Alderley Park and pharmaphorum present

The Alderley Park Discovery Podcast:

the journey to accessing science funding & investment

Episode 3

Episode 3 of the Alderley Park Discovery Podcast covers how to successfully access life science funding and investment, highlighting a range of ways companies can attract investors.

In this instalment, Dominic Tyer is joined by Kinomica CEO Jane Theaker, BioCity investment director Claire Brown, Redx Pharma CEO Lisa Anson and Dr Kath Mackay, managing director at Bruntwood SciTech – Alderley Park.

Claire and Jane looked at how Kinomica secured £3.9 million in funding from investors, including Alderley Park Ventures and BioCity. The funding marked a major milestone for KScan, its next-generation biomarker and molecular diagnostics platform for treating cancer patients and other conditions.

Redx Pharma’s Lisa Anson talked about the company’s multi-million global licensing deal with pharma giant AstraZeneca, which will further develop and commercialise its treatment for sufferers of fibrotic diseases, and its other recent fundraising milestones.

The episode also heard Dr Kath Mackay discuss Alderley Park’s business support programme the Alderley Park Accelerator, which mentors companies through the investment process, and showcase why creating connections is so important.


The Alderley Park Discovery Podcast: Life science skills, staffing and support

Episode two of the Alderley Park Discovery Podcast covers access to skills in the life sciences sector, with a focus on support for aspiring scientists and UK staffing trends.

In this instalment Dominic Tyer’s guests on the podcast are Sai Life Sciences’ head of global R&D Dean Edney, Joynes & Hunt’s managing director Steve Joynes and Dr Kath Mackay, managing director at Bruntwood SciTech’s Alderley Park.

Dr Mackay talks about why university connections are vital for a life science and tech cluster like Alderley Park and how the campus works to inspire the next generation of scientists.

From Dean Edney there’s a look at the expansion story of India-headquartered Sai Life Sciences and what the research development services company needed when it came to setting up its first European base of operations.

The podcast also features a rundown of recruitment trends in UK life sciences from Steve Joynes from specialist staffing solutions provider Joynes & Hunt. He discusses how recruitment has changed over the past decade and reveals some of the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic on staffing.

The Alderley Park Discovery Podcast, produced in partnership with pharmaphorum, presents perspectives on UK and global bioscience innovation trends, with input from leading experts at Alderley Park in the North West of England.

In episode one of the podcast Dr Mackay talked about the challenges of rapidly building capacity to test thousands of patients a day for coronavirus at the Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab.

Alderley Park, a development by Bruntwood SciTech, is the UK’s largest single-site life science campus and offers bioscience facilities for R&D-focussed life science companies at every stage of their lifecycle, from start-up to global corporate.

Episode two of the Alderley Park Discovery Podcast is available in the player below, where you can listen to it, download it to your computer or find – and subscribe to the series, and other pharmaphorum podcasts – in iTunesSpotifyacast and Stitcher.


The Alderley Park Discovery Podcast: COVID testing and the Lighthouse Lab

Alderley Park’s Mereside campus is at the forefront of the UK’s COVID-19 testing plans, playing a key role in the national Lighthouse Lab programme.

Forming part of the biggest network of diagnostic facilities in British history, setting up the Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab at a time of national emergency required close collaboration with the NHS and wider scientific community.

In the first episode of the Alderley Park Discovery Podcast, Alderley Park’s managing director Dr Kath Mackay speaks with pharmaphorum’s Dominic Tyer about the challenges of rapidly building capacity to test thousands of patients a day for coronavirus at the Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab.

Kath talks about the importance of collaborations to bring the lab online, and explains how the Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab fits into the UK’s wider national plan to tackling COVID-19.

She also looks at why Alderley Park was chosen as one of the first sites for a Lighthouse Lab, what combination of experts and mix of skills were required and what lessons in innovation can be drawn from the creation of the Lighthouse Labs at a time of international crisis.

The Alderley Park Discovery Podcast, produced in partnership with pharmaphorum, presents perspectives on UK and global bioscience innovation trends, with input from key experts including managing director and leader of Bruntwood SciTech’s Alderley Park Dr Kath Mackay. 

Alderley Park, a development by Bruntwood SciTech, is the UK’s largest single-site life science campus and offers bioscience facilities for R&D-focussed life science companies at every stage of their lifecycle, from start-up to global corporate.

Episode one of the Alderley Park Discovery Podcast is available in the player above, where you can listen to it, download it to your computer or find – and subscribe to the series and other pharmaphorum podcasts – it in iTunesSpotifyacast and Stitcher.


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