by Alicia Gailliez, Business Development Manager, One Nucleus
This year’s ON Helix conference at the Babraham Research Campus brought together biotech innovators, service providers, pharma leaders, investors, and academics in an interactive atmosphere to explore cutting-edge developments in tools, therapeutics, devices, and ecosystems that are shaping the future of translational research.
More than just a translational research conference, ON Helix creates a space to address the most pressing scientific challenges facing our community and crucially to explore solutions that accelerate the path from innovation to impact.
This year’s theme of ‘New Horizons for Bio Innovation’ set the tone for the day, which was divided into four focussed sessions. The following article recounts the key discussion points on the day with follow up commentary on the thought leadership in the forthcoming One Nucleus Highlights publication this Autumn.
Harnessing the Body’s Defences
The day began with compelling case studies showcasing how human biology itself could become the next disruptive technology in medicine. Jake Galson from Alchemab shared how his company is leveraging the body’s defences by studying the biology of disease resilient individuals to uncover novel immunotherapies. As Jake put it, “Alchemab’s innovative approach of going from bedside to bench to bedside is a slightly different approach, one that aims to replicate the body’s own successful defences.”
Understanding the immune system has become foundational across many therapeutic areas, and this session emphasised a growing approach to harnessing the immune system’s power. Melanie Leveridge from AstraZeneca, a One Nucleus Board Member, struck an optimistic note, pointing to the rise of novel immune-modulating modalities reaching the clinic, creating a paradigm shift from treatment to cure.
Meanwhile, James Price at the East Anglian Air Ambulance shared insights from his frontline trauma research, providing promising avenues for biomarker discovery in emergency care. James further highlighted the potential of biomarkers in emergency settings where predicting injury trajectories can significantly improve patient outcomes. Yet he reminded us that challenges remain in adapting diagnostic tools for extreme environments, such as air ambulances operating at altitude, calling for more vigorous innovation at the intersection of technology and biology.
From a patent attorney’s perspective, Simon Bradbury at Withers & Rogers commented on the rapid pace of technological innovation, creating a fertile ground for intellectual property development.
Adoption of AI in Innovative Drug Discovery
We are entering an era where almost all new biotech companies are tech-enabled in some form. The second session focussed on this technological revolution, showcasing cutting-edge platforms that are transforming the drug discovery landscape.
Miles Congreve of Isomophic Labs showcased how they are leveraging the groundbreaking AlphaFold system to reimagine structure-based drug design, commenting on how what once took years, can now be achieved in days and how the industry is beginning to treat this level of capability as though it were the norm. Catherine Stace at Kuano followed this with a presentation on the company’s Quantum Lens technology, which is opening exciting new frontiers in computational chemistry, by uniting the world of AI, structure-based drug design, and physics to unlock challenging targets and design better drugs.
The subsequent panel discussion painted an outlook of cautious optimism. While everyone on the panel was pro-AI, there was clear recognition that the sector is now at the peak of inflated expectations. To avoid the inevitable trough of disillusionment, a key message to emerge was to position AI as the right tool in the right setting.
Panel members addressed key challenges, including data quality, accessibility, and governance. The UK’s unique strengths in this area were highlighted, including the NHS and UK Biobank, which provide unrivalled access to clinical data. The panel also addressed striking the right balance between innovation and regulation, critical for mitigating risks and building public trust. Peter Brady from Orbital Global Group provided an example of his work in heart failure to demonstrate how innovation can be promoted in a healthcare setting while ensuring there is a regulatory framework that balances caution with encouraging innovation.
Notably, the panel called for new models of collaboration, especially among smaller, innovative biotech companies, as a way of pooling multidisciplinary expertise and resources. They argued this is crucial for unlocking AI’s full potential in the sector.
Finally, the panel reflected on human-machine interaction, with Kinga Bercsenyi from Arctoris emphasising the importance of “human-in the-loop” approaches and Catherine referring to this as a “polyintelligent” mindset.
Getting Ready for the Clinic
The third session focussed on clinical readiness, emphasising that the most critical decisions need to be made well before clinical trials begin. Focussing on details such as the Target Product Profiles (TPPs) and biomarker strategies can help teams work backwards from desired outcomes, ensuring they get the right data early on to demonstrate efficacy, essential for attracting money and partners.
