Co-founder and co-CEO of Sixfold, Dr Anna Perdrix Rosell, and Chief Business Officer Dr Tina Flatau, joined some 80 OLS staff in the historic Churchill room at 100 Parliament Street, Westminster, for a session on ‘Challenges & Opportunities for sector development in the UK’.   Sixfold, based at London’s White City Campus, gave an overview of their research in RNA, and how their rapidly growing in vivo data sets and library of delivery vectors are an integral layer of infrastructure that enables the field of RNA therapeutics. 

Dr Perdrix Rosell explained how Sixfold exemplified the creation and growth of a platform and technology-led business in the UK life science environment.  Dr Perdrix Rosell and Dr Flatau answered questions on enablers for sustainable growth of new biopharma businesses, touching upon the entrepreneurial ecosystem, funding, attracting specific talent and infrastructure needs.

The meeting reflected on the UK’s centralised access to clinical development through the NHS, a huge draw to pharmaceutical companies, and noted the value to emerging technology companies of independent review and feedback from UK grant awarding bodies and early communication pathways with the likes of MHRA and NICE.

Sixfold Biosciences is a biotechnology company solving one of the most critical challenges preventing the greater utilization of powerful RNA medicines: delivery. Sixfold’s solution takes evolution as inspiration, learning and mimicking how RNA is naturally delivered to different cell types in the body. Using advanced AI and Bayesian Optimization, Sixfold is learning the language that encodes RNA-shuttle interactions and destination selection, unlocking new cell types for treatment.