Siemens has joined forces with Cambridge UK cyber security business Darktrace to strengthen the digital defences of vulnerable electric utilities and oil & gas companies.

The energy and utility sectors have long faced some of the most advanced attackers – from industrial espionage to state-sponsored attacks.

As part of national critical infrastructure, the importance of defending these organisations in this new era of threats cannot be underestimated, says Darktrace CEO, Nicole Eagan.

Now €80 billion turnover German powerhouse Siemens is fast-tracking Darktrace’s industrial immune system to global businesses at greatest risk.

The partnership combines Darktrace’s bleeding edge AI algorithms and machine learning, which can understand a system’s behaviour patterns to identify and take action against emerging attacks, automatically, in real time with Siemens’ 165-year track record as an industrial technology provider.

Nicole Eagan (pictured) said Siemens had built an inherent understanding of how to manage cyber risk in complex operating environments, including security programme design, security lifecycle management, plant security monitoring, and incident response.

As leaders in their respective industries, the partnership will enable customers to protect critical data travelling from the field to the control room and to the enterprise network and swiftly respond to cyber-attacks before an entire network is affected.

Eagan said that as these sectors identified by the partners become increasingly digital to achieve revenue and efficiency gains, there is a corresponding need to identify cyber-threats at their earliest stages – going beyond compliance regulations to secure operations.

Utilities and oil and gas organisations must defend their entire networks, including all OT (operational technology) against persistent and highly sophisticated cyber-threats without disrupting business processes. In the oil and gas industry, for instance, digitalisation brings a convergence of IT and OT with critical data travelling from the field to the control room, to the enterprise network.

Leveraging advances in machine learning and probabilistic mathematics – IP rooted in Cambridge University – Darktrace’s industrial immune system platform can detect and remediate in-progress cyber-threats at their nascent stages.

By learning the ‘pattern of life’ for every network, device, and user across both OT and IT networks, the AI algorithms can identify and automatically take action against emerging attacks that other tools consistently miss, all in real time.

Nicole Eagan said: “As OT environments become more digital, they open a new and glaring vulnerability in organisations of all sizes. With over 2,400 deployments to date, Darktrace’s immune system technology is uniquely capable of not only identifying in-progress threats, but also neutralising them.

“We are pleased to be partnering with Siemens to fast-track the delivery of our technology to additional customers in utilities and the oil & gas industry. This new era of cyber warfare has resulted in an increased demand for our machine learning technology, which is uniquely capable of providing automated security to environments that extend beyond the corporate network.”

Anchored in Berlin and Munich, Siemens AG is active in more than 200 countries, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalisation.

One of the world’s largest producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is a leading supplier of efficient power generation and power transmission solutions and a pioneer in infrastructure solutions as well as automation, drive and software solutions for industry.

The company is also a leading provider of medical imaging equipment – such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems – and a leader in laboratory diagnostics as well as clinical IT.

In fiscal 2016, which ended on September 30, 2016, Siemens generated revenue of €79.6bn and net income of €5.6bn and at period-end had around 351,000 employees worldwide.

Z Factor, a Cambridge University spin-out, has raised £7 million to discover new drugs to fight liver and lung disease caused by a major gene defect.

The Series A has been led by existing investor Medicxi. Cambridge Enterprise and Cambridge Innovation Capital have also joined in the founding round.  Founded by Jim Huntington (above), Professor of Molecular Haemostasis at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Z Factor previously raised undisclosed seed funding from Medicxi.

The Z Factor team is engaged in the discovery of new drugs to treat Alpha-1-Antitrypsin Deficiency (AATD).  

“AATD, which is a significant cause of liver and lung disease, results from a defect in the gene encoding Alpha-1-antitrypsin,” said Professor Huntington.  “Individuals with two defective copies of the gene, making up around 1 in 2000 of the Western population, typically develop emphysema starting in their 30s.

“They are also at an increased risk of developing liver diseases such as cirrhosis and cancer.  Around two per cent of people have one defective copy of this gen, and are at 5-fold increased risk of developing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) as they age.”

The most common mutation causing AATD is called the Z mutation, which disrupts the normal folding of the protein. Professor Huntington and his team at Cambridge University obtained the crystallographic structure of this mutant form of Alpha-1-antitrypsin, which allowed for the first time the rational design of drugs that could correct folding and prevent the development of associated diseases.

“These small molecule drugs act like molecular chaperones for the defective protein, accelerating folding to the correct native state,” said Nigel Ramsden at RxCelerate, who together with David Fox, is leading the drug discovery effort for Z Factor.

