Cambridge technology pathfinder ARM is partnering scientists from a US university in an initiative to develop brain-implantable chips that could solve a host of chronic health issues through brain-computer interfaces.

ARM’s alliance is with the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) from the University of Washington.

The research project will enable medical professionals to start solving real-world health problems with the brain-implantable chips – tackling a raft of debilitating neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and even paralysis.

The long-term goal is to assist people affected by neurological conditions, by engineering neurotechnology that will help the body heal, feel and move again.

Karthik Ranjan, director of healthcare technology at ARM says: “The human brain is one of the final frontiers for technological innovation. Imagine a future where paralysis resulting from spinal cord injuries is only a temporary obstacle rather than a permanent state.

“Imagine artificial limbs that can send the user feedback about how hot or cold their cup of coffee is or just how tightly they are holding their loved one’s hand.

“Imagine a future where temporary implants can help an individual recover from a stroke or manage other debilitating neurological conditions. Now, all of these seemingly impossible medical applications of new technology stand to be within reach for bi-directional brain-computer interfaces.”

ARM and the CSNE will develop a unique brain-implantable system-on-a-chip (SoC) for bi-directional brain-computer interfaces (BBCI) aimed at solving neurodegenerative disorders.

The CSNE is a National Science Foundation engineering research centre working to develop innovative ways to connect a deep computational understanding of how the brain adapts and processes information with the design of implantable devices.

The new SoC will play a vital role in decoding the complex signals formed within the brain, digitising them so they can be processed and acted upon, with the end result of controlling the body’s muscle functions – which is the key to tackling neurodegenerative disease.

Brain-implantable chips need to be very small, highly power-efficient and capable. ARM’s industry-proven Cortex-M0 processor, the smallest ARM processor available, will contribute to this very important area of research by being an integral part of the CSNE’s brain-implantable SoC.

Ranjan said: “The project is a natural fit for ARM and our vision of improving lives around the globe by shaping a smarter, happier and healthier world with technology.

“Our ongoing goal of increasing the power-efficiency of ARM products aligns with CSNE’s advanced research work in developing low-power, efficient and implantable neural devices for medical applications.”

Dr Scott Ransom, the CSNE’s director of industry relations and innovation, said: “We are very excited to be collaborating with a company like ARM. ARM’s strong expertise in power-efficient microprocessors compliments the CSNE’s work in computational neuroscience and brain-computer interfacing, and we expect the partnership to lead to advances in not only medical technology but other applications as well, such as consumer electronics.

“As it matures, this technology, when combined with the human brain – one of the most critical centres of the human body – could be used to solve myriad challenges in health care and beyond.”

Strong passenger and revenue growth failed to prevent easyJet’s pre-tax loss hitting £212 million for the six months to March 31 despite rigorous cost controls – or a knock-on hit to the Luton carrier’s UK share price. The stock fell almost four per cent (52p) to 1,258p just after the results were posted.

Chief executive Carolyn McCall said full-year results were likely to meet market expectations and remained bullish for the future.

easyJet reported record passenger numbers for the period at 33.8 million; this was up nine per cent year-on-year with a record first half load factor at 90.2 per cent. Capacity increased by 8.4 per cent.

Total revenue was 3.2 per cent higher at £1.827 billion; the headline loss before tax of £212m includes the estimated impact of the move of Easter into the second half of the year (circa £45m) and a negative net currency impact of £82m.

Excluding these two items the headline loss before tax would have been circa £85 million. Total loss before tax after non-headline items was £236 million.

easyJet says it is investing in the future. It has agreed to buy 30 A321 NEO aircraft under its existing agreement with Airbus, with the first arriving in summer 2018.

easyJet remains on track to confirm possession of a European Air Operator Certificate (AOC) by the summer and so secure its future operations within the European Union.

The company retains what it calls a “sector leading balance sheet strength,” with net cash  of £353m. Forward bookings are ahead of last year; at 77 per cent for the third quarter and 55 per cent for the half year.

McCall said: “easyJet delivered a resilient performance during the winter months with strong cost control, improving operational performance and within guidance for revenue.

“The first half loss is in line with market expectations and reflects the movement of Easter into the second half as well as currency effects which together had an estimated impact of circa £127m on the bottom line.

“Our bookings for the summer are ahead of last year, showing that demand to fly remains strong and reflects growing evidence that consumers are prioritising expenditure on flights and holidays above other non-essential items.

“Looking ahead, we are seeing an improving revenue per seat trend as well as the continued reduction of competitor capacity growth. Cost performance for the full year will continue to be strong; our expectations for the full year are in line with current consensus market expectations.”

