When Durham University researchers Dr David Weinkove and physicist Dr Christopher Saunter launched Magnitude Biosciences in 2018, they did so with a clear ambition: to transform how the UK accelerates drug discovery.
Just a few years later, their company is proof of the benefits that research-intensive universities can help innovators deliver — not only for science, but for public health, the NHS and regional economies.
Magnitude Biosciences is a specialist contract research organisation based at NETPark in County Durham, where its team uses tiny Caenorhabditis elegans worms – organisms with neurons, skin, gut, muscles and other tissues similar in genetics to those in humans – to rapidly test the effects of different compounds on ageing, neurodegeneration and overall health. NETPark is a Durham County Council site, managed by the local authority’s business support service, Business Durham.
