Core team

We are a special breed of scientists with an entrepreneurial aptitude. We form the backbone of the Panacea ecosystem and enjoy nothing more than working with smart people, asking big questions and solving the grandest challenges.

PanaceaStars (previously known as BioStars) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Panacea Innovation, which we proudly started and continue to operate from Oxford, United Kingdom, at the beating heart of one of the world’s most promising deep science clusters, while also expanding our outreach globally to support all aspiring sci-entrepreneurs.

Faculty and Judges

As part of our network, we have a high caliber of judges and faculty who host workshops and seminars during our bootcamp events.

Prof. Melissa Hanna-Brown

Tech and Innovation Lead at Pfizer

Maria Dahl

Business Development Director at AstraZeneca

Ian Campbell

Chief Executive at Innovate UK

Harm-Jan Borgeld

Head Alliance Management at Merck

Graeme Martin

Ex Chief Executive Officer at Takeda Ventures

Erik Nordkamp

UK Country Director at Pfizer

Duncan Young

Director, Business Development & Licensing, Oncology at AstraZeneca

Cynthia Bullock

Deputy Director at Innovate UK

Ben Wicks

Head of MedTech at Team Consulting

Andrea Mica

Director at Oxford Technology

Tom Dyar

Manager, External Innovation at Becton Dickinson

Tobias Silberzahn

Partner at McKinsey & Co.

Ruth McKernan

Ex Chief Executive at Innovate UK

Robert Thong

Chief Business Officer at Repositive

Paul Peter Tak

Chief Immunology Officer at GSK

Michael Martin

Chief Executive Officer at Takeda

Michael Lewis

Professor Life Science Innovation at University of Birmingham

Loy Lobo

President, Digital Health Council at Royal Society of Medicine

Peter Sargent

Head of Business Development at NIHR Office for Clinical Research Infrastructure

Mentors

At the beating heart of our ecosystem is an extensive network of 200+ handpicked scientific, financial, corporate and legal global experts devoting their time, knowledge and corporate leverage to guarantee that our startups are on the correct fast-track from day one. They provide unique and relevant support as well as hands-on contributions to the teams.

What our mentors say

“Proud and pleased to support PanaceaStars - not an accelerator or an incubator, but a unique model to rocket-power seed tech & biotech companies UK-wide”

David Grainger, Medicxi

“PanaceaStars is a great platform for early ventures to get experience in business planning and exposure to top-tier investors. I have been acting as a mentor for PanaceaStars companies for the last 4 years and I have helped the companies I have mentored to refine their value added proposition and improve their pitch to potential investors. It has been a pleasure working with world-class teams and learning about the fascinating technologies they want to bring to the market”.

Dr Michalis Papadakis, Brainomix Limited

“I’ve really enjoyed working with Panacea as a mentor over the last few years and have been consistently impressed with the quality of the teams and the science in the start-ups they support. It’s been great to see how Panacea has grown in this time to offer key support to entrepreneurs in the UK and globally”

Duncan Young, AstraZeneca

“I have been involved with PanaceaStars since its inception and have found it to be a standout program. I believe mentors are a key component to the rapid development and commercialisation of innovative ideas and technology and it has been my pleasure to help and support some amazing people through the years."

Stuart Hillston, The Mindful Entrepreneur

“I have been a mentor for the PanaceaStars programme since it first started - I find it to be both fun and rewarding. It is wonderful to have the opportunity to pass on my knowledge and experience in commercialising basic scientific research when working with such intelligent, passionate, driven individuals”

Prof. Kieran Clarke, University of Oxford

“The Oxford entrepreneurial scene is thriving and underpinning this vibrancy are initiatives like PanaceaStars. OUI has worked with the PanaceaStars team since day one and we are delighted to support their efforts to provide deep science entrepreneurs from Oxford and elsewhere with the inspiration, guidance and resources to translate their early stage ideas into meaningful products and services.”