a strategic investor. Investment was also secured from existing investor, Jonathan Milner, the serial Cambridge life science entrepreneur.

The additional funding will support GeoSpock’s rapid international expansion strategy to help develop key client accounts, particularly in the strategic markets of Singapore and Japan. 

The investment will also allow the company to continue to invest in research and development, particularly in the areas of machine learning and data science.

GeoSpock is fast establishing itself as the de facto processing engine at the heart of next-generation smart infrastructure – including smart cities and the Internet of Everything. 

The company powers future mobility applications, including the management of autonomous vehicle fleets, working with businesses across the automotive, telecoms, mobility, marine, media, and retail sectors.

Victor Christou, CEO of Cambridge Innovation Capital said: “We’re delighted to lead GeoSpock’s latest funding drive, enabling this exciting company to innovate and scale globally. 

“The opportunity presented by geospatial data is huge and this funding will support GeoSpock in delivering geo-temporal data understanding and visualisation for the everything-connected world. 

“We also welcome KDDI Supership to this investment, whose expertise, particularly in Asia, will help GeoSpock widen and deepen its global reach.”

Global pharma giant AstraZeneca is working with scientists at a fertile Cambridge University laboratory to commercialise potential new cancer treatments arising from critical research into the ATM protein.

Scientists in Professor Steve Jackson’s laboratory at The Gurdon Institute have identified mechanisms by which drug sensitivities characteristic of ATM-deficient cells can be counteracted by changes in other genes. 

These results are important for both understanding cancer drug resistance in the context of sporadic cancers, as well as highlighting potential therapeutic targets for the genetic disease, ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T).

Mutations in the ATM gene cause devastating neurodegenerative and A-T and are also associated with various forms of sporadic cancer.

Previous work has shown that the ATM protein, which is produced from the ATM gene, serves as a molecular guardian of the genome by detecting DNA damage and promoting its repair. Consequently, A-T patients and ATM-deficient cells are hyper-sensitive to various endogenous DNA lesions that can lead to neurodegeneration, as well as DNA-damaging agents used in cancer therapy such as PARP inhibitors.

Professor Jackson said: “This study marks a major step forward in our understanding of how the ATM protein maintains genome stability and how ATM defects can cause cancer and neurodegeneration in human patients with A-T. 

“My colleagues and I are very excited by the potential clinical applications for our findings, which we now plan to actively pursue in my laboratory and with our colleagues elsewhere.”

Researchers in the lab have collaborated with colleagues at AstraZeneca to identify mechanisms by which the drug sensitivities of ATM-deficient cells can be alleviated by changes in other genes. 

Through using cutting-edge CRISPR-Cas9 genetic screens, the authors show that defects in the products of several genes also involved in DNA repair pathways, including components of the BRCA1-A complex and the non-homologous end joining factors LIG4, XRCC4 and XLF, can alleviate the hypersensitivity of ATM-deficient cells to PARP inhibitors and the chemotherapeutic drug topotecan.

As well as providing new mechanistic insights into how cells respond to DNA damage, these findings also have potential medical relevance. First, they suggest how cancers with ATM mutations might evolve resistance in the clinic and how this may make these resistant cancers susceptible to other anti-cancer agents. Second, they suggest potential therapeutic targets for A-T.

Dr Gabriel Balmus from Dementia Research Institute at University of Cambridge, and Domenic Pilger, Jackson Lab Cancer Research UK graduate student, who are co-lead authors on the paper said: “We are excited by the publication of our research and by the possibility that it might improve cancer therapies and could lead to a therapeutic approach for the neurodegenerative disease A-T.”

Dr Josep Forment, Oncology team leader at AstraZeneca who is co-lead and co-corresponding author of the study added: “It has been wonderful collaborating with the group of Prof Steve Jackson to carry out these exciting studies. 

“My colleagues and I at AstraZeneca are now exploring how these findings might lead to the discovery of more effective cancer treatments.”

• PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS: Professor Steve Jackson

Global technology giants have turned to a Cambridge UK deep learning pioneer to help steer a world first AI and ML collaboration.

myrtle.ai has assembled a globally renowned team of experts with expertise in producing low power inference circuits and already works with quoted businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.

Now it has been chosen to develop a Speech Recognition benchmark for MLPerf – a new Machine Learning (ML) benchmarking competition backed by Google, Baidu, Intel and AMD.

MLPerf, a collaboration of tech giants and researchers from numerous universities including Harvard, Stanford and the University of California Berkeley, is aspiring to drive progress in ML by developing a suite of fair and reliable benchmarks for emerging artificial intelligence hardware and software platforms.

myrtle.ai has been selected to provide the computer code that will be the benchmark standard for the Speech Recognition division. The code is a new implementation of two AI models known as DeepSpeech 1 and DeepSpeech 2, building on models originally developed by Baidu.

CEO Peter Baldwin (pictured) said: “We are honoured to be providing the reference implementations for the Speech to Text category of MLPerf. Myrtle has a world-class machine learning group and we are pleased to be able to provide the code as open source so that everyone can benefit from it.” 

Baldwin says this is the first time the AI community has come together to try to develop a series of reliable, transparent and vendor-neutral ML benchmarks to highlight performance differences between different ML algorithms and cloud configurations. 

The new benchmarking suite will be used to test and measure training speeds and inference times for a range of ML tasks.

myrtle ai’s Speech Recognition benchmark is based on proven experience in this field. Its core R & D team has speeded up Mozilla’s DeepSpeech implementations 100-fold when training on Librispeech, demonstrating their practical experience of training and deploying AI and ML algorithms.

Myrtle was founded to develop software and services for public and private data centres. Originally specialising in image processing and large scale simulation Myrtle helped produce computer generated content for over 20 major Hollywood blockbusters.

Clients have included NYSE and NASDAQ listed companies in LA, Vancouver and London as well as a major automotive OEM and a government department. 

The company is currently targeting its technology at inference workloads in data centres and is involved in a major collaboration to address the safety and verification challenges that currently preventing sophisticated deep learning networks being used in road vehicles.

Peter Baldwin has run Myrtle since founding it. He has a pure mathematics PhD from Cambridge University and a special interest in the mathematical foundations of deep learning.

He wrote and licensed Myrtle’s first commercially available software: a suite of simulation tools that ran at huge scale in private data centres. The first commercial software he ever wrote was used to help produce the chocolate river in Tim Burton’s film ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.

The celebrated founder of Cambridge Angels, Robert Sansom, is a director while another angel and entrepreneur Robert Swann, who was a first mover in the enterprise, is also on the board; two other companies that benefit from his advice are Audio Analytic and Undo Software – both global leaders in their fields of tech specialism.

From world-changing self-driving car projects to reducing the power consumption of global data centres, myrtle.ai strives to use its engineering expertise to transform the world today by making tomorrow’s AI run with unsurpassed efficiency on low power hardware.