Cambridge Enterprise helped in Z Factor’s formation in 2015, licensing key intellectual property to the company. The company has already identified dozens of molecules that can correct the folding defect caused by the Z mutation, and shown that some of these drug candidates can increase Alpha-1-antitrypsin levels in an in vivo model of AATD.

Z Factor is now working to select the best molecules for use as a drug in human trials.  

“The existing molecules clearly work well in model systems” said David Fox.  “The next challenge is to create molecules that will work safely in human clinical trials.”

The company expects to reach the clinic with its lead candidate in 2019.

David Grainger, partner at Medicxi and executive chairman at Z Factor, added: “We are delighted to work once again with Cambridge Enterprise to ensure this exciting basic science is rapidly and efficiently translated into new medicines for a surprisingly common and debilitating cause of liver and lung disease.”
 
Following closely on the announcement of investments in ApcinteX and SuperX earlier this year, the Z Factor Series A brings the total raised during 2017 by companies founded by Professor Huntington to almost £30 million.
 
Z Factor is based on the Babraham Research Campus and operates as a virtual biotechnology company, with no internal operations, using an established network of outsourced drug discovery and development providers, including RxCelerate, co-located on the Babraham campus.

Gene editing world leader Horizon Discovery has triggered the biggest search for talent in the company’s near-10 year history.

It is underpinning the recruitment drive with a remuneration and benefits package that would put a lot of companies in Cambridge’s jobs-hungry technology cluster in the shade.

CEO Dr Darrin Disley says Horizon is seeking 27 immediate hires in Cambridge UK, the US and Vienna but reveals that the business has the potential to hoist headcount from the current 300 to around 450 over the coming years.

Dr Disley says: “Horizon is looking for talented go-getters to fill numerous UK, EU and US positions in its commercial, research and corporate operations functions. These hires will help us deliver on our scale-up ambitions for the next five years and enhance delivery against our mission to be a world-class science company that is unashamedly commercially successful and has an impact on patient outcomes, education & training and fostering the spirit of life science enterprise.”

Technology companies in Cambridge tell Business Weekly they are in a dogfight for talent, especially with so many global players now anchored in the cluster.

Now the arrival of Big Pharma big-time in Cambridge – allied to an explosion of gene editing work throughout academia and industry – is starting to shake up the jobs market in the BioMedTech arena with an unprecedented choice of jobs on offer. 

Horizon says it is up for the challenge and is competing not just by offering strong remuneration packages but also by growing its own talent with record investment in cultivating new generation employees.

Dr Disley says: “I have been to over 50 schools in the last year to promote careers in science. We are introducing work experience opportunities, internships, apprenticeships – both for school leavers and graduates; we have expanded staff training and retention schemes using, amongst other things, apprenticeship levy contributions.

“Our benefits for our people are extensive; they include 8% pension, 4x life insurance, permanent health insurance, full medical cover, assistance with childcare, paid maternity/paternity leave and paid days off for charity volunteering.

“We believe we are a great company to work for; we realise that our people have lives away from work and people are the lifeblood of Horizon Discovery.

“We positively encourage career progression: Dr Chris Lowe is a fabulous example of the kind of loyalty we engender. Chris came from the Sanger Institute as a post doc and was a scientist first; he has worked his way up through the organisation and is now head of global research operations managing around 200 people across four sites globally.”

The average age of Horizon people is in the mid-20s and, demonstrating its appetite for talent over gender, more than 50 per cent of employees are women.

Horizon’s current requirement for newcomers embraces a broad range of roles and opportunities. The company needs a large number of scientists – many of them for senior positions in the UK-quoted company – and a raft of technicians to enable the business to keep pace with demand.

It is also intent on ramping up its sales force, especially in the US, where there is huge potential for growth.

There is a full list of the job opportunities on the Horizon Discovery website.

ThisWay Global, a Cambridge-based technology company that has created a software platform powered by machine learning for the recruitment industry, has launched its A-round fundraising in the US. 

It is also set to open a new base in Silicon Valley to add to its other US hub in Austin, Texas, and its Cambridge UK mother ship.

The new round will seek to raise more than $7 million from international investors experienced in HR tech, software, marketplaces and Artificial Intelligence.

This series follows a $2m fundraise by the UK business in Europe last year and has been triggered by significant customer demand following the launch of its platform, GPS4Jobs at SXSW, powered by ThisWay Global’s machine learning algorithm Match-ic™.

