Bioarchitech, a biotech start-up developing immunotherapy for the treatment of common cancers, has taken 870 sq ft (80 sq m) R&D laboratory and office space at The Oxford Trust’s Wood Centre for Innovation in Headington, Oxford.
The company was founded by Professor Geoff Hale (MD), Kevin Maskell (CSO), and Hannah Chen and LiLi Wang, both scientific advisors.
They engineer antibodies, and other proteins, to encode them within the genome of an oncolytic virus. Cancer cells infected by the oncolytic virus release potent immunotherapy molecules into the surrounding tumour microenvironment where they orchestrate the destruction of the cancer using the patient’s own immune system.
The advantage of immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer is that it has very few side effects, avoids the use of toxic chemotherapy, and improves outcomes for patients.
The Bioarchitech team is currently validating its immunotherapies in the lab and aims to launch a significant Series A fundraising round in 2025 to take their lead candidate into the clinic in solid tumours.
The company has moved from the BioEscalator, on the University of Oxford’s Old Road Campus, to the Wood Centre for Innovation in order to expand the team and widen its research programme.
Bioarchitech is one of nine early-stage companies based at the Wood Centre for Innovation, which includes DJS Antibodies, Samsara Therapeutics, Helio Display Materials, Jack Fertility, Lumai, Spintex, RedShiftBio, and PicturaBio.
Kevin Maskell, CSO & co-founder, Bioarchitech, said: “Cancer patients are in desperate need of the promising immunotherapies that we have in development. The Oxford Trust and the supportive community they have built at the Wood Centre for Innovation is the ideal home for our team to focus on the research needed to make these treatments a reality.”
Steve Burgess, chief executive officer, The Oxford Trust said: “We warmly welcome Bioarchitech to our innovation community at the Wood Centre for Innovation. With R&D lab and office space in a beautiful woodland setting right in the heart of the Headington Science Cluster, we now have nine pioneering companies based in our Centre, all pushing the boundaries of research and development with breakthroughs in biotech and advancements in deeptech, driving positive change.”
The Trust’s Wood Centre for Innovation is managed by Oxford Innovation, a spin-out from The Oxford Trust and the UK’s leading operator of innovation centres.
The Oxford Trust recently announced that it has submitted plans for the Aspen Building at the Wood Centre for Innovation to provide additional laboratory and office grow-on space for science and tech start-ups. Read more here.
Feature image: Kevin Maskell, CSO (right) and the team from Bioarchitech at The Oxford Trust’s Wood Centre for Innovation
