Co-Founder, next generation therapeutics for Parkinson's (Open Application)

ABOUT THE ROLE

This is an open application for expressions of interest. Active recruitment for the role will begin in Q4 2024.

At DSV we’re looking for future Founders, entrepreneurially minded individuals with industry-specific technical and commercial domain expertise who are eager to solve urgent unmet challenges through venture building.

You will join DSV’s venture creation programme as a Co-Founder in Residence and work closely with the DSV team, using our methodology, to spin-out a new company. During the programme, you’ll work on all aspects related to venture creation in this opportunity area, including working out the optimal approach to solve for the desired outcome, building a team and building a viable business case. Once the new venture is incorporated with pre-seed investment from DSV, you and your co-founders will own the majority stake in the business and continue receiving support from the DSV team post-spinout.

The role is full-time and fully remote until venture incorporation and spin-out.

THE OPPORTUNITY AREA
Over 6 million individuals live with Parkinson’s today, and this number is projected to reach 12 million globally by 2040 as populations age. Whilst current therapies do offer symptomatic relief from debilitating cognitive and motor symptoms, no clinically approved drug intervenes at root cause, meaning disease progression cannot be prevented. In addition, emerging therapeutics which show great promise in animal models often fail to translate in the clinical setting, with even the most successful clinical trials reporting incremental benefit, often capped by dose limiting toxicity. 

To address this, we are partnering with Parkinson’s UK to develop precise, next generation therapies which target true disease modifying nodes in previously unimagined ways. As Parkinson's is a multi-pathway pathology, spanning oxidative stress, impaired autophagy, mitochondrial dysfunction and neuroinflammation, the efficacy of single pathway approaches is constrained. Therefore, we will target master homeostatic regulators which can simultaneously correct numerous impaired pathways, changing disease course. We believe this has the potential to transform patient lives by slowing, halting or even reversing disease progression.

Requirements

Essential (must-have):
- PhD in neuroscience or related field

-Extensive, systems-level knowledge of neurodegenerative disease, preferably Parkinson’s, including at the cellular and molecular level

-Exposure to biotech or pharma, with a strong understanding of the therapeutic development process.

- Entrepreneurial spirit, likely demonstrated through impactful innovation

- You are innovative, creative, and guided by first-principles thinking

- You are highly motivated to create curative solutions for Parkinson’s patients

Preferred (nice-to-have):
- Awareness of biotech partnering and investment priorities

- In-depth knowledge of advanced therapies including genetic modalities

- Expertise in oxidative stress and/or neuroprotective pathways

- Extensive understanding of the clinical and preclinical treatment development landscape for Parkinson's

- Experience leading teams in a startup environment or previous founding experience

- VC exposure and proven track record raising capital

Benefits

OUR OFFER
Joining DSV means becoming part of a team comprising seasoned operators who have founded companies and led scientific translation efforts at prestigious institutions. Our team brings a wealth of experience, with two-thirds having founded or led companies at the C-suite level, and 65% holding PhDs. We offer tailored guidance, resources, and feedback covering all aspects of launching a new venture, including technological and commercial perspectives:

We provide purpose-built tools, resources, and processes to create high-impact ventures from scratch, leveraging our venture creation methodology.

Opportunity area-specific expertise is available through our network of partners and advisors.

We offer up to £250k in investment, from DSV and other partners, to incorporate the new venture and generate early proof-of-concept data.

Each Founder in Residence receives a guaranteed income of £4,166 per month as a consultancy fee until the company is launched and pre-seed investment is secured.

Founders and co-founders retain a majority equity stake in the company.

We offer ongoing support post-spinout, including fundraising, commercial partnerships, recruitment, and team-building.

Our collaborative environment includes dozens of founders across sectors, providing a unique resource for support and collaboration.

ABOUT DSV

Deep Science Ventures is creating a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive. 

We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out and invest into science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures. 

We operate in 4 sectors: Pharmaceuticals, Climate, Agriculture and Computation, tackling the challenges defining those areas by taking a first principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.