Press release

Macomics Team Scores Gold and Raises Over £600 in its Hyper-Triathlon Challenge in aid of Founder Prof. Jeffrey Pollard’s Memorial Fund

Edinburgh and Cambridge, UK, 12 August 2024 – With Olympics drawn to a close, the team at Macomics Ltd, a leader in macrophage drug discovery, is celebrating its own achievement in raising over £600 in its Hyper-Triathlon Challenge. Started in 2023 in honour of its late co-founder Prof. Jeffrey Pollard, the Challenge set out to raise funds for the charity established as a memorial in his name, now renamed the Jeffrey and Ooi Thye Pollard fund.

Macomics has two laboratories, one located in Roslin Innovation Centre, near Edinburgh and the other on Cambridge Science Park. With the sites are separated by 460km in a straight line, the Macomics Hyper-Triathlon Challenge was to complete 46km of swimming, 460km of running/walking, and 4600km of cycling. The team scored themselves Gold in the running, achieving 3,318km of the 460km target and in the swimming, with all 46km of the target completed. A Bronze was awarded in the cycling as just 2,762km of the 4,600km distance was completed.

Overall, the team recorded 6,126km against the 5,106km and raised over £600 towards the memorial fund. So it’s a win for the fund and its recipients, and congratulations to the Macomics team.

The Jeffrey and Ooi Thye Pollard fund, managed by the University of Edinburgh where Prof. Pollard was Director of the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, is being used to organise scientific meetings focused on macrophage biology, and to fund travel and enrichment grants aimed at early career researchers.
Dr Luca Cassetta, VP immunology of Macomics based in its Edinburgh Labs said, “Jeff would be immensely proud of our achievements as we all were of him. He was a world leader in macrophage biology and a personal mentor, and to commemorate his impact on our company, the Macomics team decided to help raise money for the Jeff Pollard’s memorial fund established last year when he passed away. As well as linking Macomics’ staff on two sites, the challenge reflects the company’s goal to connect macrophage biology from research to transformative treatments.”

Macomics was founded on the breakthrough research of Prof. Pollard and Dr. Luca Cassetta, from the University of Edinburgh, to develop new therapeutics against novel targets on macrophages, to address unmet medical needs in solid tumour immunosuppression and pathological inflammation in chronic inflammatory disorders.
“We are one team working for the benefits of patients. This Challenge has shown that the distance between our laboratories is not a barrier to collaboration and teamwork” added Chantelle Payton, Associate Scientist, based in Macomics ‘Cambridge site.

To donate, go to The Jeffrey W Pollard Memorial Fund | The University of Edinburgh, mentioning Macomics in your donation.

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About Macomics – www.macomics.com

Macomics Ltd is a macrophage drug discovery company with a world-leading macrophage drug discovery platform, developing first-in-class medicines to deliver transformational impact for patients with macrophage-driven diseases: Macrophages are key to multiple diseases of high unmet medical need, including as key mediators of solid tumour immunosuppression and pathological inflammation in chronic inflammatory disorders.

The company is progressing a diversified portfolio of therapies targeting disease specific macrophages towards the clinic. Its ENIGMAC macrophage drug discovery platform enables identification and validation of novel macrophage therapeutic targets and provides a translationally relevant path to clinic through the development of more physiologically relevant human macrophage models combined with proprietary gene editing technology.

The company was co-founded in 2020 by Prof. Jeffrey Pollard and Dr. Luca Cassetta, University of Edinburgh, internationally recognised leaders in macrophage biology. It has R&D and office facilities in Edinburgh and Cambridge, UK. The company’s financing was led by Epidarex Capital, and the company is backed by Scottish Enterprise, LifeLink Ventures and Caribou Property Limited.

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About The Jeffrey W Pollard Memorial Fund - The Jeffrey W Pollard Memorial Fund | The University of Edinburgh

Professor Jeffrey W Pollard was co-founder of Macomics, the Director of the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, and a world-renowned pioneer in the field of tumour-associated macrophage biology. In addition to his invaluable contributions to Science, Jeffrey was very passionate in sharing his knowledge, and helping younger colleagues to succeed in their careers through mentorship and scientific collaborations. To honour and continue his legacy the University of Edinburgh has created the Jeffrey W Pollard Memorial Fund which will be used to organise scientific meetings focused on macrophage biology, and to fund travel and enrichment grants aimed at early career researchers.

To donate online visit https://donate.ed.ac.uk/support/PollardMemorial. To contribute a significant gift and discuss this with the University of Edinburgh philanthropy team please contact Leisa Thomas, Philanthropy Manager Health leisa.thomas@ed.ac.uk