The cash will be used to expand sales and operations and develop further innovation to address the fatigue of hiring and finding a job. The funds will support the company as it expands its offering, focused on serving HR tech companies and internal human resource departments through its US, UK and European operations.

ThisWay Global has also announced a strategic partnership with HireAbility, a provider of smart resume and CV parsing technology.

Angela Hood (pictured), CEO at ThisWay Global, says: ”This is the first time we have sought capital in the US following our successful fundraise in Europe last year.

“This funding will allow us to continue to build momentum around our recent product launch, which generated significant customer interest, and to expand our operations internationally. We have been very pleased with the quality of investor interest and negotiations.

“Today’s recruitment processes are still based on manual applications and time consuming, biased resume reviewing and processing, done mostly on paper. Our technology revolutionises the way companies recruit employees. GPS4Jobs is powered by our machine learning Match-ic algorithm and uses large-scale matching capacity and holistic analysis, to do in minutes what it would typically take a hiring manager 40 hours to do.

“Our GPS4Jobs platform helps companies eliminate subconscious bias in the selection process and provides them with a much wider and diverse pool of potential, pre-screened employees.”

ThisWay’s AI platform reduces conscious and unconscious selection bias in candidate profiling which provides a better choice of truly diverse candidates that will improve businesses ROI. The global recruitment industry is estimated to be worth $450 billion.

ThisWay has offices in Austin, Texas, and Cambridge UK and will soon add one in Silicon Valley. The company was incubated at ideaSpace in Cambridge. The group’s development team includes experienced entrepreneurs with IPO exits, researchers and advisors from University of Cambridge and University College London.

AstraZeneca today marked a key milestone in its successful move to Cambridge with the ‘topping out’ of its new strategic R & D centre and global corporate HQ at the heart of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. 

The company, including its biologics research and development arm, MedImmune, already has 2,000 employees actively engaged in the city’s vibrant scientific, academic, clinical and business community. Occupation of the site will begin in stages in 2018.

The ‘topping out’ milestone represents the completion of the new building’s concrete frame, as the focus of construction work now turns to installing the roof, external glass cladding and starting the internal fit out.

The event was celebrated by CEO Pascal Soriot and Mene Pangalos, executive VP for Innovative Medicines and Early Development Biotech Unit and Business Development. They were joined by Professor Duncan Maskell, senior pro-vice-chancellor at the University of Cambridge, as well as neighbouring scientific collaboration partners and construction teams.

The building has been co-designed by the company’s scientists and world-leading architects Herzog & de Meuron with the open architecture reflecting AstraZeneca’s collaborative approach to research. 

Open laboratories and transparent glass walls will enable new ways of working across disciplines and with external partners, whilst a central courtyard, open to the public, will put science on full display.

The site will become AstraZeneca’s largest centre globally for oncology research, as well as housing scientists focused on respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

The proximity and high concentration of leading scientific organisations at the CBC, across Cambridge and the region create the ideal conditions for sharing knowledge, skills and expertise – and ultimately for pushing the boundaries of science. For example:-

• The new R & D site will house a joint research centre with the Medical Research Council, where partnering scientists will work side-by-side with AstraZeneca’s high throughput screening group.
• AstraZeneca’s drug discovery scientists are working with Microsoft to use a cloud-based simulation that brings alive the millions of potential changes that make cancer cells multiply uncontrollably, to better understand the disease.
• Similarly, scientists from MedImmune and Cancer Research UK are working together to discover and develop novel biologics to treat cancer. Together they have isolated a novel target associated with leukaemia and recently started an exciting project looking at the best drug combinations to treat pancreatic cancer.
• A novel agreement is also in place that will give researchers from the University of Cambridge access to key compounds from the AstraZeneca drugs pipeline.

Pascal Soriot said: “Our new global HQ and strategic R & D site embodies AstraZeneca’s innovation-led transformation and I am delighted to mark this milestone, which signals our progress in advancing a world-class environment where science can thrive.

“As a long-standing investor in UK science, we believe Cambridge offers a tremendously vibrant academic and life-sciences ecosystem that can truly catalyse discovery and innovation. 

“Together with our partners, we will push the boundaries of science to deliver innovative medicines that transform patient care around the world.” 

• PHOTOGRAPH: Hats off to AstraZeneca: AZ chiefs Pascal Soriot and Mene Pangalos (right) lead the celebrations at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus ceremony

Since the turn of the year I can’t escape the feeling that Britain has got even closer to becoming the 51st state of America than ever before: all our lead news stories seem to be about what The Donald will do next.

