Robin Ketteler wins first prize at UCL Small Molecule Dragons Den

Congratulations to Robin Ketteler, awarded first prize at UCL's Small Molecule Dragons' Den for his pitch on investing in autophagy small molecule compounds.

Hosted by UCL's Drug Discovery Group (TRO), UCL Business and the Drug Discovery Cluster at UCL, the Small Molecule Dragons' Den is an oppportunity to:

Win a personal prize for the best 2 minute pitch chosen by the Dragons
Win a prize for the best pitch chosen by the audience and a prize for the best poster
Receive constructive feedback on your drug discovery idea
Network with pharma, biotech, investors and contract research organisations
Meet others with small molecule drug discovery interests from across UCL and build networks
Understand funding and support opportunities offered by UCL for small molecule drug discovery
Panel members are drawn from pharma, biotech and investment communities with a wealth of experience commercialising small molecule drug discovery ideas.

Highlighted in UCL SLMS August 2018 Bulletin:

UCL Small Molecule Therapeutic Innovation Network - Dragon’s Den 5th July 2018
The UCL Small Molecule Therapeutic Innovation Network (TIN) held its second Dragons’ Den event on 5th July. The event was hosted by the Small Molecule TIN co-chairs Prof Bart Vanhaesebroeck and Dr Richard Angell, and was chaired by Dr Celia Caulcott (Vice-Provost, Enterprise).
Five industry expert panellists were invited to judge a series of small molecule drug discovery pitches from researchers across UCL. Our Dragons were Dr Ena Prosser (Fountain Healthcare), Prof Joanna Holbrook (Benevolent AI), Dr Rick Cousins (GSK), Dr Garry Pairaudeau (AstraZeneca) and Dr Michel de Baar (MSD).
The event provided an excellent insight into the breadth of science and early drug discovery projects on-going at UCL. The Dragon’s Den event was an open invite to researchers from across UCL and friends beyond the UCL community. About 90 people attended the event with an excellent mix of academic and commercial drug discovery experience.
Researchers were invited to deliver a 2-minute pitch with follow-up questions from the Dragons and the audience. As well as judging by the Dragons, a live poll was conducted for the audience to vote on the fundability of each idea. The winning pitch was delivered by Dr Robin Ketteler (MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology), who was awarded £10,000 to go towards his proposal (Further target validation underpinning development of an inhibitor of ATG4B protease for the treatment of pancreatic cancer).
We would like to thank all of the researchers who agreed to be ‘thrown to our Dragons’! They did a great job and their science made for a really interesting afternoon.
Thanks also to UCL Innovation and Enterprise who supported our event and provided the prize for the winning pitch. More information on the Small Molecule TIN can be found at- http://www.ucl.ac.uk/slms/ovph/TINs/small-molecules

For more about Robin's research click here.