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Do you know who Jonathan Milner is? If you’ve ever worked in a biotech lab, chances are you’ve benefited from his legacy. The founder of Abcam, Jonathan Milner, transformed the way scientists access antibodies. Under his leadership as chief executive officer (CEO) until 2014, Abcam grew into a multinational entity with a market capitalization of approximately £3 billion.
In 2023, Abcam became the subject of a $5.7 billion acquisition bid by Danaher Corporation. Jonathan Milner, holding a 6.14% stake in Abcam, publicly opposed the deal, arguing that the $24 per share offer undervalued the company. Despite his efforts, the acquisition was completed in December 2023.
With his 6.14% stake in Abcam, amounting to approximately 14 million shares at the time of its acquisition by Danaher at $24.00 a share, Jonathan Milner must have received around $336 million in the process. For most, such a windfall might signal a peaceful retirement. For Jonathan Milner, it marked the start of an ambitious investment spree.
Indeed, Jonathan Milner has embarked on extensive investments, channeling funds into various biotech startups. What’s driving this sudden spree? Is it a well-calculated strategy, or a bold move fueled by his cash-out from the Abcam acquisition? Let’s take a closer look at the biotech empire Milner is building one startup at a time.
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A look into Jonathan Milner’s 2024 portfolio additions
Since Abcam was acquired in December 2023, Jonathan Milner has had the time to take part in nine funding rounds – from companies where he already had stakes in or sometimes as a new investor.
We listed the rounds below:
Relation Therapeutics
- Investment date: March 14, 2024
- Stage and amount of the funding: $35 million seed round
- Technology focus: Drug discovery; machine learning
Relation Therapeutics is a biotech startup focused on using machine learning to improve drug discovery and development. By combining computational tools with biological data, the company aims to make the process of identifying new drug candidates faster and more cost-effective.
A key feature of Relation’s approach is its machine-learning platform, which analyzes complex datasets to uncover potential therapeutic targets. In addition to the identification of new drugs this platform can allow the repurposing of existing ones, with a focus on addressing rare diseases.
Healx
- Investment date: August 1, 2024
- Stage and amount of the funding: $47 million series C
- Technology focus: AI Drug discovery, rare diseases
Healx specializes in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate the discovery and development of treatments for rare diseases with its platform Healnet.
One of Healx’s key strategies is drug repurposing – identifying new applications for existing drugs. This not only accelerates the time to clinical trials but also lowers the risk of failure, as these compounds already have established safety profiles. The company has a particular focus on neurodegenerative and genetic diseases, such as neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), for which Healx is advancing a combination therapy into phase 2 trials.
PhoreMost
- Investment date: September 10, 2024
- Stage and amount of the funding: $50 million extended series B
- Technology focus: Drug discovery, protein degraders
PhoreMost is a UK-based biopharmaceutical company dedicated to expanding the druggable space in disease treatment through its SITESEEKER platform. This phenotypic screening technology utilizes PROTEINi – genetically encoded micro-proteins – to perturb disease biology in novel ways, enabling the identification of new drug targets and previously hidden druggable sites across the human proteome.
A key focus of PhoreMost is targeted protein degradation, a therapeutic approach that eliminates disease-associated proteins by leveraging the cell’s natural degradation machinery. The company has developed the GlueSEEKER platform to systematically discover molecular glue degraders (MGDs), small molecules that induce proximity between target proteins and E3 ligases, leading to targeted protein degradation.
The most recent funding round will contribute to advancing oncology and inflammation degrader programs.
LIfT BioSciences
- Investment date: September 24, 2024
- Stage and amount of the funding: $10 million series A
- Technology focus: Cell therapies for cancer treatment
LIfT BioSciences is focused on developing first-in-class allogeneic innate cell therapies for cancer. Their lead program, Neutrophil Only Leukocyte Infusion Therapy (N-LIfT), is designed to combat solid tumors using engineered neutrophils.
Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell and an essential component of the innate immune system, naturally tasked with targeting and neutralizing harmful cells. LIfT BioSciences takes this natural ability further by engineering neutrophils in the lab to enhance their tumor-killing potential. These cells are pre-activated to recognize and destroy cancer cells more effectively while sparing healthy tissue.
What sets N-LIfT apart is its allogeneic design, meaning the neutrophils are derived from healthy donors and manufactured in a scalable process. This approach ensures an off-the-shelf therapy that avoids the time-consuming process of patient-specific (autologous) cell production.
