The o2h Kickstarter Award: Empowering the Future of Biotech Innovation
o2h Discovery is a full-service Contract Research Organisation with R&D sites in Ahmedabad, India, and Cambridge, UK. With over 800 scientists and support staff, we’ve spent two decades partnering with biotech and pharmaceutical companies to advance discovery programmes across the globe.
Over these 20 years, we have worked closely with early-stage biotech companies, visionary academics, founders, and innovators determined to push the boundaries of therapeutic science. While a handful of such companies secure significant funding from day one, the reality is that most struggle to generate the early experimental data needed to attract credible venture capital. These are often the most complex and resource-intensive stages of the journey: hit identification, lead generation, and candidate optimisation. Limited access to expertise, infrastructure, or funding can easily slow or even stall progress.
This challenge sparked a simple but powerful question: How could o2h Discovery support these fledgling biotech companies from an early stage to generate the critical data that they need to attract further funding?
The answer became the o2h Discovery Kickstarter Award.
Born from this concept, the Kickstarter Award was created to empower innovators by providing substantial chemistry support, along with discounted access to a broader suite of biology services. The idea was straightforward: if we could help early-stage companies validate their hypotheses and accelerate their science, they’d be better positioned to grow and, over time, potentially explore deeper collaboration with o2h Discovery. A true win-win for both parties!
Why Biotechs Choose the o2h Kickstarter to Accelerate Their Discovery Programs?
Since its launch in 2022, the o2h Discovery Kickstarter Award has become a trusted bridge between breakthrough ideas and the early data needed to bring them to life. Early-stage Biotech companies choose this program because it gives them access to an integrated discovery platform spanning chemistry, biology, and computational science, resources that are often out of reach for early-stage teams.
Beyond lab capability, the Kickstarter offers direct scientific guidance and strategic mentorship from o2h Discovery’s experienced scientific team. This combination of infrastructure, expertise, and hands-on support helps emerging biotechs generate meaningful early data, achieve critical milestones faster, refine their scientific strategy, and position themselves for follow-on funding.
Global Reach and Growing Impact
o2h Kickstarter Success Stories: Transforming ideas into Impact
The following success stories highlight how early-stage innovators have leveraged the o2h Kickstarter to translate vision into validated data, contributing to advancing human health and global innovation in drug discovery.
Case Study 1: Serenatis Bio – Turning Concepts into Validated Data
Challenge:
Serenatis Bio, a pioneering biotech start-up, is developing novel therapeutics for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), targeting multiple mechanisms of action through a precision medicine approach.
The company needed early experimental validation to support its scientific strategy and attract follow-on funding. To read more about Serenatis Bio, please visit: http://www.serenatisbio.com
o2h’s Approach:
Through the Kickstarter program, o2h Discovery provided early discovery support and data generation, helping Serenatis move a lead asset from concept to validated results.
Outcome:
The collaboration bridged the gap between concept and data, giving Serenatis the confidence and evidence to refine its research direction and secure further investment.
“We’re super pleased with the results of our collaboration with the o2h Kickstarter programme. It gave us the opportunity to move our scientific ideas for one of our assets from concept towards reality, generating high-quality data that will be critical in shaping our research strategy for this particular approach to treating OCD. Beyond the science, the programme provided momentum and confidence to push forward, helping us define the next phase of our work. For an emerging biotech like ours, this kind of early support is truly invaluable.”
– Nick Sireau, CEO & Co-founder, Serenatis Bio
Case Study 2: Breakloop Bio – Catalysing Discovery Across Complex Targets
Challenge:
Breakloop Bio focuses on developing therapeutics for multifactorial chronic diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer’s, and Long-COVID. Working across these diverse and complex pathways required reliable chemistry and biology integration to accelerate their early discovery work. To read more about Breakloop Bio, please visit: https://www.linkedin.com/company/breakloop/
o2h’s Approach:
The Kickstarter award provided integrated chemistry and biology support, enabling the team to advance their first discovery projects with scientific confidence.
Outcome:
The collaboration gave Breakloop’s team the scientific foundation and confidence to progress their initial programs efficiently.
“We’re delighted to receive o2h’s Kickstarter award this year. Our primary mission is developing therapeutics to safely target processes shared by many neurodegenerative diseases aswell as chronic cognitive, fatigue, and pain disorders, o2h’s support of this mission is truly inspiring, and the expertise of their chemistry and biology teams serves as a vital catalyst forour first two discovery projects!”
– Mathew Gray-Davies, Director & Head of Discovery, Breakloop Bio
Testimonial
Case Study 3: Type6 Therapeutics – Accelerating Lead-Series Expansion
Challenge:
Type6 Therapeutics, a precision oncology company, is pioneering next-generation kinase inhibitors to overcome long-standing challenges of selectivity and durability. They required expert medicinal chemistry support to expand and refine their lead series efficiently. To read more about Type6 Therapeutics, please visit: https://www.type6tx.com/
o2h’s Approach:
Through the Kickstarter program, o2h Discovery provided chemistry expertise, executing rapid iterative synthesis to explore key structure-activity relationships within the CDK2i series.