Cambridge software startup Twigkit has been bought by San Francisco search business Lucidworks to further bolster US ownership of the UK technology cluster’s IP innovators. No figures for the deal have been disclosed.

Anchored locally in CB1 and with offices in London and California, Twigkit was founded in 2009 by London School of Economics graduate Stefan Olafsson (pictured above) and Dr Bjarki Holm (below), a Cambridge Computer Laboratory graduate.

It specialises in user experiences for enterprise-grade search and big data applications and has delivered search applications for a whole raft of world leaders in diverse sectors.

Lucidworks says the acquisition is in line with its mission to deliver purpose-built user-driven data applications that give end users a single access point to aggregated search results.

The acquirer provides search tools to help access data from multiple sources. Twigkit takes mined data and delivers it in user-driven applications with a 360-degree view of an organisation at any time, on any device.

While Lucidworks has solved the first mile of making all data accessible to all users, Twigkit goes the final mile for the industry – bridging the gap from data access to application, according to Will Hayes CEO of Lucidworks.
 
Twigkit has built a global customer base that includes HSBC, General Electric, Amgen, Northrop Grumman, Toyota, the FDA, Qualcomm, the NHS, Monsanto, Rolls-Royce and Vodafone.

Olafsson and Holm will continue to drive the enterprise search space with Olafsson joining as Lucidworks’ new chief strategy officer and Holm as VP of solutions.

Before Twigkit, Olafsson held the position of principal engineer at FAST (now a Microsoft subsidiary) where he helped some of the world’s largest companies and government agencies tackle complex problems using search.

Prior to Twigkit, Bjarki Holm held a research appointment in mathematics and computer science at the University of Cambridge as well as a postdoctoral fellowship at Clare College, Cambridge. He has published many papers on algorithms and mathematical logic and was lead author of Oracle 9i Java – a textbook on enterprise software development.

The fertile Cambridge UK technology cluster has given birth to yet another billion dollar business – virtual reality sensation Improbable – following a $500m investment round led by ARM’s new Japanese owner SoftBank.

Improbable was last month named by Cambridge Computer Laboratory svengali Andy Hopper as the Lab Ring’s company of the year; it was already in the Lab’s 257-strong Hall of Fame.

Improbable, headquartered in London and San Francisco, was founded by Cambridge computer science alumni Herman Narula (CEO) and Rob Whitehead (CTO) in 2012.

Their SpatialOS operating system is transforming capabilities across sectors as diverse as game development, smart city design, including transport networks, telecoms and monitoring of autonomous vehicles.

As explained by multiple tech specialists online, the platform enables third parties such as games developers and civil engineers and architects to build virtual worlds on a massive scale.

The company plans to use the proceeds of the funding round to develop its platform and accelerate recruitment on both sides of the Atlantic. It has already grown to almost 200 people in just under five years.

It is the 15th billion dollar business spawned  in Cambridge from home-rooted IP.

SoftBank and Middle East partners are intent on raising a mammoth £100bn IoT fund to invest in global game-changers in the space; Cambridge-based chip architect ARM – sold to SoftBank for $31 bn last year – is central to the development of the Internet of Things through its planet-wide ecosystem of integral partners.

SoftBank recently sold a 25 per cent stake in ARM and this investment could be part of the reason for that previously unexplained move. While not a record, the investment in Improbable is one of the largest European technology rounds of all time. Series A investors Andreessen Horowitz and Horizons Ventures also participated.

The Cambridge Computer Lab Ring accolade has been won in the past by great companies such as Raspberry Pi, SwiftKey (sold to Microsoft) and Deepmind Technologies (sold to Google).

Improbable says it maintains a close connection to the University of Cambridge with many staff who are alumni, including the co-founders.
 
“I always remember seeing the wall of fame on my way into lectures at the Computer Lab as an undergraduate,” said CTO Whitehead. “It’s going to be a proud moment to see us up there on our next visit.”

The award was presented at an event in the Old Hall at Queens’ College, Cambridge by celebrated dontrepreneur Professor Andy Hopper and by computing pioneer Dame Stephanie Shirley.

• PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS: Improbable’s CTO and co-founder Rob Whitehead. Image courtesy – Improbable

The latest in a series of surgical innovations from product design and development firm Cambridge Consultants is exploring how augmented reality (AR) could transform surgery. 

The company is showcasing an example of how an augmented surgical system might lower the risk involved in operations – and lead to better results for patients.

