51³Ô¹ÏÍø

Professor Hugh Brady says that 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is working to speed development of innovations that have potential to be as transformational as penicillin.

In a keynote at the international biotechnology expo this week, Professor Hugh Brady, President of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, told the audience that 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is making major moves to take advances such as gene therapies, immunotherapies and medical AI more quickly from university labs and into clinical settings where they can improve lives.

51³Ô¹ÏÍø has a strong recent record of creating major medical innovations and supporting their success, and we’re working to take our ecosystem to the next level. Professor Hugh Brady President of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø

Professor Brady said that some of these advances “have potential to be as transformational as penicillin”, which was discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming as a researcher at , now part of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø. While this was a pivotal moment, Professor Brady said “it was through years of collaboration by universities, companies, and governments that penicillin was turned from a scientific curiosity into a medical product that made profound improvements to the treatment of infectious diseases.”

Citing recent success stories such as a gene therapy platform under development by the in collaboration with commercial partners and the new spinout company AlveoGene, along with advances in self-amplifying RNA for vaccines and therapeutics, he said that that 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is combining a number of ingredients to accelerate the translation of research breakthroughs into medical products.

These include ongoing investment totalling $3.5 billion in 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Hammersmith and White City deep tech campus, which hosts a range of cutting-edge interdisciplinary research programmes, partnerships with global universities and businesses, advanced research facilities, training for entrepreneurs, and new sources of support and investment for startup companies. “51³Ô¹ÏÍø has a strong recent record of creating major medical innovations and supporting their success, and we’re working to take our ecosystem to the next level,” he said.

Professor Brady was speaking by video to the audience of academic and business biotechnology experts in Yokohama, Japan, where 51³Ô¹ÏÍø also had a large in-person delegation alongside other UK universities. Professor Graham Cooke, Vice Dean (Research) for 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Faculty of Medicine, gave a joint keynote covering 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s contribution to the COVID-19 response, which included trials to rapidly evaluate possible treatments and track transmission, and human challenge studies that helped evaluate diagnostics. Work on pandemic preparedness continues at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s Institute of Infection. 

Watch Professor Hugh Brady's keynote speech to BioJapan 2023

Global innovation and collaboration

Professor Cooke said: "51³Ô¹ÏÍø has world-leading expertise in medicine and life sciences and our research interests overlap and align closely with the biotechnology sector in Japan. International collaboration is essential to solving global challenges and Japan has long been an important partner for 51³Ô¹ÏÍø across research and innovation. BioJapan provides a fantastic platform to build upon these successful collaborations and we look forward to further deepening our relationship with Japanese companies and institutions."

He was joined by a cohort of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø academics, industry partnerships and commercialisation specialists. The 51³Ô¹ÏÍø delegation also included several startups from 51³Ô¹ÏÍø staff and students, whose innovations include:

• Solutions for musculoskeletal health from .
• A device to alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s from .
• A self-use cervical assessment tool from Matrix.
• Synthetic organ models for medical device development from
• A platform that connects travellers to healthcare services from
• A navigation system to help surgeons position implants from .

Dr Vjera Magdalenic-Moussavi, Director of Industry Partnerships and Commercialisation (Medicine) at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, said: “It’s great to be here with such as fantastic cohort of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø experts and innovators. We’re making it a priority to deepen our links with companies based here in Japan, building on our strong partnerships with pharmaceutical companies such as Ono, Shionogi and Sumitomo, as well as leading universities and Japan-headquartered global businesses in several other sectors.”