Why is everyone hanging on his every word? His statements are sometimes so random that we await the next with a kind of morbid fascination bordering on glee! And, it has to be said, that the new President’s reckless roller coaster ride has the world holding its breath.

For a man who has stirred so much controversy, what is the secret of his ‘success’, if you can call it that? Basically, I think, it’s because he has become, if not the first, at least the leading exponent of government by Twitter.

We had the Arab Spring of 2011, which was generated and sustained to a great extent by social media, but that was a populist movement without any obvious leadership. Now, in Trump, we have one with a figurehead.

Like the Arab Spring, Trump’s campaigning unleashed a lot of pent up frustration among Americans who felt they were left without a voice and suppressed by the liberal elite. But it’s not so much what he says as how he says it that has struck a chord with his audience. Love him or loathe him, it can’t be denied that the man has the common touch.

His tweets are indiscreet and inflammatory to say the least, but at the same time they give him an accessibility and approachability that few public figures enjoy. And that’s clearly because the content is his own. You know it comes from the man, not some tame policy guru or spin doctor on the government staff.

When advertisers talk about ‘engaging’ with and having a ‘conversation’ with their customers through social media, this is the kind of intimacy and impact they hope to achieve.

In practice, however, many business Twitter accounts tend to be guarded and conservative on the one hand or banal or irrelevant on the other.

I’m not for a moment suggesting that company tweets should slate the competition or rail against the taxman, however tempting that may be.  Nor should they be all seriousness and holier than thou. But they should be sincere, passionate, have something meaningful to say, and demonstrate a rapport with and understanding of their audience. A dash of wit doesn’t go amiss either.

At the end of the day it’s all about ‘tone of voice’ and the essence of a brand, especially in social media, but also on company websites and press, TV and other platforms.

Examples? Well, take a look at the Innocent Drinks Twitter account as an example of how to relate to your audience, keep things fun and topical and throw in a few appetising ads for your product along the way. 

Between them, Trump and Innocent could offer you a Twitter master class – although I’m not altogether sure their names should appear in the same sentence!

Laurie Clark of Scrutton Bland’s Employee Benefits team explains how a regular check on your company’s benefit package can improve the range of benefits, and can even save money.

We hear a lot in the media about the rising costs of services such as utilities, satellite television and car and home insurance, together with a reminder that we should review these regularly and switch providers where necessary to ensure we are always getting the best value for money. This can also be true when it comes to company benefits. 

I have just been working with a company who offer their employees a range of benefits, which included the usual suspects of life assurance, private medical insurance and so on. 

Many of the benefits have been with the same insurance company for a number of years. The benefits package had been reviewed recently, so the expectation was that the current rates would still be competitive.

Going through the list of company benefits with the firm’s HR team, it quickly became apparent there was a discrepancy between what the company believed was being covered, and the benefits they were actually offering to their employees.

In my experience this can often happen as companies grow and change over time, but it is obviously worrying for an employer if they find that they are unable to provide the benefits to their workforce that they had originally promised. In this case this was very easily remedied following a discussion with the insurance company.

After I had undertaken further discussions with the company it was decided that it would be easier for all to open the insurances out to a wider group, provided this was not at any significant cost to them. 

Following several discussions I then talked to the holding insurance company and other competitors, and despite only setting their premiums a year earlier and guaranteeing these for two years, they were able to reduce their premiums significantly enough that a number of extra people could still be covered at no additional cost to the employer.

Turning to the firm’s private medical insurance policy, which again had been placed with their current insurance company for a number of years; after talking to a number of private medical providers we were able to improve on the cover being provided, whilst at the same time save the company over 20 per cent on the premium.

Many employers have benefits in place to provide for their employees, however, it’s not uncommon for these to stay with the same company for many years as the firm’s HR personnel may not have the time, knowledge or experience to review their Employee Benefits package. 

It’s important to remember that there are sometimes risks with changing insurance companies and in some cases it may not be appropriate to make any changes, even if there is a cheaper alternative available. 

However, what it is important is that that your cover is assessed regularly and your providers are reviewed to make sure that what you have in place is right for you and at the right price.

• Laurie Clark is a Consultant to the Scrutton Bland Employee Benefits department, and has over 26 years’ experience providing independent financial advice to businesses and business owners. He specialises in providing advice on benefit packages and company pension schemes. You can contact him at laurie.clark [at] scruttonbland.co.uk or tel 01223 928065. 

Scrutton Bland Financial Services Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.