BioCity Invests in Biotech Start-Up Focused on Precision Medicines

Life science incubator and business collective, BioCity, has revealed it will be investing in Kinomica, an early-stage precision medicine biotech company that was spun out of Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London.

The investment, announced in an Aug. 29, 2019 press release, takes the total number of life science investments by BioCity up to 29 and will be completed via the Innovate UK Precision Medicine Investment Accelerator. Kinomica has been developing novel technologies for companion diagnostics (CDx) and therapeutic development in precision medicines, areas which have been highlighted as key priorities of the United Kingdom government.

Among the advanced analytical methods that Kinomica has developed is the company’s flagship innovation, KinoScan, which will be used in collaboration with pharma in the field of oncology to improve the monitoring of drug efficacy and response, as well as the discovery of novel biomarkers. Additionally, the technology has potential applications in other areas such as autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, and neurological diseases.

“We believe Kinomica are at the forefront of a new area,” said Claire Brown, director of investment for BioCity, in the press release. “While genomic approaches have been successful in allowing the stratifying of patients increasingly, understanding the molecular ‘re-wiring’ of tumors, 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.”

“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,” added Jane Theaker, Kinomica CEO, in the press release. “Our proprietary proteomics algorithms and database allows us to better identify drug targets, personalize drug treatments, and develop diagnostics. While the genomics revolution in personalized medicine was driven by NGS [next-generation sequencing], our KinoScan technology is proteomic next-generation sequencing.”

Source: BioCity