Outcome:
Type6 accelerated its lead-series expansion and met early discovery goals faster than expected, supported by professional, agile chemistry execution.
“o2h’s Kickstarter Award has significantly accelerated our lead-series expansion plans, thanks to a professional team that has been over-delivering on some rather challenging andexciting chemistry!”
–Gert Kiss, Co-founder & CEO, Type6 Therapeutics
Case Study 4: Cellestial Health – Expanding a Novel Pipeline with Strategic Support
Challenge:
Cellestial Health, a University of Cambridge spin-out, is pioneering a new approach to treating Parkinson’s disease by focusing on astrocytes rather than neurons. To advance their hypothesis and build a credible pipeline, they needed both strategic and technical support in small-molecule design. To read more about Cellestial Health, please visit: https://cellestialhealth.com/
o2h’s Approach:
The Kickstarter provided synthesis support and strategic planning, helping the team expand their library of astrocyte-protective small molecules and refine development strategy.
Outcome:
The collaboration allowed Cellestial to move from hypothesis to pipeline development, laying the foundation for future disease-modifying drug candidates.
“At Cellestial, our goal is to maximise patient benefit that our treatments can offer. Small molecule therapeutics remain the most scalable form of treatment modality, meaning that morepeople around the world can benefit from them. We are proud to partner with o2h to expand our pipeline of astrocyte-protective small molecule drugs. The expertise provided both onhe conceptual planning stage as well as the synthesis efficiency is world-class!“
–Dr. Nat Hastings, CEO, Cellestial Health
Testimonial
Case Study 5: Persephoni BioPartners / InnoVira Therapeutics – De-risking Early Antiviral Discovery
Challenge:
InnoVira Therapeutics, a Persephoni BioPartners portfolio company, is developing the world’s first EBV-specific antiviral therapy targeting the root cause of multiple sclerosis and other EBV-linked diseases. To advance toward the clinic, they needed efficient chemistry support and candidate validation. To read more about Persephoni Biopartners, please visit: https://persephonibio.com/
o2h’s Approach:
The Kickstarter award provided high-quality medicinal chemistry support to accelerate lead identification and advance selective, cell-penetrant molecules.
Outcome:
The project helped InnoVira achieve faster progress, generate robust candidate data, and move closer to its clinical development goals.
“Persephoni Biopartners is excited to announce the award of the o2h Kickstarter Program to Innovira Therapeutics, a Persephoni portfolio company focused on developing small molecule medicines. The Kickstarter award will accelerate our early discovery and drive generation of candidates for our lead program. The high quality medicinal chemistry services provided by o2h Discovery are uniquely designed to help startups such as InnoVira reach value milestones more rapidly, which aligns closely with Persephoni’s core mission of de-risking early stage companies to bring novel therapies to patients faster!“
– Hilary Schultz, CEO, Persephoni BioPartners
Testimonial
Building the Future of Drug Discovery Together
These success stories demonstrate what’s possible when scientific ambition meets the right kind of partnership. Each collaboration reflects o2h Discovery’s commitment to combining chemistry, biology, and computational expertise to help innovators advance faster, without compromising scientific depth, creativity, or quality.
Through the o2h Kickstarter, we continue to empower emerging biotechs to overcome R&D hurdles, generate meaningful data, and move one step closer to transforming bold ideas into tomorrow’s medicines.
About o2h Discovery:
o2h Discovery offers a multi-modality, integrated drug discovery platform that supports organisations from target validation through IND-enabling studies. We execute hit-lead-optimisation programmes leading into patent and IND filing with expertise in discovery chemistry, biology, pharmacology, and the ongoing project management of pre-clinical development.
The peptide chemists at o2h Discovery specialise in solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) and custom peptide design, enabling fast, high-purity custom peptide synthesis services to accelerate your research, offering from small quantities of a few milligrams to larger amounts at the gram scale.
Our capabilities go beyond standard peptide synthesis services, offering specialised peptide modification services to customise and optimise peptides for diverse drug discovery programmes. Our clients include large-pharma companies, leading academic institutions, and biotech firms. We’re also available on Scientist.com.
o2h Discovery’s large team of experts also delivers high-quality services, covering DMPK, Scale-Up/PR&D, PROTAC’s (Protac Synthesis Services), LNPs, Medicinal Chemistry Services, various assays, including ChamelogK, supporting organisations of all sizes with cost-effective solutions across the entire discovery workflow.
The DNA of o2h Discovery is centred around the nurturing of its people, values, and culture. It reflects in the way we work with each other, as well as our collaborators and partners.
Ready to accelerate your discovery journey?
Every idea with scientific merit deserves the chance to make an impact. If you’re ready to take your innovation from vision to validation, explore the o2h Kickstarter Program today.
Apply Now – o2h Kickstarter: Global, o2h Kickstarter: Innovate America, o2h Kickstarter: Japan or email us at discovery@o2h.com
