BioCity invests in cancer detection firm

BioCity, the Nottingham-based life science incubator, has invested in precision medicine biotech, Kinomica, via the Innovate UK Precision Medicine Investment Accelerator.

Spun out from Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, Kinomica is an early stage precision medicine biotech developing novel technologies for companion diagnostics (CDx) and therapeutic development in precision medicines.

To date, BioCity has made investments in 29 life science ventures. The firm specialises in seed funding via convertible loans for very early stage ventures and co-investment in growing life science ventures.

Claire Brown, director of investment for BioCity, said: “We believe Kinomica are at the forefront of a new area. While genomic approaches have been successful in allowing the stratifying of patients, increasingly, understanding the molecular ‘re-wiring’ of tumours, such as that provided by KinoScan™, is critical. Kinomica provides unique insights that Pharma will be able to leverage, as evidenced by the traction already made to date with key partners in this sector.”

Jane Theaker, Kinomica chief executive, said: “We are really excited that our Pharma customers and investors see the value of cell-signal profiling to gain insights that have a huge positive impact on patients lives. Our proprietary proteomics algorithms and database allows us to better identify drug targets, personalise drug treatments and develop diagnostics. While the genomics revolution in personalised medicine was driven by NGS, our KinoScan™ technology is proteomic next-generation sequencing.”