Credit: Alexandra Canet, Wellcome Sanger Institute
Can we generate data with African populations to help improve accessible diagnostics and genomic treatment solutions for these communities? Is it possible to improve diagnosis of psychiatric disorders with the use of genomic sequencing? And if it is, how are we going to translate it? The fourth edition of Sanger’s Startup School closed with 30 participants from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and EMBL-EBI having gained the confidence to look at science with a different, entrepreneurial perspective.
As the Startup School drew to its close during a windy April afternoon, participants buzzed around Hinxton Hall Conference Centre, excitedly chatting with speakers, panellists, mentors and friends. All smiling with confidence after a couple of tense weeks of preparation for the programme’s final session. The participants had been tasked with preparing for a two-minute pitch of their idea, which they presented to an audience of around 100 people at the Grand Finale event.
The role of Startup School in advancing researchers’ careers is one of the main highlights of the entrepreneurial programme’s fourth edition. The fact that it has been mostly in person, too, is another high. 30 participants underwent Sanger’s entrepreneurial training, starting in November 2023 up until the Grand Finale in April 2024. Four online and six in-person sessions have taken them through structured action learning, aligned to their own ideas in genomics and biodata, within a nurturing and safe environment supported by mentors and inspired by role models.
Throughout all the interactive sessions, there have been opportunities for participants to build knowledge of innovation and entrepreneurship at the earliest stages of idea discovery, gain confidence in their entrepreneurial skills and interact with speakers and mentors who are role models of entrepreneurship in genomics and biodata.
Jolynne Mokaya, public health research and engagement lead at the Sanger Institute, came to Startup School with a project already fully formed in her head.
“Despite African countries facing the highest burden of infectious diseases globally, they are far behind in expertise, infrastructure and laboratory capacity needed to undertake large-scale genomics sequencing and bioinformatics. I came to Startup school with a project to establish a network to provide focussed and sustainable training and computational resources.”
Jolynne Mokaya,
Public Health Research and Engagement Lead, Wellcome Sanger Institute
Part of the Empowering Crew team, Jolynne and her colleagues, Nancy Ontiveros Palacios and Sonia Barasa aim to create a user-friendly online resource that will provide access to high-quality training materials and cloud computing for large-scale genomic data analysis in-country. The Startup School gave them the opportunity to explore how this project could be funded, as a mission-driven, rather than a commercially-driven idea. It was through the work with their mentors and discussions with speakers that they started to see a route to viability.
Shaista Madad, a Sanger PhD student, came with another project: is it possible to develop a biologically driven and objective diagnostic method which leverages the power of single cell genomics to diagnose psychiatric disorders?
Shaista’s experience stemmed from her work at a psychiatric ward in a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan.
“I noticed that the psychiatrists relied heavily on patients’ accounts of symptoms during their diagnosis. Many patients had limited income and education which, I think, is a barrier to understanding the biological underpinnings of their condition. A majority of the cases were diagnosed as conversion disorders or schizophrenia despite a fair degree of heterogeneity in the profile of the symptoms.”
Shaista Madad,
PhD student, Wellcome Sanger Institute
With her work at Startup School, she delved deeper into the matter. “I am now more convinced that this is possible. The science behind it gives me confidence, and the Startup School has helped me find the networks and identify the first steps towards translating my idea into a tool that will help patients better understand and manage their condition.”
Not all participants bring an idea to Startup School - some bring their expertise and insights to aid ideas. It is normally half and half, as participants are paired in teams, normally a team lead and a buddy. Polina Rusina, Target identification scientist at Open Targets, for example, attended the programme as a buddy. With prior expertise in the startup world, drug discovery and preclinical study management, she was confident she would be able to provide her skills to a project that would pique her interest.
“I heard about the Base Rx idea during the Startup School matchmaking event, and I was immediately intrigued by its concept of using base editing to address drug resistance. Paired with project lead Matthew Coelho, who developed the method, I contributed my drug discovery expertise. The programme provided a great opportunity to work on a real-world project where we developed a business plan and IP strategy together. Collaborating with Matt has been incredibly rewarding, and I'm excited about our future endeavours.”
Polina Rusina,
Target Identification Scientist, Open Targets
Some of the ideas will continue to develop, but many won’t. The aim of the programme is not so much to identify ideas that will become successful startups, but to give our scientific talent their first insight into entrepreneurship, gain entrepreneurial skills and start building a network within the genomics ecosystem.
“Entrepreneurship at Sanger needs to be deeply rooted in our science and connected to our mission. In our case, genomics and biodata science and how that can be utilised to benefit society. Entrepreneurship, and Startup School as its flagship project, enables us not only to fulfil the Institute’s mission of applying and exploring genomic technologies at scale to advance our understanding of biology and improve health, but also to develop entrepreneurial skills.”
Jo Mills,
Head of Entrepreneurship, Wellcome Sanger Institute
The fourth edition closed with a packed Grand Finale at the Conference Centre. With a set of panellists from the Cambridge life sciences ecosystem including Jason Mellad, Start Codon CEO, Kathryn Chapman, now director of Innovate Cambridge, and Jelena Aleksic, from PharmEnable Therapeutics, among many others.
Special guests who closed the session included Sanger Institute Director, Professor Matt Hurles who said that translation at Sanger, being an integral part of the Institute’s strategy already, is going to grow.
“We're in the midst of a genomic revolution that will touch the lives of everyone over the coming decades,” he said. “The sustainable delivery of those benefits will not be done by organisations like Sanger, they'll be done by those who learn from what we do and then spin out.”
Professor Matthew Hurles,
Director, Wellcome Sanger Institute
Mentorship is one of the highlights of Startup School and has been highly valued by participants during all four editions. The programme brings in members of the life sciences ecosystem, from venture capitals, such as Parkwalk advisors, established pharmaceutical companies, such as Roche and smaller startups, such as Sanger spin out Mosaic Therapeutics, to share their expertise with participants.
The Business Development team is key in shaping the programme. Its members are also assigned as mentors throughout the six months to provide their insights and experience.
“We are keen to see how these ideas evolve and progress, but most importantly, what the programme enables our scientists to do next. To achieve our mission of applying our science towards real-world benefit, it is important that we do not only focus on technology or commercial development. Inspiring tomorrow's innovators and training them in how research outputs can be translated into useful products or services is equally important. That’s what the Startup School is set to do. We are keen and ready to support them in the next steps of their translational journey.”
Emmanuelle Astoul,
Head of Translation, Wellcome Sanger Institute
The Startup School is embedded within the Sanger Institute, and alumni are recommending their peers join, be part of the experience and step out of their comfort zone to learn new entrepreneurial skills. Others - approximately 60 per cent of our inaugural 2020-21 cohort - are now experiencing industry or startup life first-hand, and for most of them, their new abilities and networks are shaping their current work.
After four editions, the Startup School team feels happy to have come so far.
“The programme will continue to evolve to keep up with the needs of our science. We innovate every year - that’s how we included the scientific panels, the networking afternoon or a session at Illumina’s headquarters in Cambridge. As a team, we put our own entrepreneurial minds to action, and as we’re planning for the upcoming edition, who knows what innovations are in store for our next cohort - they’ll have to join and see!”
Jo Mills,
Head of Entrepreneurship, Wellcome Sanger Institute
