To mark this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Optimum is celebrating the remarkable women across our network by asking them: ‘If you could collaborate with any scientist (past or present) who would it be, and why?’ Their answers were as inspiring as they were diverse, from trailblazing pioneers to modern innovators, […]
Novo Nordisk Foundation grants DKK 5.5 billion to elevate innovation in Denmark and Europe The Novo Nordisk Foundation has allocated up to DKK 5.5 billion (EUR 736 million) to the BioInnovation Institute (BII), a leading institute for life science and deep tech innovation in Copenhagen. The funding will enable BII to expand its activities into […]
It’s no secret that 2025 is turning into a tricky year for life science companies looking to raise cash. Political and economic uncertainty has fed through into a ‘risk-off’ environment. So, when DeepMind spin-out Isomorphic Labs, a London-based AI drug development company, announced last week (March 31) that it had pocketed a huge $600 million […]
Back in mid-January Optimum’s Hot Topics column took a look at life expectancy data and asked the rather depressing question: “Will you live longer than your parents – or not?” Why so downbeat? Because besides stalling life expectancy figures, a slew of other data also seemed to hint that longevity might have peaked: steadily growing […]
The catastrophic fall from grace of the genetic testing app 23 and Me is a salutary lesson for all companies that espouse the use of “big data” in healthcare. Once a leading digital health tech firm, worth $6 billion as recently as 2021, the company is now on the verge of being taken private at […]
