ONE BioHub

ONE Life Sciences and BioAberdeen Chair and CEO of Novabiotics, Dr Deborah O’Neil OBE FRSE recently joined The Long Game podcast to discuss her role in helping grow Aberdeen’s innovation journey and life sciences ecosystem. The podcast is run by Sandy Weir, an experienced professional in technology, innovation and strategic delivery and Ross Cagan, Regius Professor of Precision Medicine at the University of Glasgow whose teams build new therapies for cancer and rare diseases.

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Throughout the episode, Deborah explores topics from biotech entrepreneurship in Scotland to tackling antimicrobial resistance and building regional biotech ecosystems. In part 1, Deborah dives into the science and history behind NovaBiotics. An immunologist by training, Deborah made the transition from lab scientist to CEO, founding NovaBiotics in 2004 to help tackle antimicrobial resistance using the innate immune system as the blueprint for the development of new therapies. Commenting on her reasons for spinning out the company, Deborah describes how in order to develop these much needed therapies and deliver them to patients, her work could no longer just be a research project funded through research grants.

In part 2 of the episode, Deborah describes how 20 years ago limited access to lab facilities in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire created a wet lab bottleneck preventing NovaBiotics from spinning out. The wet lab team were spread across different companies and facilities where there was limited lab space available before moving onto their own converted lab space. However, this meant the company had to invest a lot more in capital and time to run facilities to become a standalone business.

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When ONE BioHub based on Foresterhill Health Campus in Aberdeen was built, it provided NovaBiotics with the opportunity to move into a bespoke, category 2, turn key lab space and focus on its R&D.

However, for many life sciences founders access to business support and a strong surrounding network, not just bespoke facilities, is key to the success of their companies. Deborah shares what makes ONE BioHub so valuable to these founders. Describing ONE BioHub as the central core for the life sciences ecosystem in the north east of Scotland, Deborah commented:

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“Beyond the space, ONE BioHub offers support for businesses and founders, whether that’s MIT venture mentoring, intensive sessions on adopting AI into your business, business fundamentals, finance for founders, networking sessions to connect start-ups to IP attorneys. Being on the Foresterhill campus is also really important for the triple helix environment to connect our companies and founders with clinicians and NHS Grampian Innovation Hub, The Institute of Medical Sciences and The Rowett Institute.”

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Later in the episode, Deborah dives into Aberdeen’s life sciences sector, highlighting its strong history of innovation and commercialisation as well as the potential impact on Scotland’s economy in the future.

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“The potential economic impact of the sector here and our businesses is absolutely enormous. We already have companies and founders here that are looking beyond the science. These are founders with ambition to commercialise.”

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You can listen to the episodes on Spotify and YouTube:

‍ ‍Part 1:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1e493Z3BjbK3JXrNKqUhx1?si=Hce6Zz2tTbKbDA-voj2QjA

‍https://youtu.be/aFwtkIrKHMM?si=j0yApw7RH1AgCJGt

‍ ‍Part 2:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5agrn2EDltWGGNCOEBphpH?si=BaunBSAfR8a9bRB0H8WEmw

https://youtu.be/QOyGkiqP6S8?si=FmYDMVge71qk22Zf

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