Constructive Bio
- Investment date: September 24, 2024
- Stage and amount of the funding: $58 million series A
- Technology focus: Synthetic genomics
Focused on engineering novel biological systems to address challenges in therapeutics, sustainability, and materials science, Constructive Bio leverages genome rewriting technologies to create living cells capable of producing entirely new biomolecules.
Central to Constructive Bio’s approach is its ability to design and synthesize entire genomes from scratch. This enables the company to program cells with new genetic instructions, allowing them to produce customized proteins, enzymes, and other biologically derived products. Its platform also includes proprietary methods for engineered protein translation, which expands the chemical diversity of proteins beyond natural amino acids, leading to potential applications in drug development and biomaterials.
clock.bio
- Investment date: October 9, 2024
- Stage and amount of the funding: $5.3 million seed round
- Technology focus: Focuses on healthspan extension and cellular rejuvenation
clock.bio is developing therapies designed to extend human healthspan by reversing cellular aging. The company’s core focus is on identifying and utilizing naturally occurring rejuvenation factors – molecular components within the body that have the potential to repair and rejuvenate cells. These factors target key mechanisms of aging, such as senescence, telomere shortening, and mitochondrial dysfunction, to restore cellular vitality.
At the heart of clock.bio’s innovation is its proprietary “Genetic Atlas of Human Rejuvenation Factors.” This database maps the genetic and molecular pathways associated with cellular repair and rejuvenation. By decoding this atlas, the company identifies specific targets that can be leveraged to trigger the body’s ability to heal and regenerate tissues. Their platform integrates insights from genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics to discover novel therapeutic pathways.
One of the company’s major goals is to apply these rejuvenation factors to therapeutic areas such as tissue regeneration and age-related diseases. The technology holds promise for treating conditions like muscle degeneration, skin aging, and other chronic issues linked to cellular decline.
Shift Bioscience
- Investment date: October 15, 2024
- Stage and amount of the funding: $16 million seed round
- Technology focus: Cellular reprogramming, biology of aging
This investment, following the clock.bio investment by less than a week is actually the move that sparked our interest to look into Jonathan Milner’s strategy. Indeed, Shift Bioscience has a very similar focus to clock.bio’s, rewinding the epigenetic clock – meaning improving longevity and tackling age-related diseases.
The company’s technology allows reprogramming cells without inducing a pluripotent state which carries risks such as the potential to form tumors – one of the biggest challenges the cellular reprogramming sector faces.
What sets Shift Bioscience apart is its use of a single-cell aging clock, a gene signature that correlates with the epigenetic clock and can be measured in individual cells. This allows them to perform more experiments in a shorter time frame, a process that would be impossible using traditional methods requiring larger quantities of cells. Shift is also using generative AI-powered simulation to speed the discovery process.
Nuclera
- Investment date: October 16, 2024
- Stage and amount of the funding: $75 million series C
- Technology focus: Protein expression and purification systems
Nuclera is also an interesting investment from Jonathan Milner as it seems to have the ambition to accomplish what Abcam did with antibodies, but with protein production. Maybe Jonathan Milner sees in Nuclera a potential to become the next Abcam.
The company aims to transform the way scientists produce proteins and DNA with its benchtop eProtein Discovery platform. Designed to simplify and accelerate research workflows, this system integrates protein synthesis and purification into a single device that can be operated directly on a laboratory bench.
The platform uses microfluidic and bioengineering technologies to enable on-demand protein production. This eliminates the need for outsourcing or lengthy lab protocols, providing researchers with a faster and more efficient way to produce proteins. The technology holds the potential for accelerating drug discovery, structural biology, and synthetic biology applications.
Epitopea
- Investment date: October 24, 2024
- Stage and amount of the funding: $31 million pre-series A
- Technology focus: RNA-based cancer immunotherapies
Epitopea is advancing cancer immunotherapy by focusing on the discovery and development of novel cancer-specific antigens. These antigens, known as shared neoantigens, are unique to cancer cells and absent in healthy tissues, making them ideal targets for immunotherapeutic interventions.
The company’s proprietary discovery platform combines bioinformatics and molecular biology to identify these shared neoantigens across multiple cancer types. By leveraging these antigens, Epitopea aims to develop therapies that enable the immune system to specifically target and destroy cancer cells while minimizing harm to normal tissues.
