We are excited for several Milner events taking place across Cambridge next week, including our annual Therapeutics Symposium and Pitch Day.
The Milner Therapeutics Symposium will take place on 30 June, and is an opportunity for scientists from academia and industry to discuss the latest research and innovations in the life sciences, and how it could be applied in biotech and pharma to develop new treatments. The Symposium is the largest event of its kind in Cambridge, and features 1-to-1 meeting opportunities, networking sessions and a series of presentations from top scientists from academia and industry.
The Symposium always does a fantastic job of bringing together leading academics, entrepreneurial scientists, and commercial leaders to openly discuss new developments and ideas, thereby leading to important new interactions. The Symposium combines the latest cutting-edge speakers and developments in a social, vibrant, and collaborative environment.
Taking place the day after the Symposium, on 1st July, the Milner Pitch Day will gather together some of the most exciting and innovative early-stage life science companies based at Milner’s bio-incubator, alongside selected national and international companies, to pitch to an audience of investors and corporate ventures.
One of the companies pitching this year is Epitopea, which was based in the Milner Bio-incubator from 2021 to 2025. Dr Jon Moore is CSO and Co-Founder of Epitopea, a cancer immunotherapeutics company developing off-the-shelf RNA-based immunotherapies that target a new class of untapped tumour-specific antigens. With bases in both Montreal and Cambridge, UK, Epitopea is balancing the needs of its key stakeholders by working with the MTI, including its founding university and investors.
Joining the MTI was an extremely attractive proposition. Being positioned at the heart of the Biomedical Campus as part of the Milner Bio-incubator made our initially tiny team feel part of something bigger. We have also benefitted from off the other ecosystem provisions: access to MTI Consortium companies, the Symposium, and Cambridge Gravity.
The MTI Bio-incubator provides space for start-ups with a particular focus on R&D intensive companies working in functional genomics, early target discovery, and therapeutics. Split across its Biomedical Campus Hub and a City Centre Hub, the Bio-incubator facilitates growth for small companies before they secure further funding and move to their own lab space.
Shift Bioscience, a biotech company uncovering the biology of cell rejuvenation to develop new therapies for age-driven diseases, has also benefitted from space and support provided by the Bio-incubator. The Company was founded in 2017, and is based in the Incubator’s City Centre Hub, with additional computational facilities in Toronto, Canada.
As Shift’s team growth started to push the boundaries of the available space at the MTI on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, we were also faced with an unprecedented supply-shortage of lab space in Cambridge, meaning it was hard to vacate the institute. The MTI supported our move from the Biomedical Campus Hub to the City Centre Hub, where we are currently based, which has allowed us to grow the team from 8 to 24 people.
The Milner Institute itself is based at the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre (JCBC) and is home to its Bio-incubator’s Biomedical Campus hub. TRIMTECH Therapeutics – a company developing transformative treatments for CNS and inflammatory disorders by selectively destroying disease-causing protein aggregates – is based at this hub. TRIMTECH is built on 20 years of research into protein degradation mechanisms, and is currently focused on Alzheimer’s disease and Huntingdon’s disease. Led by Nicki Thompson, CEO, the Company closed its $31M seed round in March 2025.
MTI facilities have enabled TRIMTECH to start its operations immediately after closing the seed round, allowing us to commence in-house lab operations from day one. The MTI is one of the best-equipped facilities for young start-ups, allowing early-stage life science companies to focus on delivering on their business plan without the delay and expenses of getting their own facilities up and running. The MTI also supports companies with entrepreneurial networks and events and are very well linked to investor and pharma networks, which can provide important introductions for BD and investment.
To find out more about the Symposium and Pitch Day, and to explore our other upcoming events, please visit the links section below. We are looking forward to welcoming our colleagues and partners in Cambridge next week!
What’s special about the Milner Therapeutics Institute is that as well as world-class facilities, we offer a vibrant collaborative environment where scientific innovation meets entrepreneurial ambition. Our flagship events, such as the annual Symposium and Pitch Day, are central to our mission: the Symposium brings together leading minds from academia and industry to share transformative research, while the Pitch Day offers early-stage companies a platform to connect with global investors. Together, these initiatives, combined with the institute’s extensive network and ongoing outreach programmes, are helping to accelerate the journey from discovery to therapy.