Using Microsoft’s HoloLens headset, Cambridge Consultants has developed a highly intuitive AR surgical system that equips surgeons with ‘X-ray vision’ – making it possible to see inside a patient in real time, while operating through minimally invasive openings.

Having the correct information in the right place at the right time is essential for successful surgery, yet the operating theatre is typically a very busy environment with limited access to any type of real-time imaging. The advanced system demonstrated by Cambridge Consultants also uses data visualisation to give surgeons easy access to patient records and operating information while they work.

Minimally invasive surgery – so-called keyhole surgery – is often complex yet performed through tiny incisions instead of one large opening. The next-generation AR system provides a real-time 3D interactive perspective of the inside of the patient, accurately guiding the surgeon in ways not previously possible.

It’s the latest example of how Cambridge Consultants combines off-the-shelf technology with its extensive expertise in next-generation device development, software, human factors and user-interface design, to create a truly revolutionary ‘smart’ system.

“AR has the potential to fundamentally change the surgical experience by giving the surgeon a new dimension of information in an easy-to-use way,” said Simon Karger, head of surgical and interventional products at Cambridge Consultants.

“While today’s platforms still need to mature before they are ready for clinical deployment, it is clear to us that the underlying technology holds great promise for critical applications like surgery.

“This innovative development is the result of our extensive experience of surgical equipment innovation and our understanding of the operating theatre environment and workflow. It has the potential to enable more surgeons to carry out complex operations at lower risk and with better results for patients.”

Cambridge Consultants recently unveiled Axsis – one of the smallest known robots for surgical use. With an external body the size of a drinks can and instruments only 1.8mm in diameter, the technology demonstrator used cataract surgery as an example of a procedure that could benefit from miniature robotics in the future.

Suffolk manufacturer Treatt plc has hit a revenue peak that puts it three years ahead of global growth targets set out in its 2020 vision.

The company is expanding in both the UK and US as demand continues to increase for its ingredient solutions for the flavour, fragrance, beverage and consumer products industries.

First-half revenue to March 31 grew 27 per cent to £51.8 million with adjusted EPS growth of 63 per cent and adjusted profit before tax up by 63 per cent to £5.5m. A buoyant board has raised the interim dividend by seven per cent to 1.45p.

CEO Daemmon Reeve said that all key product categories are performing well and the group’s strategic focus on innovative citrus, tea and sugar reduction categories are proving to be key growth drivers.

Reeve said: “These are a great set of half-year numbers for which our staff deserve huge credit. The quality and frequency of new business wins is gaining good momentum, and through the dedication and skill of our colleagues we are on course to meet our 2020 targets some three years ahead of schedule. 

“With the investments planned in the UK and the US we will be able to build on these successes as we look towards the next exciting steps of our journey.”

The effect of foreign exchange was materially positive in the first half. The US dollar’s relative strength against sterling over a prolonged period boosted revenue by £3m and profit before tax by £0.8m.

Chairman Tim Jones said the strong performance for the group in the first half of the year had continued into the third quarter with order books “remaining materially higher than this time last year as the benefit of some significant new business wins continues to show through.”

He also outlined the group’s multimillion dollar investment in transatlantic expansion.

The Suffolk Business Park in Bury St Edmunds has now received outline planning consent and, having exchanged contracts on a new 10-acre site at the park last December, Treatt remains on course to transition the UK operations there in late 2019.

The US business has continued to grow significantly. Treatt USA moved to its existing 15-acre site, which it owns outright, in 2002, and capacity now needs to expand not only to meet greater client demand for products but also to enhance the company’s technical capabilities and office facilities. This work will start within the current financial year and at an estimated cost of  between $11m and $14m.

Cambridge’s gene editing world leader Horizon Discovery has laid the foundations for a stratospheric rise in revenues from its transformational immuno-oncology platform.

The UK business has already notched £1.5 million of sales for the technology in the embryonic financial year and reports a bulging order book for the rest of 2017 and beyond.

2017 proceeds from this source to date have already outstripped by 40 per cent like-for-like sales for the whole of 2016.

Faced with soaring global demand for the platform, Horizon is now extending the scope and power of its product suite in a field regarded as key to finding novel therapies to beat cancer.

Immuno-oncology has rapidly become one of the most promising approaches to cancer treatment and the market is estimated to be worth £25 billion per year – £50 bn per year by 2020).

Cancer cells utilise a variety of methods to stop the immune system from recognising and attacking them, preventing their elimination. Immuno-oncology therapies aim to re-activate the immune system, restoring its ability to respond to cancer cells and destroy them.

