Cambridge: Our New Frontier
Presented by the Cambridge Female Founders Network (CFFN), in partnership with Cambridge Wide Open Week (CWOW)
We invite you to join us for a bold two-panel exploration of Cambridge’s most promising and provocative frontiers in the life sciences. As the region redefines its role on the global innovation stage, we ask: What futures are being built right here in Cambridge? What risks are being rewritten? What paradigms disrupted?
🧬 Panel 1: The Synthetic Revolution
Chaired by Dr Nicola Patron (Associate Professor, Department of Plant Sciences)
Nature perfected protein design over billions of years—but in Cambridge, founders are rewriting biology’s rulebook. Synthetic biology is evolving from isolated breakthroughs to integrated systems—reprogramming how we grow food, model disease, and design therapeutics—while raising ethical, socio-economic, and environmental questions that stretch beyond the lab.
We’ll explore how these transformative tools could reshape our health systems, economies, and daily life.
Panelists:
Clarisse Beurrier (Co-Founder & CSO, Cellcraft): Leading innovations in cultured meat to democratize access to sustainable food.
Agata Nyga (Founder & CEO, SynLaia Innovations): Reinforcing human health with mechanomics – unlocking tissue-scale disease mechanisms through multi-modal spatial biology and in silico tissue models.
Serena Kern-Libera (Co-Founder & COO, LinkGevity): Advancing AI-driven therapeutics to combat aging, with applications from Earth to space.
🧠 Panel 2: AI and the Future of Clinical Trials
Chaired by James Thomas (Investor, Cambridge Angels)
What if life-saving treatments could reach patients faster—without a single human trial? Cambridge founders are using AI and digital twins to create virtual patients and reinvent drug testing. These technologies promise speed and precision but can simulations truly reflect the complexity of human biology?
We’ll examine the science, ethics, and regulation behind this leap—and whether virtual trials will transform medicine or reveal new risks.
Panelists:
Irina Babina (CEO, Concr): Enabling personalised cancer therapy via patient-level AI-powered biological modelling.
Charlotte Guzzo (Co-Founder & COO, Sano Genetics): Accelerating personalised medicine with an end-to-end platform for genetic testing and patient engagement.
Zoe Kourtzi (Co-Founder, Prodromic): Transforming dementia care through early, AI-driven prediction to personalise treatment and accelerate clinical trials.
🌱 About CFFN
Cambridge Female Founders Network (CFFN) is a grassroots founder-led community of 150+ women building ambitious ventures across the Cambridge Cluster. From the future of climate tech, oncology care, and food development, our founders are shaping what’s next in one of the world’s oldest innovation ecosystems. We’re developing a coalition-based model and a playbook for how ecosystems can meaningfully support women innovators through capital, collaboration, and strategic access.
Additional Information
Networking: Stay after the panels for tea, coffee, and conversation.
Accessibility: The venue is fully accessible.
Nursing & Breastfeeding: A private space is available—ask at reception or speak to a team member.
Photography: Photos may be taken for web/social use. Let us know on arrival if you prefer not to be photographed.
More Information
🌐 Cambridge Female Founders Network (CFFN)
🌐 Cambridge Wide Open Week (CWOW)