Solving Global Challenges – Delivering Oxford’s Impact

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28th March 2023

The most recent gathering of the Oxford Innovation Society celebrated the global impact of Oxford’s research and innovation

While Oxford’s physical boundaries may only measure a short few miles across, the reach of its impact is global. Our researchers and the companies we create together are tackling problems in all corners of the globe. To discuss what we’re achieving together, the Oxford Innovation Society met in Merton College, Oxford University to hear from a range of speakers on the theme of Solving Global Challenges – Delivering Oxford’s Impact.

First to the podium was Professor Robert MacLaren, founder of Nightstar Therapeutics which was bought out by Biogen. MacLaren spoke about his work in retinal gene therapy, which is promising new treatments for the causes of genetic blindness. MacLaren focuses on choroideremia, a progressive cause of blindness that affects young men. He and his team discovered that the disease is caused by a missing gene, rep1, and has developed a method of reintroducing it to patients. By inserting the gene inside a viral vector and injecting it into the eye, the viral vector infects the retinal cells, delivering the missing gene, which remains in those cells, expressing the gene product for the patient’s lifetime.

MiroBio’s Matt Jackson, Head of Precision Medicine Bioinformatics, followed, presenting an overview of the company’s efforts to develop cures for autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, which will affect one in twelve of us over our lifetimes. The company targets the immune system, which is the body’s natural defence system against viruses, bacteria, and tumours. MiroBio’s drugs target checkpoint receptors, which are the proteins that control the immune system. The company’s lead molecule is currently in Phase I safety trials, which kicked off around the same time as their buyout by Gilead last year; they aim to create molecules that turn on these receptors to suppress the immune system and treat autoimmune diseases.

We also heard from Professor Anna Schuh, co-founder of SEREN which was formed in 2022. This social venture aims to bring DNA-based diagnostics to low and middle-income countries, primarily in Tanzania. LMIC healthcare systems are often held back by a lack of knowledge about genetics and the unaffordability of DNA-based diagnostics. In response, SEREN is offering genetic testing for $10 per person. The patient’s benefit from cheaper diagnostics, sequencing providers benefit because they work together with SEREN in establishing the market, and pharmaceutical companies benefit because they get access to valuable marketing information and genomic data in line with the African Genome Project focus.

Dr. Robert Timms, OUI consultant and co-founder of Ionworks, discussed how battery simulations, using his company’s modelling tool PyBaMM, can help tackle energy and climate challenges. He presented the benefits of using simulations in designing better batteries, real-time control and operation of cells, and making predictions about battery health in electric cars like Tesla. Dr. Timms also shared a couple of OUI consultancy case studies with eVTOL companies that demonstrate how simulations can be useful throughout a battery’s lifetime, including providing data to help recycle and reuse batteries with a second user.

Finally, we heard from Scott MacKen, CTO of Cequestre, a startup developing a process to capture and convert carbon dioxide into useful chemicals. Despite carbon capture being around since the 1970s, the field remains small due to the difficulty of the process, which requires huge amounts of energy and produces carbon dioxide that is difficult to use. Cequestre’s breakthrough technology that captures carbon dioxide and convert it into useful chemicals using less energy and at lower temperatures was developed by researchers at Oxford. The team participated in StEP, an OUI student entrepreneurship programme, where they won a prize of £25,000 from Oxford Science Enterprises and the opportunity to pitch at two more events. Cequestre won another prize at a pan-European pitching competition in Berlin and is now looking for a partnership with carbon-intensive industries such as the cement industry, as well as funding from Innovate UK to continue research and develop a pilot plant that will scale-up this technology in an industrial setting.

Through the work of Professor MacLaren and his peers, the impact of Oxford’s work is felt around the world. Yet, achieving this impact is a team sport, and one the University cannot accomplish alone. If you or your organisation would like to stand with Oxford in overcoming disease, helping everyone lead healthier lives, and leaving a better world for our children, contact us about joining the Oxford Innovation Society.

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