UCLB Big Talks on Big Impacts

To mark World Haemophilia Day, we sit down with Professor Amit Nathwani of the UCL Cancer Institute to explore his journey to commercialising the groundbreaking haemophilia A treatment, Roctavian. Host Nigel Campbell is joined by Prof Nathwani and Dr. Rick Fagan, UCLB Director of Biopharm, to explore how Amit’s work looking after patients with haemophilia in the NHS instilled a mission to develop a 'one and done' vaccine type approach to the condition. Amit’s lab to market story, working with UCLB, led to the creation of Roctavian, a one-time gene therapy used for the treatment of adults with severe haemophilia A. The therapy, which was licensed to BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc, received marketing approval in Europe in 2022 and US FDA approval in 2023, and is now available to patients commercially.

 Date of episode recording: 2024-04-10T00:00:00Z
 Duration: 00:23:58
 Language of episode: English
 Presenter: Nigel Campbell
 Guests: Prof Amit Nathwani; Dr Rick Fagan
 Producer: Nora Amin

This episode we explore Positive Impact. UCLB is helping to create a new generation of businesses from UCL academics specifically with positive societal impact at their heart. The commercialisation process can be a long road requiring financial, legal, and practical support. Nigel Campbell meets two inventors, Buffy Price Co-founder and COO of Carbon Re, an AI and Climate Tech company spinout from UCL and Cambridge, and Professor Pete Coffey from UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Founder of Tenpoint Therapeutics; both who are on that journey on how their inventions might improve our future world. We also talk to Dr Anne Lane, CEO of UCLB to find out how UCLB finds the bright ideas which will improve lives, and what it takes to scale to a point where they are having true impact.

Date of episode recording: 2024-02-06T00:00:00Z
Duration: 00:35:54
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Nigel Campbell
Guests: Anne Lane; Buffy Price; Prof Pete Coffey
Producer: Nora Amin

In this episode, Katy Bruce, CFO of UCL Business, and Charu Gorasia, CFO of UCL, will discuss the mutually beneficial relationship between the technology transfer office, such as UCLB, and the university. They will dive into the research income financial cycle and how the commercialisation income is distributed back into the research ecosystem. This podcast will also cover the challenges around commercialisation income, how to tackle these and what does the future hold.

For more information and to access the transcript: www.uclb.com/event-category/podcast/

Date of episode recording: 2023-10-11
Duration: 00:27:04
Language of episode: english
Presenter: Katy Bruce
Guests: Charu Gorasia
Producer: Nora Amin

In the tenth episode, Dr Anne Lane, CEO of UCLB and Dr Chris Hollowood, CEO of Syncona Investment Management, discussed the collaboration between their respective organisations in commercialising research. Syncona is a leading healthcare investment company focused on creating, building and scaling a portfolio of global leaders in life science; and Chris has been instrumental in the foundation and the development of its gene therapy strategy. In this podcast, Anne and Chris discussed how Syncona came about, its close relationship with UCL and UCL Business, and what attracted Syncona to invest in four UCLB companies. Chris also discussed the tech transfer ecosystem and what is next for Syncona.

Date of episode recording: 2023-09-21
Duration: 00:30:11
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Dr Anne Lane
Guests: Dr Chris Hollowood
Producer: Nora Amin

In the ninth episode of this podcast series, Ana Lemmo Charnalia, Senior Business Manager at UCLB, is in conversation with Orla O’Donnell , Divisional Manager at the UCL Div of Biosciences and former Chief Operating Officer of Health Digital CIC, a Community Interest Company incorporated in 2015 to commercialise HeLP-Diabetes. It is also an opportunity to celebrate Professor Elizabeth Murray’s life, who led in the development of HeLP-Diabetes. Join them in this discussion about their experiences and learnings from an early-stage social venture to the national roll-out of an online programme for people with type 2 diabetes. 

Date of episode recording: 2023-09-05
Duration: 00:20:44
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Ana Lemmo Charnalia
Guests: Orla O'Donnell
Producer: Nora Amin

Over a 15 year journey, UCLB spinout company Senceive Ltd became the world leader in the design, manufacture and supply of wireless enabled remote condition monitoring solutions for use in rail and construction applications. Recognition of the innovative and scalable nature of Senceive’s solutions to keep people and critical infrastructure safe, led to the company being acquired by Eddyfi in April 2021. In this podcast, Senceive’s now retired CEO Graham Smith and Dr Steven Schooling from UCLB discuss their experiences and learnings as they turned an early-stage university spinout into a highly successful and profitable commercial enterprise, which at exit generated strong returns for all shareholders.

Date of episode recording: 2023-08-15
Duration: 54:06
Language of episode: English
Presenter:Dr Steven Schooling
Guests: Graham Smith
Producer: Nora Amin

In the seventh episode of this podcast series, Jessica Bolton-Murray, Head of Project Management at UCLB, is in conversation with Tanel Ozdemir, Investment Manager for the UCL Technology Fund. The Project Management team at UCLB provides support and direction to any number of project at UCLB, working towards a commercial endpoint. The team have been providing bespoke project management services to all UCL Technology Fund projects, since inception in 2016 and have built a close working relationship, enabling them to move funded projects from proof of concept (POC) to licencing. Join them in this light-hearted discussion to find out how to access services, the challenges of POC, and what could be in store for the future.

Date of episode recording: 2023-06-29
Duration: 00:29:50
Language of episode: English
Presenter:Jessica Bolton-Murray
Guests: Tanel Ozdemir
Producer: Nora Amin

In the sixth episode of this podcast series, UCLB’s Director of BioPharm, Dr Richard Fagan, is in conversation with Dr Chris Williams. Dr Williams is formerly a Senior Business Manager at UCLB; he is now the SVP, Corporate Development at Autolus. Chris was part of the team that founded Autolus in 2014. Autolus, as a company ,is focused on the development of engineered CAR T cell therapies, which has been transformational for patients, particularly in blood cancers.

Date of episode recording: 2023-05-30
Duration: 00:26:51
Language of episode: English
Presenter:Dr Richard Fagan
Guests: Dr Chris Williams
Producer: Nora Amin

In the fifth episode of this podcast series, Marina Santilli, UCLB Associate Director, Engineering & Physical Sciences is in conversation with Dr. Daniel Hulme, CEO and Founder of Satalia. Satalia was UCL’s very first AI spinout company which is now part of the WPP Group of global companies. Daniel and Marina discuss how AI can help businesses make better and faster operational decisions by leveraging data, optimisation algorithms and machine learning techniques leading to significant savings and additional revenue. Daniel also discusses a holistic approach to a digital workforce and the future of AI in the light of recent progress in the field of generative AI.

Date of episode recording: 2023-04-18
Duration: 00:35:50
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Marina Santilli
Guests: Dr Daniel Hulme
Producer: Nora Amin

In the fourth episode of this podcast series, UCLB’s Director of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Dr Steven Schooling, is in conversation with Marina Santilli, UCLB Associate Director, Engineering & Physical Sciences about the development and scaling of UCLB’s express licensing platform e-lucid (https://e-lucid.com/). 

Early in her UCLB career, Marina recognised that there was a need for more effective tools to manage the licensing of lower value IP assets such as software and materials and in this podcast they discuss the journey from creating a minimum viable solution which addressed UCLB’s initial licensing needs through to the evolution of the e-lucid platform into a tool which has been adopted by some of the world’s leading universities, technology transfer and research organisations as they seek to enhance their impact outcomes.

Date of episode recording: 2023-03-30
Duration: 33:46:00
Language of episode: English
Presenter: Dr Stephen Schooling
Guests: Marina Santilli
Producer: Nora Amin