Horizon CEO Dr Darrin Disley said: “Gene editing is transforming the field of immuno-oncology and Horizon is at the forefront with its novel target identification, precision validation, high-throughput combination screening and ability to develop proprietary small molecule, large-molecule and cell therapies for our clients or within our internal R & D programmes.

“With strong market dynamics and with most large pharmaceutical companies actively pursuing programmes in this area we anticipate immuno-oncology to be a significant source of growth for the business in the coming years.”

Horizon’s progress in the arena is great news for shareholders. Platform technologies based around alternative immuno-oncology approaches have secured high valuations once early positive results in clinical trials have been achieved. Amgen’s 2012 acquisition of Micromet valued Micromet at $1.16bn and in 2013 Spirogen was acquired by AstraZeneca for up to $440m.

Horizon says that with a strong order book in place, including increasing orders for immunology-related target identification, validation and diagnostic reference standards, the platform is set to provide significant growth and contribution towards the group’s full year 2017 performance, for which it reiterates guidance of £30m-£35m. 

Horizon has built a ground-breaking platform for immuno-oncology therapeutic discovery to support the large and increasing number of customers actively pursuing programmes in this area.

The offering includes gene editing of immune cells, immune cell assays and screening, cell therapy research and development services and the supply of reference standards for immunology-based companion diagnostics. 

Horizon is currently working to broaden this platform by expanding the focus of its cutting-edge pooled CRISPR-screening platform to include immune cells, a technically challenging area in which Horizon is a world leader. 

It is anticipated that this approach will drive significant value creation by supporting the identification of new therapeutic targets and by providing insights into how cancer is naturally fought in the body and how T-cells, NK-cells and other immune cells could best be used for therapy. This platform has recently been used to identify several exciting new gene targets for cancer-cell directed therapies, which are currently undergoing validation.

Horizon will explore a variety of routes to capture upside potential in this area including forging discovery partnerships with Pharma & Biotech, out-licensing of internally identified targets and potentially spinning off target related IP into a new venture that would pursue drug and antibody discovery in its own right.

Horizon is also active in the development of immunotherapies through Avvinity, a Joint Venture with Centauri Therapeutics formed in March 2016, which is deploying a powerful and proprietary platform to discover and develop novel immuno-oncology therapeutics (alphamer-derived DNA Aptamers or antibodies) for cancers of significant unmet medical need. 

Avvinity is progressing three novel target programmes with Horizon owning 30 per cent of the equity with the option to increase this to 49.99 per cent based on its previously announced funding commitment of £5.3m.

This investment would take the company through to a significant Series B funding round with third-party investors in 2018-19.

Amazon’s decision to expand with a new 60,000 sq ft development centre near Cambridge rail station with capacity for 400 tech staff is set to trigger a survival of the fittest scenario in the UK science & technology hotspot.

Young Cambridge hi-tech and biotech companies trying to scale in Cambridge and globally are already having to rein in their expansion strategies because they cannot find enough talent to meet unprecedented demand.

A record number of jobs are being advertised by online games companies, technology design consultancies, life science businesses and a rapidly expanding cluster of machine learning and Artificial Intelligence ventures.

Giants such as Apple, Amazon and AstraZeneca, with massive war chests to underpin global growth, are in the box seat in this scrap for top talent. The end game of the increasing internationalisation of the Cambridge cluster could turn into a technology triage with smaller players being forced to merge, scale back or even go the wall.

A paucity of affordable housing is also hampering young companies’ hiring plans; a number have told Business Weekly that either they cannot compete on salary and remuneration packages or, when they do find good people they cannot afford to live in the city.

Drones and speech technology pioneer Amazon is underpinning its growth strategy with a far-sighted recruitment blueprint. The company runs a STEM Ambassadors programme for students in the area, provides local school children tours of its Prime Air lab, has already held a ‘Design A Drone’ competition and funds the Amazon Women in Innovation Bursary programme helping underprivileged women into study for innovation-focused careers.

The new Amazon development building at One The Square in the CB1 business district will have capacity for over 400 highly-skilled employees including machine learning scientists, knowledge engineers, data scientists, mathematical modellers, speech scientists and software engineers.

Teams of experts working on devices such as Kindle, Fire tablet, Fire TV Stick, Echo, Echo Dot and the new Echo Look, as well as Alexa, will move to the new larger site this autumn. Amazon is currently recruiting extensively in Cambridge as part of its expansion plans in the city.

Once the new site opens, the current development centre building at Castle Hill will be used primarily for research and development for Prime Air, a delivery system from Amazon designed to safely get parcels to customers in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles, also called drones.