What is the strategy behind Jonathan Milner’s investment spree?
First, let’s acknowledge the clear acceleration of investment since September 2024. Indeed, seven out of the nine investments Jonathan Milner made since Abcam’s acquisition by Danaher occurred in this two-month period from September to October.
When we take a look at the stage of the companies that Jonathan Milner has decided to invest in, there is no particular pattern to identify – Milner took part in seed rounds as well as series A to C rounds. This would indicate that the decision driver for him is the technology or the focus area of the company. That might also mean he is not particularly looking for fast exit strategies when investing.
When Jonathan Milner agreed to answer Labiotech’s questions almost eight years ago in 2017, the topic of investment was raised. Milner said that after the Abcam initial public offering (IPO) in 2005, he was able to unlock a “small amount of money”, and this allowed him to follow two of his passions: philanthropy and investments in early-stage life sciences companies.
“I invested in around 30 companies and helped them to grow by supplying not only capital but also mentorship and advice to the founders. I feel that I have a duty to give back what I received from my mentors,” Jonathan Milner said at the time.
This confirms what we had deciphered from the various investments Jonathan Milner made in the last couple of months – it is not only about the money, it is also about helping companies he believes in. As an individual investor, no matter how much the Abcam journey earned him, Jonathan Milner is necessarily less financially stable as a big venture capital firm. But what companies also gain from Jonathan Milner’s investments, is his expertise, not only from his Abcam experience but also from the numerous companies he advised over the years.
His profile is very particular – when he invests in a company, it seems he’s in it for the long run and puts the company’s interest first. Let’s not forget he stepped out of Abcam’s CEO position in September 2014 when he felt he “had taken the company as far as he could.” When he thought Abcam was being undervalued in the Danaher acquisition, he opposed it. You can imagine he will not be afraid to say what he thinks about the strategy to the board of the company he invests in.
That being said, is there a particular strategy we can observe from Milner’s investments? What is he building?
The “omics revolution” and AI drug discovery
Back in 2017, when asked about what he was looking forward to in the biotech industry, Jonathan Milner talked about the “omics revolution.”
“There is an exponential growth of omics data – that is, microbiomics, genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, and proteomics – poured into databases all over the world. We’ve barely scratched the surface of that data, which could lead to breakthroughs in drug development. Startups I financed in the space are Repositive, which allows easy access to omics data, and Healx which works on repurposing existing drugs for rare diseases.”
It’s fair to say Milner was already interested in data-driven drug discovery, and even drug repurposing in 2017. Indeed, one of the companies he invested in this year, Healx, was already in Milner’s portfolio in 2017. And Healx isn’t the only company that Milner has stakes in that reflect this interest – PhoreMost, Relation Therapeutics, and even Shift Bioscience to some extent, with its AI-driven simulations.
Since 2017, the integration of omics data with AI has become a cornerstone of innovation in drug discovery. Jonathan Milner’s recent investments reflect this shift, with the companies we listed before all utilizing data-driven approaches to identify and develop new therapies.
What ties these investments together is the synergy between omics and AI. While omics data provides a vast and growing resource of biological insights, AI enables researchers to process and interpret this data at a scale and speed that was previously impossible.
In 2017, Jonathan Milner was already a strong believer in the changes omics were going to bring to drug discovery, and with the progress AI has made in exploiting the data, it’s only logical to see him invest in AI-driven drug discovery and drug repurposing companies.
The immuno-oncology “paradigm shift”
Omics wasn’t the only revolution Jonathan Milner pointed out in his previous Labiotech interview.
“I’ve never seen my oncologist colleagues so excited in their entire 30-year careers. They finally have access to a technology that could potentially cure the disease and not just postpone it. This is really the revolution clinicians have been waiting for,” Milner said in 2017.
Now, if you take a look at the list of investments Jonathan Milner made in the last year, the connection with this statement is clear.
Epitopea’s work on shared neoantigens directly aligns with Milner’s emphasis on innovation in treating solid tumors. By identifying antigens unique to cancer cells, Epitopea develops immunotherapies that enable the immune system to precisely target and eliminate cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue. This approach reflects the paradigm shift Milner described – offering the potential for curative therapies, not just disease management.
In 2017, Jonathan Milner highlighted the untapped potential of immuno-oncology in solid tumors. LIfT BioSciences is tackling this head-on with its N-LIfT, which uses engineered neutrophils to attack and destroy solid tumors.
