As a fast-moving field that has been identified for high growth in the UK government’s industrial strategy, biotechnology is a fertile area for startup founders. Upcoming research scientists and students are ideally placed to identify and commercialise niche applications for new developments in the food, fuel, chemical, material, and pharmaceutical industries.

However, to flourish, they need an ecosystem with access to seed funding, advice, mentorship and a community of like-minded people. As a specialist field, biotech also needs access to expertise and laboratory space, as well as specialist equipment and datasets. 

This is the ethos behind the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Catalyst (IBIC), an initiative backed by The University of Manchester with the goal of supercharging industrial biotechnology in the north-west, then ultimately across the UK. IBIC is encouraging knowledge exchange, skills development and innovation by linking science, teaching and business.

Build a Biotech: looking beyond the degree

One area where IBIC is making a difference is through Build a Biotech, a competition for early-stage founders, which is run in conjunction with student-led organisation the North West Biotech Initiative (NWBI).

The competition culminated in investment pitches at NWBI’s ‘Beyond the Degree’ seminar. This half-day event was established to provide insight and inspiration to potential entrepreneurs and was attended by 100 students and researchers in late April. Its agenda included sessions with founders of startups and university spinouts who talked frankly about what they’ve learned as founders, the support they valued most and the surprises they’ve experienced along the way.

Official pitching sessions for the Build a Biotech competitions took place in the morning leading up to the seminar, with competition winners selected by a panel of experts from the fields of entrepreneurship, biotechnology and intellectual property. With the startups being focused on ideas that have not yet been patented, the judging sessions were held behind closed doors so that judges could ask detailed questions without infringing intellectual property.

The judges evaluated the finalists’ plans against five criteria: holding unique value, feasibility, investability, novelty, and having a realistic business plan. This gave them the insight to award prize packages that included accelerator mentorship, access to laboratory space and non-equity investment funding of £15k, £5k and £1k for first, second and third place.

Following these official sessions, the founders presented their ideas in an elevator pitch session at the Beyond the Degree seminar, where attendees voted for a public choice winner.

AI-powered tool for female reproductive health

First place in Build a Biotech was awarded to Gynomics, a startup focusing on female reproductive health. The team behind it, Dora Marčec and Isaac Tam, are developing an AI-powered tool that will analyse ‘omics data to predict pregnancy complications early and avoid pre-term labour.

Although the team was only formed in early 2025, the judges felt Gynomics has a good plan to explore commercial options in a clearly defined market.

Founder Dora Marčec said: “At Gynomics, we’re planning to commercialise a test for pregnant women to identify their risk of preterm birth and other complications. Initially, we’ll focus on the business and non-profit sectors, where we face lower barriers to scaling up.

“So far, we have developed a machine learning model that has scored extremely well against research data. Our next step is securing more funding so that we can provide test results for women in partnership with a sequencing partner and secure a patent. As we scale up, we plan to extend our offer to public healthcare providers and eventually develop our own laboratory.

“We’re very excited to win Build a Biotech – and particularly to join the accelerator and win the IBIC funding so we can build Gynomics to the next level.”

Rapid testing to identify good candidates for immunotherapy

Winner of second prize was OncoFlow. Founder Parsa Pirhady aims to develop a fast and affordable test for doctors to identify cancer patients who could benefit from immunotherapy and vaccines. He wants to solve the challenge that some cancer patients have huge potential to benefit from immunotherapy and vaccines but identifying them is currently difficult and costly.

Pirhady delivered a polished pitch and used a lateral flow test to illustrate his vision for testing, as well as setting out his plans for commercialisation. This appealed to the judges as well as seminar attendees, who voted OncoFlow as the winner of the public choice award.

Wide scope of applications and industries

Meanwhile, the high standard of the pitches prompted the judges to award two third prize packages.

One of these was Revine, founded by researchers Adrián Pérez Barreto and Maria Andrea Castillo Bohorquez who want to develop a graphene-based patch for treatment of diabetic limb ulcers using electrostimulation to promote tissue regeneration.

The other third prize winner was Simplex Molecular. Its founder Maribal Montufar has a vision to develop a platform for affordable DNA testing that delivers lab-quality results in under 30 minutes for healthcare, agriculture and environmental monitoring.

Other finalists presented ideas across a wide range of biotech applications and business areas. These included use of novel bacteria for industrial wastewater treatment; generative AI to accelerate the pace of pharmaceutical research; converting visuals to audio-tactile feedback for visually impaired people; and use of engineered bacteria as a patient-friendly treatment for digestive ailments.

The Build a Biotech competition proves entrepreneurship has huge potential to contribute toward a sustainable bioeconomy in the UK. It has applications in the food, fuel, chemical, material and pharmaceutical sectors.

It’s essential to create an ecosystem so that startups, scaleups and enterprises alike have access to the people, knowledge, skills and facilities they need, as well as a place to connect and exchange knowledge – and that’s what IBIC is looking to develop with the Build a Biotech competition and other initiatives.