Oxford University spinout crysalin successfully completes £1.55m funding round
23rd December 2010
A £1.55m fundraising round has been successfully completed by Crysalin Limited, a company founded as a spinout from the University of Oxford Biochemistry Department by Oxford University Innovation Limited.
Isis was closely involved in the formation of the company back in 2007, managing the intellectual property, bringing together the team that formed the company and raising the original cash investment. Tom Hockaday, Managing Director of Oxford University Innovation Ltd. said, “It has been great to see the company grow and secure this next round of investment, enabling continued development of the technology.”
Crysalin is developing groundbreaking and patented technology for protein structure determination, enabling a step change in the productivity and scope of structure based drug design (SBDD), has also announced that David Brister has been appointed as Chairman.
Crysalin was founded in 2007 to develop products for protein structure determination where current methodologies are ineffective. Its patented lattice-based nanomaterials have demonstrated significant advantages in enabling protein structure determination where current methods face numerous hurdles as the production of suitable crystal structures remains complex, time consuming and uncertain.
Investors in the £1.55m funding round include IP Group, IP Venture Fund, managed by IP Group, Oxford Technology Management and Oxford Spin-Out Equity Management. The funds raised will enable Crysalin to operate out of dedicated facilities, further exemplify the technology and rapidly bring the technology to market.
Crysalin’s solution is based on ten years of research carried out by Professor Martin Noble and Dr John Sinclair at the Oxford University Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics. Professor Noble is a world renowned protein crystallographer and structural biochemist with a strong publication record in these fields. He is also the joint holder of three patents relating to anti-cancer drug design, of which two were jointly developed with AstraZeneca. Dr Sinclair also has extensive experience in molecular biology, protein production, crystallization and crystallographic structure determination.
David Brister, Crysalin’s Chairman, has over twenty years experience in a variety of private equity, venture capital and operational roles. He was instrumental in the successful development of venture businesses at 3i and MVM. As an investor he was responsible for successful investments in Cambridge Antibody Technology, Acambis and Oxford GlycoSciences and was also Chairman of Domantis for five years from its inception. Prior to his current range of board and advisory roles he was Chief Business Officer at Evotec, a Deutsche Borse and NASDAQ-listed business.
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