OxStem has raised a record £16.9m, and established strategic partnerships with world class biotechnology companies and individual investors in this rapidly emerging scientific space. The funding will be used primarily for the development of pre-clinical small molecule drug candidates. OxStem plans to develop small molecule drugs that can activate repair mechanisms that already exist within the body. Building on decades of experience in medicinal chemistry, OxStem will design drugs that can programme resident stem and stem-like cells in situ to treat currently untreatable age-related conditions. This will be the sixth spinout for OxStem co-founder Professor Steve Davies from Oxford’s Department of Chemistry. Co-founders Professor Dame Kay Davies and Professor Angela Russell are also serial entrepreneurs with a number of drug-development spinouts to their names. OxStem will fund the development of a series of daughter companies - each with a focus on a different large unmet therapeutic need. The first of these companies is OxStem Oncology, which will investigate the potential for intervening in therapy-resistant cancers. The team will focus initially on Acute Myeloid Leukaemia and Myelodysplastic Syndromes with a view to expanding to other conditions over time. Plans are well advanced for the subsequent launch of OxStem Cardio, OxStem Neuro and OxStem Ocular to apply the stem cell technology to developing therapies for cardiac failure, neurodegenerative diseases, and macular degeneration.