Business Angel Joins University of York Spinout

Cizzle Biotechnology Ltd, a University of York spinout company, which is developing revolutionary new methods for diagnosing and treating cancer, has appointed Dr Rod Adams as chairman. Dr Adams will also represent the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund (WRTSF), which has supported Cizzle since its inception in 2006.

Rod brings extensive financial and management experience built from approximately 30 years in the healthcare sector to Cizzle. Rod is also chairman of Syntopix Group Plc, another WRTSF company, spinout from the internationally renowned Skin Research Centre at Leeds University. Rod helped to place the company on the Alternative Investment Market in March 2006 and to raise £4 million for the further clinical development of the company's product candidates. He is a Business Angel investing in start-up businesses in the Yorkshire and Humber regions and a non-executive director of Green Chemicals Plc, another Leeds University spinout company.

Previous roles include managing director/founder of Leeds-based companies Adams Healthcare and managing director of DePuy Healthcare, a division of DePuy International (now a Johnson & Johnson company) a world leader in orthopaedic prostheses.

Cizzle Biotechnology was formed to exploit intellectual property related to the Ciz1 gene which promotes DNA replication and is required for cell cycle progression in normal and cancer cells. However, aberrant forms of this gene have been linked to cancers most notably small-cell lung carcinoma and it these altered forms of the gene that Cizzle aims to target in order to develop novel diagnostics and improved therapeutics for cancer.

Commenting on the appointment, David Milroy of Aberdeen Asset Managers Private Equity, who manages the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund, said: “We are delighted to welcome Rod to Cizzle's board.

He brings with him considerable sector and management experience as well as an excellent understanding of what is required to build a successful life sciences business. Cizzle is now in a greatly strengthened position to move forward with its strategy of delivering novel Ciz1-targeted therapeutic products and related diagnostics for cancer.”

Also commenting on this announcement, Rod Adams, chairman of Cizzle, said: “Seedcorn funds are the lifeblood of new spinout businesses and play a major role in turning academic research into viable businesses. After working with WRTSF as a non-executive director for Syntopix, I am very pleased to be joining another portfolio company, which has the potential to develop treatments that could have a very positive affect on the lives of cancer patients.”

Cizzle's founder, Dr Dawn Coverley, chief scientific officer at Cizzle Biotechnology, is a fellow at the University. Prior to White Rose Seedcorn Fund's investment, Dawn's work in this area was supported by Yorkshire Cancer Research and the Yorkshire Forward Bioscience Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship scheme (BYEF).