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Who's at Helix? | Jurek Kozyra on faster diagnostics, drug development and growing Nanovery in Newcastle
You can browse our occupier directory and see the organisations that call Newcastle Helix home. But our Who's at Helix? series is about getting beyond the names and meeting the people behind them.
We want to understand what they're working on, the problems they're trying to solve, and what that work could mean in the real world.
Next up, we meet Jurek, founder of Nanovery.
Time matters
When asked about the projects exciting him most right now, Jurek starts with one that reflects Nanovery's original vision: developing faster diagnostic technologies.
Nanovery is working with the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh hospitals on a project exploring disease biomarkers in patients' blood.
Jurek shares a real-world example.
When a patient arrives at A&E following a paracetamol overdose, clinicians may need to quickly assess whether they are at risk of drug-induced liver injury.
Testing for a specific biomarker can take around two days. Using Nanovery's technology, the team has been able to achieve similar results in two to four hours.
For Jurek, it's an exciting example of how years of research could ultimately help clinicians access important information much faster.
When asked whether he would describe Nanovery's work as groundbreaking, his response was understated:
"It's hard to see when you spend so long pushing the boundaries."
After eight years of development, what excites him most is seeing the technology making an impact beyond the lab.
"It works. It works in the hands of customers. It works in the hands of clinicians."
That, for Jurek, is where years of research translate into real-world impact.
Beyond diagnostics
While diagnostics was the original vision behind Nanovery, it's not the only area exciting Jurek at the moment.
The company is currently working with four or five pharmaceutical companies around the world developing a new generation of therapeutics.
Twenty years ago, none of these drugs would have existed on the market. Today, they're emerging as a promising new area of medicine because of their potential to target specific RNA molecules associated with disease.
According to Jurek, one of the biggest challenges isn't creating the drugs themselves, but making sure they reach the parts of the body they're intended to treat.
This is where Nanovery's technology comes in.
Using its testing platform, researchers can measure exactly how much of a drug is reaching specific tissues, helping developers better understand how these therapies behave in the body.
Just as importantly, the test was designed to be simple to use.
"We developed it with simplicity in mind," says Jurek.
In fact, students joining the company on school placements can learn how to use the equipment in the morning and be running the test themselves that same afternoon.
For Jurek, that's an important part of the technology's appeal: delivering detailed scientific insights through a process that's accessible and easy to use.
Why Helix?
Nanovery may be working with organisations across the UK and around the world, but the company's growth story is firmly rooted in Newcastle.
Although Nanovery spent its first year in London, the company relocated to Newcastle shortly before the pandemic.
The move helped strengthen collaborations with local universities, connect the business with regional investment and tap into the area's talent pool.
"Being here early was very capital efficient. But also, there's so much talent in the area."
For Jurek, those connections have played an important role in Nanovery's journey from an early-stage business to a company whose technology is now being used by researchers, customers and clinicians.
Jurek praised:
"I think it's amazing to just be in Newcastle."
