Speakers

Tim Funnell, DPhil

VP Operations, MiroBio

Tim has an academic training in pharmacology and pursued a career in pharma consulting after a DPhil in Oxford. He later moved into funding and supporting university spin-outs as an early employee of Syncona, the Wellcome Trust’s biotech venture fund, with expertise in gene and cell therapies. His next move was across the Atlantic where he was a Principal at Third Rock Ventures in Boston, experiencing the difference in style between US and European investing. Tim has been part of the founding team of a number of biotech ventures bringing in over £100M of funding since 2013.

Tim returned to Oxford as an Entrepreneur in Residence at OSI before launching MiroBio where he leads business operations. MiroBio is developing novel therapeutics to treat a range of autoimmune diseases by leveraging receptor signalling in immune cells based on ground-breaking research from the University of Oxford.

Rajarshi Banerjee, MD DPhil

CEO, Perspectum Diagnostics

Rajarshi co-founded Perspectum in 2012, and has grown the company to over 150 people across Oxford, Singapore and San Francisco. He has worked in the National Health Service since 2002 and trained in cardiology, public health and internal medicine in London and Oxford. He developed the MR techniques for rapid non-invasive liver assessment during his DPhil in Oxford, and commercialised these through Perspectum as LiverMultiScan, which is now FDA cleared and used in over 200 sites.

Rajarshi continues to work as an Honorary Consultant Physician in Oxford, with research into the phenotyping of metabolic and liver disease in adults and children. He has many years of experience in running clinical trials and working in multidisciplinary scientific teams to develop applications for precision medicine.

Danuta Jeziorska, DPhil

CEO, Nucleome Therapeutics

Danuta is a co-founder of Nucleome Therapeutics that spun out from a decade of research at Oxford University with the ambition to unlock the non-coding part of the genome for drug target discovery and development. The company’s pioneering genomics platform uses the 3D structure of the genome and AI powered computational genomics to decode and mine the regulatory “dark matter” of the human genome to help deliver the next generation of genetically guided therapeutics.

Previously, Danuta co-founded and led Innovation Forum Oxford, for which she was recognised as one of the Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness in 2018 in UK.

Danuta has over 12 years of experience in decrypting how genes are regulated and continues to work as a Honorary Research Scientist at University of Oxford.

Angela Hobbs

CEO, Wilkinson Hall ltd

Angela Hobbs formed her first start-up in the early 1990’s working with international clients including dmg media, ipc Magazines, Max Factor, British Airways and Selfridges. In 2008, during her MSc she focused on all things glass – elevators, ceilings and cliffs and produced her final dissertation on Internal & Eternal Barriers to Women. In 2016 Angela accepted the role of Managing Director at Triteq, a former client. Designing and driving the transition for this electronic engineering company to a full-scale product design consultancy working on innovative projects including FDA approved safety critical medical devices, health apps and energy products. 

In October this year Angela created her new consultancy, Wilkinson Hall Ltd positioned in the emerging but controversially termed FemTech “right time, wrong term” industry.  Her first prototype is in development, due for launch in February 2020.She brings an understanding of what it takes to design and build a business, delivering the products and services that customers want.  Clients and partners include Oxford University Innovation, Oxford Enterprise Trust, Versus Arthritis, ImagineIF and the Design Council. In October she designed and delivered a New Product Development programme for Oman Export Week.

Alan Roth, PhD

Director, Fitzroy Partners; Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Oxford

Alan’s career has spanned both academia and business on both sides of the Atlantic. After completing a PhD in organic chemistry at Columbia and a postdoctoral fellowship here at Oxford, Alan pursued roles in pharma R&D consulting and investment. He founded Chiral Quest, a leading chiral component provider, and took the company public in 2003. As a director at Fitzroy Partners Alan focusses on emerging health sciences ventures.

In 2019 Alan became the Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence here in Oxford, which includes continuing to teach a course in scientific entrepreneurship to graduate students and staff across the science, engineering, and medicine faculties. Alan has been appointed as a visiting professor at universities in the UK, USA, Germany and China.

About Silicon Valley comes to the UK

SVC2UK exists to support entrepreneurs on their journey to scale, removing barriers and opening up the ecosystem.

Now in its thirteenth year, SVC2UK alumni and community span the globe. SVC2UK run a series of intimate, invitation-only events that culminate in a 3 day summit held in the UK during November, which connect world-leading investors and serial entrepreneurs to academics, students, policy makers and first time founders.