Success Story
Magnitude Biosciences, a specialist contract research organisation (CRO) in County Durham offering in vivo discovery of treatments for age-related conditions and other diseases using C. elegans, secured over £706,000 in combined funding to scale up its high-throughput screening (HTS) platform.
Region/Nation | North East |
---|---|
Sector | Life Sciences |
Programme | Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II |
Partner |

The investment was led by Maven’s managed regional funds including NPIF II - Maven Equity Finance, which is managed by Maven as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II, the Finance Durham Fund, established by Durham County Council and overseen by Business Durham, as well as continued support from existing investors Northstar Ventures.
The investment was matched with grant funding from Innovate UK through the Investor Partnerships: Digital Technologies North East programme.
This funding will enable Magnitude Biosciences to enhance its proprietary WormGazer® technology, integrating robotics, machine learning, and liquid culture systems to create a novel HTS platform capable of screening thousands of compounds per week. By rapidly analysing whole-organism data with advanced machine-learning technology, this platform enables pharmaceutical, nutrition, and health supplement companies to quickly identify compounds that may support healthier aging—accelerating discovery, lowering costs, and reducing reliance on traditional animal models.
The expansion will create high-skilled jobs in robotics, software engineering, and biological sciences at the company’s base in NETPark (Sedgefield) strengthening the North East’s reputation as a growing hub for digital and life science innovation.
We’re incredibly grateful for the support from Innovate UK, Maven and Northstar as we scale our HTS platform, This funding accelerates our mission to revolutionise drug discovery bringing life-changing therapies to patients faster, cutting costs and timelines, and transforming how we tackle the world’s toughest-to-treat diseases while reducing dependence on traditional animal models.
- Dr Fozia Saleem CEO,Magnitude Biosciences