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(left) and Bhaskaran launched Bodle in 2015 to commercialize thinfilm display technology.
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BUILDING A START-UP MACHINE How the University of Oxford is capturing its professors’ ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT
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ALEX SCOTT, C&EN LONDON
WHEN THE DEADLY EBOLA virus was
ripping through communities across West Africa last April, epidemiologists turned to MinION, an instrument capable of sequencing the DNA of a virus in less than 60 minutes. The size of a cell phone, MinION could be brought easily to remote locations in Guinea where Ebola cases were rife. Suspected virus samples were sequenced in the field, and the data were immediately transmitted from laptops to a team of microbiologists in the U.K. Within 24 hours they were able to inform epidemiologists whether the virus—or a substrain of it— was present so that appropriate public health measures could be deployed. MinION was developed by Oxford Nanopore Technologies from science that originated in the research group of Hagan Bayley, a chemist and professor of chemical biology at the University of Oxford. It measures the ionic current of genetic material that passes through nanopores and uses the changes to determine the sequence. Building an ability to translate knowledge from academic groups such as Bayley’s into businesses that can impact people’s lives is now a key aspiration for CEN.ACS.ORG
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the university. “Alongside excellence in research and teaching, we see innovation and knowledge exchange as a key strength of the university,” says Ian Walmsely, an Oxford professor and pro-vice-chancellor for research and innovation. The university wants to crank up the rate at which it creates start-ups, especially those from its science and engineering departments. It is arguably better placed than any other university in Europe to create chemistry-based start-ups: Alongside a stellar reputation for science research, Oxford has possibly the largest chemistry department in the Western world with 80 research groups. Within the past year the university has established Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), a venture capital fund for start-ups created by its staff and students. With a value of $460 million, the fund is the largest of its kind held by a single academic institute, the university claims. OSI joins Isis Innovation, an in-house research and technology commercialization firm that the university has been strengthening. Between the two, the university is confident it can more effectively convert an entrepreneurial “buzz” pres-
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OXFORD NANOPORE
ent at the school these days into start-up companies. “The current time is the most exciting for translation of Oxford science in many years,” says Adam Stoten, head of life sciences technology transfer for Isis. “There is a large and growing proportion of academics at the university who are embracing entrepreneurship, and now we’ve got the infrastructure to support it.” Isis currently has 40 potential spin-offs in its pipeline—more than ever—as well as 2,900 patents or technologies that it offers for license. Isis was involved in creating 10 new companies in the fiscal year that ended in March 2015, up from eight in the previous fiscal year. At this level, the university ranks as one of the most entrepreneurial in the U.K. The University of Cambridge runs slightly ahead with 11 new companies in 2015, and Imperial College London generated six.
Buoyed by OSI and a bigger Isis, Oxford will continue to increase the number of spin-offs it generates, predicts Jamie Ferguson, Isis’s deputy head of technology transfer for chemistry and biophysics. Most of the start-ups are in the life sciences, materials science, and software. Recent successes include iOX Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology company that raised about $2.6 million; Oxbridge White, a joint venture with Cambridge that raised more than $1.5 million for technology that reduces the energy consumed by white-light-emitting diodes; and Bodle Technologies, a developer of thin-film window glazing technologies, which raised an undisclosed sum from OSI. Isis executives argue that the formation of OSI marks a watershed event in the university’s strategy to commercialize scientific knowledge. “OSI validates the tremendous volume and quality of raw innovation coming out of the university,” Stoten says. YET THIS ACTIVITY is Lilliputian when “Having a $460 million fund focused solely compared with leading U.S. universities: A on Oxford says to other investors, ‘You study based on data from the CrunchBase should be taking notice of what’s going on technology finance website put Stanford in this institution.’ ” University way out in front with 172 startOSI was created with money from invesups receiving their first venture capital tors including Invesco Asset Management funding in 2013, followed by Harvard UniLtd., IP Group, Oxford’s endowment fund, versity with 103, Massachusetts Institute and the Wellcome Trust. of Technology with 92, and the University Isis has created five start-ups with monof California, Berkeley, with 79. Tel Aviv ey from OSI since the fund was created in University was the most entrepreneurial March 2015. “And we have a large number outside the U.S., with 20 start-ups. of opportunities in the pipeline where OSI Oxford’s start-up productivity may be is likely to commit capital,” Stoten says. modest in comparison, but it has come OSI’s introduction has also attracted more a long way: In the 40 years leading up to venture capitalists and angel investors to 2000, it created a total of 20 start-ups. the university, he says. The university retains ownership of intellectual property APPLYING SCIENCE Oxford spin-off Oxford Nanopore developed within its facilities and developed the gene-sequencing tool MinION, which licenses IP exclusively to academrequires minimal scientific infrastructure. Here, a ics wishing to set up businesses. health worker in the field in Guinea tests bodily fluid for Ebola. Researchers may have a share of both royalties and companies. The university also gets a stake in the companies, meaning the money it invests can come back, either via a share of profits or from the equity value of a company. Isis returned more than $20 million to the university and its researchers in the fiscal year ending in March 2015, up from $11 million a year earlier. In the same year Isis also played a role in helping secure $37 million in translational funding for the university’s researchers. To further improve its ability to CEN.ACS.ORG
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