“We are constantly inventing on behalf of our customers, and our development centres in Cambridge, Edinburgh and London play a major role in Amazon’s global innovation story,” said Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager, Amazon.

“By the end of this year, we will have more than 1,500 innovation related roles here in Britain, working on everything from machine learning and drone technology to streaming video technology and Amazon Web Services.”

The company has invested £6.4 billion across the UK since 2010 and this year has pledged to create 5,000 new permanent roles across the country, bringing its full time workforce to 24,000.

The company also announced earlier this year an apprenticeship programme offering hundreds of opportunities in engineering, logistics and warehousing roles in fulfilment centres across the country, as well as Amazon Web Services re:Start, a free training and job placement programme for the UK to educate 1,000 young adults as well as military veterans, reservists, and their spouses, on the latest software development and cloud computing technologies.

Beleaguered by Brexit wranglings which could see the UK put a clamp on overseas talent taking up some of the vacancies in Cambridge, the Government understandably stressed the upside.

Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock said: “This is fantastic news – Amazon’s increased investment in developing cutting-edge technology in Cambridge is another vote of confidence in the UK as a world-leading centre of invention and innovation.”

Business Weekly CEO, Tony Quested commented: “On the face of it, of course it is fantastic news that Amazon has hand-picked Cambridge for this expansion; it is what Cambridge entrepreneurs and funders have for years been fighting for.

“But there has to be synergistic and simultaneous investment in the infrastructure and the Government has failed to identify the long-term challenge and respond either quickly enough or with sufficient resources. The grim reality is that growing Cambridge S & T companies collectively cannot find enough talent, certainly locally.

“If they seek it from elsewhere in the UK there is the problem of relocation and affordable housing. That problem would be the same if they are allowed to bring in talent from overseas – but even that is in the balance under Brexit.

“Far sighted companies in science & technology could form a co-operative where their IP is non-competing and job share; companies in Cambridge and London can leverage the improved rail services for commuting workers between the cities. 

“Air shuttles from a helipad on the Science Park could work for Cambridge just as they have for Aberdeen in transporting oilrig workers to and fro. Its time Cambridge started putting its much vaunted brainpower to better use and for the Government to put its hands in its pocket and back a key spoke of the economy which they purport to cherish so much. Sometime soon would be nice before the broader Cambridge business district implodes.”

AstraZeneca, whose new headquarters is in Cambridge UK, has agreed a strategic collaboration in respiratory diseases with Boston-based Pieris Pharmaceuticals Inc.

They plan to develop novel inhaled drugs that leverage Pieris’ Anticalin® platform. Anticalin molecules are engineered proteins which can mimic antibodies by binding to sites either on other proteins or on small molecules. They are smaller than monoclonal antibodies, offering the potential of direct delivery to the lung.

Under the collaboration, Pieris will be responsible for advancing its preclinical lead candidate, PRS-060 into Phase I clinical trials in 2017. PRS-060 is an Anticalin against interleukin-4 receptor alpha (IL-4Ra) with potential in asthma.

AstraZeneca will fund all clinical development and subsequent commercialisation programmes and Pieris has the option of co-development and co-commercialisation in the US from Phase IIa onwards.

The parties will also collaborate to progress four additional novel Anticalins against undisclosed targets for respiratory disease.

Mene Pangalos (pictured), executive VP Innovative Medicines and Early Development Biotech Unit and Business Development, said: “At AstraZeneca, discovering and developing innovative new medicines to treat respiratory disease is a key strategic priority.

“Our alliance with Pieris adds an important new modality to our respiratory portfolio and builds on our scientific expertise in inhaled formulation technologies. Pieris shares our passion for groundbreaking science and we look forward to working together to develop new, life-changing treatment options for patients.”

Stephen Yoder, president and CEO of Pieris, added: “Our partnership with AstraZeneca accelerates the transformation of Pieris into a fully-integrated drug development and commercial organisation, comprising two main pillars in immunology: respiratory disease and immuno-oncology, each of which is now anchored by a major alliance.

“We recognize AstraZeneca’s unparalleled expertise in the development of inhaled drugs, which will maximise the potential of PRS-060 and other inhaled Anticalin molecules to become valuable assets for both companies.”

AstraZeneca will make upfront and near-term milestone payments to Pieris in the amount of $57.5 million. Pieris has the potential to receive development-dependent milestones and eventual commercial payments for all products not exceeding $2.1 billion as well as tiered royalties on the sales of any potential products commercialised by AstraZeneca.