Latest Lab Talk News in Brief: Lab space, academic rankings, appointments, funding…

The building, comprising approximately 37,000 sq ft, will be retrofitted from office accommodation into a CL2 laboratory and R&D facility, creating a significant new research base to support the company’s continued growth.

4basebio is a publicly listed biotechnology company specialising in synthetic DNA and gene therapy technologies, supporting the development of next-generation therapeutics. The new Cambridge facility will support the company’s continued expansion and increase the scale of its research and development capabilities

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The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has once again earned the leading position for Veterinary Science in the latest QS World University Rankings by Subject, retaining its status as the world’s top institution for the subject and achieving its highest overall score to date.

It maintained its score of 100 for Academic Reputation and notably improved its H-Index score, reflecting the continued global impact and influence of its research. The RVC also sustained strong performance in Employer Reputation and Citations per Paper, highlighting the employability of its graduates and the quality of its research output.

QS rankings analyse the reputation and research of thousands of institutions worldwide, across 55 narrow subject areas and five broad subject areas. Rankings are determined using indicators across a range of assessment areas, including Academic Reputation; Employer Reputation; Citations per Paper; and H-Index, which measures the output and influence of scholarly output. 

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Specialist in sustainable design, engineering and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets, Arcadis says it has further strengthened its life sciences leadership with the appointment of Fabio Forlizzi as senior associate.

Forlizzi, previously an associate architect at Buro Happold, will partner Arcadis’ major pharmaceutical clients in retrofit and repurposing projects, transforming ageing assets into modern, high performance research spaces. Among his current projects is the RX77 laboratory retrofit for GSK in Rixensart, Belgium.

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Kupando, a biopharmaceutical company developing a TLR 4/7 agonist that stimulates innate immunity and induces trained immunity for use in oncology and infectious diseases, today announced that it has secured an additional €10 million in Series A financing. This latest investment brings its total Series A funding to €23 million.

The investment was again led by Remiges Ventures, co-led by LifeCare Partners, with additional investments by all other existing investors, among them Brandenburg Kapital, High-Tech Gründerfonds and Ventura Biomed Investors. Carma Fund joined as a new investor. The proceeds will be used to fund the Phase 1b clinical study of Kupando’s lead candidate, KUP101, in advanced solid tumors and to accelerate its preclinical programmes in infectious diseases.

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Cirena has secured a licence to the University of Colorado Boulder patented RNA synthesis technology, giving researchers scalable access to high purity 100-400nt RNA constructs for next-generation therapeutics. The approach developed at CU Boulder enables reliable synthesis of long RNA needed to support rapidly developing applications in CRISPR, functional genomics, and emerging RNA-therapeutic modalities.
The licensed thionocarbonate-based technology gives Cirena a significantly higher-yield route not achievable using previous phosphoramidite methods for RNA synthesis, enabling routine production of highly modified, long and ultra-long RNA constructs, says the company.

“The underlying patent estate represents years of excellent foundational work at CU Boulder. By commercialising through Cirena, researchers worldwide will finally have dependable access to long and ultra-long RNA constructs that have historically been difficult or impossible to obtain at scale,” said Bryn Rees, CU Boulder senior associate vice chancellor for innovation and pPartnerships.

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Bruntwood SciTech – a joint venture between Bruntwood, L&G and Greater Manchester Pension Fund – has announced a significant lease agreement for the Da Vinci Building at Melbourn Science Park in Cambridge. 

Cellular Origins, a specialist in automated cell therapy manufacturing at scale, has taken all 41,000 sq ft for its new global headquarters, previously occupied by AstraZeneca. 

The company says it will combine mobile robotics, automation and AI with bioprocess technologies to industrialise cell therapy manufacturing at scale. The firm recently received ISO certification. 

It says the move will also allow for significant expansion plans – including the doubling of its workforce – and further enhance its collaboration with global partners, including leading instrument providers, and cell therapy manufacturers Johnson & Johnson. 

Cellular Origins is a spin-out of UK technology consultancy TTP, which has been established in the science park since 1987.

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Clean air and containment solutions business Envair Technology has appointed Nick Davies as its sales director. Based at its 63,000 sq ft manufacturing facility and headquarters in Heywood, Greater Manchester, he brings more than 20 years’ experience in senior leadership roles, bringing a proven track record of commercial growth and building high-performance teams.

Davies comes from Medicom, where he supported the rollout of a major NHS mask contract during the Covid-19 pandemic and helped to establish the company as one of the top four FFP3 suppliers to the NHS. Previously, he spent 10 years at PPE specialist, Arco, working as a director in both divisional and national roles.

Envair Technology states it is on track to exceed its £20m revenue target by 2030. Orders across its clean air product range, which includes isolators, fume cupboards and downflow booths, have risen by almost 20% over the past 12 months, with staff numbers also increasing by 15%. 

It says growth has been fuelled by demand for Annex 1-compliant equipment and isolators, driven by the shift to Vaporised Hydrogen Peroxide (VHP) gassing technology across NHS, healthcare and pharmaceutical markets. Investment in UK university laboratory infrastructure, part of the Government’s Science and Technology Superpower agenda, is also seeing demand for fume cupboards increase, with major projects underway and further large-scale developments planned.

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London-based biotech startup Ternary Therapeutics has raised £3.6m in seed funding to scale an artificial intelligence platform designed to create molecular glues.

The round was led by European venture firm daphni, with participation from Pace Ventures, the i&i Biotech Fund and the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund, managed by Future Planet Capital.

Founded in November 2024, Ternary is developing a platform that combines machine learning, physics-based molecular modelling and rapid laboratory testing to design a new class of medicines known as molecular glues — drugs capable of targeting proteins long considered undruggable.

While most have been discovered by chance rather than deliberately designed, Ternary says its platform aims to develop the discovery process into a repeatable engineering system.

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The National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) has highlighted “the critical role higher education plays” in developing the advanced skills that underpin the UK’s future growth and public services, following the announcement of a new inquiry into the student loan system. 

Rosalind Gill, director of policy, analysis and external affairs at the National Centre for Universities and Business, said: 

“From powering economic growth and entrepreneurship to training the workforce our NHS and schools depend on, higher-level skills sit at the heart of the UK’s future. Universities play a critical role in developing this talent, working with employers to turn knowledge into innovation, new industries, and high-quality jobs,” stated Gill. 

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Inter IKEA Group has backed a €13.4m Series A  round for Swiss biomaterials company Seprify, which is scaling a cellulose-based alternative to titanium dioxide used across cosmetics, food and coatings.

The investment comes as manufacturers accelerate reformulation following regulatory pressure on materials such as titanium dioxide and synthetic microplastics, increasing demand for scalable bio-based substitutes.

Seprify’s cellulose particle platform creates whiteness and opacity by engineering microstructures that scatter light. After more than two years of industrial testing, the fiurm says its technology is moving into commercial supply with manufacturers across multiple sectors.

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Combat Medical (Combat), a medical device company optimising the delivery and efficacy of cancer therapeutics, today announced it has raised £2.6 million in the first close of a Series A financing to advance its hyperthermic intravesical chemotherapy treatment, HIVE^®, through phase 3 clinical trials and toward FDA registration. The round was led by T&J Meyer Family Foundation, and included investment from Varia Ventures, NW Angel Fund and non-institutional family offices and individuals.

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Pic (clockwise from top left): Da Vinci Building, Fabio Forlizzi and Ternary co-founders Dr Andrew Potterton, CTO and Chris Tame, CEO