In what has turned into an annual event, the BioEscalator hosted its third pitch battle. A fantastic evening with our tenants telling us about the innovative research and cutting-edge science going on in the BioEscalator.
The judges this year were:
- Elen Wade-Martins, BioEscalator Business Manager
- Margaret Duffy, Co-Founder and CSO of Theolytics (a BioEscalator alumni company)
- Sarah Deakin, Principal Licensing and Ventures Manager at Oxford University Innovation
- Rebecca Todd, Investment Director at Longwall Ventures Partners LLP
Left to right: Elen Wade-Martins, Margaret Duffy, Sarah Deakin, and Rebecca Todd.
The panel commended the quality of all the pitches; however, the presentation given by Jonathan Kwok from Infinitopes stood out as the overall winner. Prize money of £2000 was awarded to Infinitopes along with the coveted BioEscalator Pitch Battle 2022 Best Pitch trophy.
Infinitopes is one of the BioEscalator's more recent residents, joining the community in January 2022. It is a Cancer Research UK (CRUK)-supported company of expert doctors and scientists from Oxford University's oncology, immunology, antigen discovery, vaccinology and biomanufacturing departments. The company is pushing the boundaries of science and medicine to identify hidden tumour targets to create high-efficiency vaccines. Infinitopes is developing these to be affordable to healthcare systems and patients to save many lives in the future.
It was fantastic to hear about all the great science happening in the building. The event was a lot of fun. We promise to invest the generous £2k with the duty of care and passion for science.
Jonathan Kwok, CEO of Infinitopes
The winners of the BioEscalator Pitch Battle categories, each winning a coveted trophy, were:
- Best Speaker - Amanda Woon, Head of Research and Development at Exogene
- Best Scientific Explanation and Most Mentions of the BioEscalator - Stephanie Lesage, CEO of Oxford Silk Phage Technologies
- Best Video/Graphics - Cathy Oliveira of Alethiomics
- Best Joke - Piotr Jedryszek of Evolvere Biosciences
- Most Likely Future Unicorn - Oxford Cancer Analytics
Pitch Battle 2022 participants: