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The Business Magazine July 2024
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Bioarchitech takes lab space at Oxford’s Wood Centre for Innovation

The Business Magazine article image for: Bioarchitech takes lab space at Oxford’s Wood Centre for Innovation
30 July 2024

Bioarchitech, a biotech startup developing immunotherapy for the treatment of common cancers, has taken 870 sq ft of R&D lab and office space at The Oxford Trust’s Wood Centre for Innovation in Oxford.

The company was founded by Professor Geoff Hale (managing director), Kevin Maskell (chief scientific officer), 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, joining DJS Antibodies, Samsara Therapeutics, Helio Display Materials, Jack Fertility, Lumai, Spintex, RedShiftBio and PicturaBio.

Kevin Maskell, co-founder and CSO at 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’ve 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, CEO of The Oxford Trust, added: “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 Wood Centre for Innovation is managed by Oxford Innovation, a spinout from The Oxford Trust and the UK’s leading operator of innovation centres.

The Oxford Trust recently 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 startups.


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Born and raised in Berkshire, Dan fell into journalism after completing his bachelor’s degree in English at UCL.

Writing for The Business Magazine and local Biz News sites has given him the opportunity to chat with all manner of small business owners and share their success stories with a wider audience.

Outside of work, Dan enjoys live music, board games and quiz shows, and is making a slow but persistent effort to learn Spanish.

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