History

Imagen Therapeutics was set up by two industry experts in High Content Analysis and System Biology. They started their careers in academia, specializing in fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry, before joining AstraZeneca. After several years spent mastering the subtleties of High Content Analysis (HCA), they set up Imagen Therapeutics in 2007 to provide a rapid and flexible High Content Screening service.

In 2013, Imagen Therapeutics (formerly Imagen Biotech) decided to change direction to focus on very specific High Content Screening assays that measure cell death. The idea was to determine whether we could apply our tests to directly screen patient cancers against a larger number of possible chemotherapy treatments. This initial work allowed us to raise approximately £1m from private investors, which we used to develop our initial cancer screen that focused primarily on ovarian cancer.

The company has continued to grow in size with a very strong management team led by Dr Jonathan Engler (CEO) and Mr Steve Kent (Chairman). We have also recently appointed Professor Justin Stebbing as our honorary clinical advisor. Professor Stebbing is a world class Harley Street oncologist who holds a chair at Imperial College London.

Imagen Therapeutics successfully raised a further £1.2m to support the next phase of the development of our chemosensitivity service. This allowed us to relocate into specialized laboratories, built to our specifications, on the grounds of the Manchester Royal Infirmary in December 2015. This move ensures we can easily obtain cancer samples from patients receiving treatment at this hospital, and also several other nearby treatment centres. We have also established procedures for the shipment of both liquid and solid biopsies so that we can offer our chemosensitivity tests to oncology centres around the UK.