Maxion Therapeutics wins ‘Start-up of the Year’ at 2023 Cambridge Independent Science & Technology Awards

24 May 2023

Recognition of company’s technology, progress, and stellar team, including co-founders John McCafferty and Aneesh Karatt Vellatt

Dr John McCafferty (CEO and co-founder) and Dr Aneesh Karatt Vellatt (CSO and co-founder).

Cambridge, UK – Maxion Therapeutics is pleased to announce its ‘Start-up of the Year’ win at the 2023 Cambridge Independent Science & Technology Awards. It was selected by a panel of judges from a competitive shortlist of impressive Cambridge-based finalists. In their sixth year, the Awards are recognised as a celebration of the extraordinary talent in the region across a host of science and technology sectors.

Dr John McCafferty, CEO and co-founder of Maxion Therapeutics, said:

This award recognises Maxion’s strong start with significant funding success, the strength of our team, and above all, the potential of our novel KnotBody technology as we work towards developing life-changing therapeutics for diseases with high unmet need. We would like to thank the Awards organisers and judges for their contributions.

Dr John McCafferty

maxion team

Maxion Therapeutics team.

Daniel Zeichner, MP for Cambridge, who attended the Awards ceremony along with a small delegation from Maxion and other Awards finalists on 18May, said that the Awards celebrate “the very best in science and technology in and around Cambridge.”

Maxion’s KnotBody technology combines the power of millions of years of cysteine-rich miniprotein (‘Knottin’) evolution with state-of-the-art phage and mammalian display technologies. It addresses key challenges in drug discovery for ion channels and GPCRs, which are critical cell surface proteins involved in a wide range of untreated or poorly-treated diseases, including autoimmune diseases (AID) and chronic pain.

Last month, Maxion announced it had been awarded a prestigious £2 million grant from Innovate UK to apply its propriety KnotBody® platform to develop antibodies to treat AID with high unmet clinical need. In February 2023, the company announced the completion of its £13 million Series A financing round. The company is currently developing its KnotBody pipeline, including candidates with significant potential to be first-in-class and best-in-class therapeutics.