Additionally, PhoreMost may not be developing immunotherapies directly, but its molecular glue degraders and SITESEEKER platform address previously undruggable targets in cancer. This complements immuno-oncology efforts by expanding the arsenal of tools available to researchers and clinicians. Jonathan Milner is an investor, of course, but he is also an advisor with an impressive network due to his multiple investments, so he might be thinking of synergies between the companies in his portfolio.
Biology of aging and longevity
Not that he mentioned it in 2017, but it seems Jonathan Milner is particularly interested in longevity research. One investment in a company focusing on the biology of aging is one thing; two in the span of a week is a clear indication of the potential he sees in this area.
With a $5.3 million seed round for clock.bio and Shift Bioscience’s $16 million seed funding, these two investments represent some of the earliest-stage rounds in Milner’s portfolio, alongside LifT BioSciences’ $10 million series A. Despite their smaller funding sizes, Milner decided to back these longevity companies early. Does he see them scaling fast or is he simply interested in longevity technology? My guess would be the latter, as Milner’s strategy seems to be driven by a clear interest in the technology itself rather than immediate financial returns.
Perhaps Jonathan Milner is hoping to reclaim some of the time he’s pouring into his investment strategy by backing companies that promise to give it back – through breakthroughs in cellular reprogramming. In a way, his efforts echo the age-old quest for the fountain of youth, a myth that has captivated explorers and dreamers alike for centuries. While the fountain may be a legend, the science Milner is betting on aims to achieve the same dream: slowing down, or even reversing, the clock on aging. He wouldn’t be the first multi-millionaire to embark on such a quest, but he might just be one of the few investing in technologies that could make it real.
Making the best out of his Abcam experience
Abcam revolutionized the way scientists access antibodies. By creating an online platform that centralized antibody sourcing, Abcam streamlined the procurement process for researchers, ensuring reliable quality and reducing the time spent searching for reagents. In 2017, Milner told Labiotech he “was amazed by how you could order books on Amazon back in 1998, and thought this could be applied to research antibodies as well.”
Nuclera, one of Jonathan Milner’s investments, appears poised to follow a similar trajectory – but with proteins and DNA instead of antibodies. The company’s benchtop eProtein Discovery platform integrates protein synthesis and purification into a single device, allowing researchers to produce high-quality proteins on demand without outsourcing. This technology has the potential to transform research workflows in much the same way Abcam did by simplifying and accelerating access to critical tools.
Milner’s experience at Abcam could prove invaluable to Nuclera. Having built a company that successfully identified and addressed a critical gap in the life sciences market, he likely brings strategic insights into scaling operations, building a global customer base, and fostering trust within the scientific community. Moreover, his understanding of researchers’ needs positions him to help Nuclera refine its offerings and target its market effectively.
While Nuclera’s technology is different, the parallels with Abcam’s journey are clear: both aim to democratize access to essential research tools, saving scientists time and resources. With Milner’s guidance and vision as a non-executive chairman of the board of directors, Nuclera could similarly establish itself as an indispensable player in the life sciences ecosystem.
What to think of Jonathan Milner’s biotech investment strategy?
The biotech investment world is not without cautionary tales. Neil Woodford, another high-profile U.K. investor, made headlines for his ambitious bets on early-stage biotech companies. Once celebrated as one of Britain’s leading fund managers, Woodford experienced a dramatic fall from grace due to the collapse of his investment firm in 2019.
His investment approach was primarily driven by a focus on long-term returns, often involving high-conviction bets on undervalued companies, including early-stage and unlisted firms. This strategy led to significant exposure to illiquid assets, which became problematic when investors sought to withdraw funds, ultimately resulting in the suspension of his fund.
In contrast, Jonathan Milner’s investment strategy appears to be more technology and interest-driven. Unlike Woodford, Milner has a background deeply rooted in scientific research and biotechnology. His recent investments seem to indicate a passion for advancing scientific progress, possibly prioritizing technological impact alongside financial returns.
While both investors have shown a willingness to support early-stage companies, Woodford’s strategy was heavily centered on achieving high returns through undervalued assets, leading to significant liquidity issues. Milner’s approach, however, seems to balance financial objectives with a genuine interest in fostering technological advancements in biotechnology.
We reached out to Jonathan Milner for comments on this investment spree since the acquisition of Abcam but couldn’t get an interview. On our side, we will keep a close eye on his next moves.
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