Sanger Institute spin-outs
Formation of new companies for societal benefit
The Institute has a culture and history of scaling technologies, some of these capabilities have become spin-out companies that represent an important step towards the creation of a positive impact in today’s healthcare sector. Since 2011, the Institute’s Technology Translation Team has helped to spin out a total of five companies as listed below. You can also read about our other transaltional work by vising the Case Studies page.
Congenica
Congenica develops products and services for the interpretation of genomes, with a focus on rare diseases. Congenica's first product, Congenica® is built upon world-leading technology developed by the Wellcome Sanger Institute, including the work of Dr Richard Durbin and Dr Matthew Hurles scientific leaders respectively of the 1000 genomes project and of the ‘Deciphering Developmental Disorders’ (DDD) study, the world’s largest, nationwide genome-wide rare disease sequencing programme.
Kymab
Kymab was founded by Professor Allan Bradley, FRS, in 2010, based on developments in his laboratory at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Raising $30m of equity financing in 2010 from the Wellcome Trust Investment Division has enabled the development of the KymouseTM platform and the creation of a portfolio of therapeutic assets. The KymouseTM platform encompasses the entire diversity of the B lymphocyte component of the human immune system. Kymab has around 100 staff and is headquartered on the Babraham Research Campus, three miles from Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Addenbrooke’s Teaching Hospital.
VHsquared Ltd
VHsquared Ltd. developed oral biologics for immuno-inflammatory targets in the gastrointestinal tract. The company identified, screened, selected, and engineered Vorabodies, a transformational therapy for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. It used its Vorabody platform to generate potent protease resistant domain antibodies for oral administration. The company was incorporated in 2010 and wound down in 2022.
Microbiotica
Microbiotica was spun out from the Sanger Institute in 2016, the company received its funding from Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) and IP Group to use the latest discoveries in the characterisation of our bacteria and their role in health and disease to develop bacteriotherapy - a radical way to treat disease using the bacteria themselves.
Mosaic TX
Mosaic Therapeutics Ltd is the latest spin-out company from the Wellcome Sanger Institute. It was formed in 2020, by Mathew Garnett and Adrian Ibrahim with the aim of applying a decade of ground-breaking work in the Sanger Institute’s Translational Cancer Genomics Laboratory to identify selective vulnerabilities in cancer cells that can be exploited therapeutically. With initial seed investment from Innovate UK, MOSAIC is able to develop a world-leading target identification and prioritisation capability based upon patient-derived WGS-characterised cellular models, synthetic lethal CRISPR screens, and cutting-edge analytics. In 20201 and beyond, the company aims to fundraise in order to scale its operations and pipelines, securing new partners along the way.
Quick links
Get in touch
Have an idea?
Get in touch with our Translation Team if you think your research has translation potential or if you would like to build a working relationship with the Institute that could lead to new business opportunities.