Virokine Therapeutics Limited (VTL)

Michael Martin, Partner at Anvil Partners, joined the Board of VTL late last year to help them with their funding and corporate strategies. VTL is a biotech start-up which is developing discoveries by the founder in immune cell targeting by viruses (virokines) with potential major applications in immunotherapeutics. These could lead to new treatments for infectious and autoimmune diseases, and cancer. We are currently settingup a new laboratory at the London Bioscience Innovation Centre and initiating pre-clinical studies in the US later in the year in a programme supported by a National Institutes of Health (NIH). The associated studies to date have been funded by grants of over £4 million from the Royal Society, BBSRC, Wellcome Foundation, Gates Foundation and the Higher Education Innovation Fund.