One key piece of advice from Dave Cook at Quodria was to “not be afraid to break your own project”. By stress-testing the science, it will be easier to spot potential issues early on and distinguish between must-haves and nice-to-haves.
A standout theme was the evolving regulatory landscape. The FDA’s April 2025 announcement to plan a phase-out of the requirement for animal models in the development of monoclonal antibodies represents a major shift, with AI simulations and organoids gaining more traction. While the FDA leads this transformation, the EMA and MHRA have been slower to adopt these models. A company case study from Quodria provided a real-world example, showing how the company bypassed animal studies completely with their nail penetration data. Another example shared was Novartis’ CAR-T therapy, which went straight from humanised mouse and computer simulation to first-in-human trials.
DotPlot, a company developing a breast tissue analyser to detect early irregularities, offered a compelling case study. Rather than following the standard medical device route, their founders adopted a product design-led strategy, highlighting an evolution in pathways that founders are using to get to clinical readiness.
Invention, Innovation, Industralisation: How to Accelerate the Journey?
The fourth session explored what it takes to scale ideas into real-world impact at scale. A key takeaway is that innovation is a continuous process that unfolds throughout the entire development pipeline. The discussion highlighted the importance of cultivating an ecosystem with the right infrastructure to sustain this momentum, whether through access to LifeArc’s venture arm or antibody discovery platform, or the Milner Consortium’s early-stage matchmaking with pharma; the goal is to support innovation at every step.
Jane Dancer spoke in depth about platform companies, particularly how to monetise them effectively while keeping in mind the ultimate goal of getting therapies to patients.
The session also highlighted the importance of early engagement with all stakeholders contributing to the development, such as clinicians, payers, and patients. Building a strong value proposition from the outset requires clearly articulating both the need and the solution.
Claire Thompson from Agility Life Sciences touched upon the need for “fortitude in the relentless blowing winds of the life science sector” as a key factor that gets teams through. Innovation in life sciences is rarely linear. The most successful teams are those that make data-driven decisions early and have a dedicated champion to keep things moving through challenges.
Key Learnings from the Boston Bootcamp 2025
The day concluded with reflections from the winners of the One Nucleus Boston Bootcamp 2025, offering valuable insights into what the UK can learn from one of the world’s most vibrant biotech ecosystems.
A key message was that consistency builds credibility, and just showing up, whether at events, within networks, or in front of potential investors, makes a meaningful difference.
As Jason Yip from Tailor Bio highlighted, what sets the Boston ecosystem apart is its deeply embedded approach to entrepreneurship. The transition from academia to start-up feels more integrated, whereas in the UK, founders often feel they must "step out" of academia to pursue commercial ventures, rather than having a pathway naturally integrated.
Access to capital is another major differentiator. US investors, particularly lead investors, often bring greater risk appetite and larger cheque sizes compared to the UK. Hannah Sore from PharmEnable stressed, having a strong, differentiated story can be game-changing.
Jamie Renison at Cushman & Wakefield - one of the Bootcamp sponsors - closed out the discussion by sharing his perspective on what the UK needs to match the scale and ambition of ecosystems like Boston. As Jamie put it, “We have A for academics, B for biotech, and C for capital infrastructure—but we still need more F for finance to truly compete with innovation hubs like Kendall Square.”
Conferences like ON Helix play a pivotal role in inspiring our community to ask the right questions. These questions then lead to the solutions needed to keep innovation moving forward. There was plenty to be excited about at this year’s conference, especially with respect to transformative platforms, tools, and methodologies creating breakthroughs in translational research.
Sessions were expertly moderated by Louise Jopling, Babraham Research Campus; Kinga Bercsenyi, Arctoris; Judit Molnar, NeoPhore and One Nucleus Board Member; Tony Jones, One Nucleus and Natalie Wood, CK Group. We are also grateful to our keynote speakers Simon Cook, The Babraham Institute; Kinga Bercsenyi, Arctoris; Johannes Stanta, Bionavix and Preeti Bakrania, LifeArc for their thought-provoking presentations.