OMass Therapeutics makes move to ARC Oxford as it announces new phase of growth
- Move to new purpose-built 16,000ft2 flagship site on ARC Oxford campus to support continued company growth
- Expansion of senior leadership team with the appointment of Winfried Barchet Ph.D. as Vice President of Immunology
OMass Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that identifies medicines against highly validated target ecosystems, today announces the next phase of its growth towards becoming a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company. This includes a move to purpose-designed R&D and office facilities at ARC Oxford, and expansion of its senior leadership team with the appointment of Winfried Barchet Ph.D. as its Vice President of Immunology.
OMass has expanded over the past 12 months, with a total headcount of 55 employees. The new flagship site offers 16,000ft2 of mixed-use space and will enable co-location and enhanced collaboration of discovery research teams from OMass’ former sites in Oxford and Nottingham.
David Williams, Director of Leasing at ARC said: “We’re delighted to be supporting OMass Therapeutics on its growth journey. It’s a leading UK biopharma company at the forefront of innovation in drug discovery. The new building keeps it at the heart of a vibrant ecosystem of innovative companies in Oxford and offers access to communal, social and co-working spaces and a curated programme of events for campus members.”
ARC has fully refurbished the laboratory space to meet OMass’ scientific and technical requirements, including, air handling for mass spectrometry and cell culture, and new facilities for chemistry and structural biology to support ongoing and future drug discovery efforts. Office space has also been designed to better enable collaborative working both on-site and virtually.
Dan Williams, Director of Asset Management at ARC Oxford, said: “We’re delighted that our community of life science organisations is expanding at ARC Oxford. This is testament to Oxfordshire’s thriving science and tech ecosystem, and we’re pleased that our investment into the campus is creating state-of-the-art, fitted laboratory space that fosters innovation and allows our members to continue their growth journey in today’s global economy.”
The Company also continues to expand its senior leadership team and enhance depth of immunology expertise with the recent appointment of Winfried Barchet Ph.D. as its Vice President of Immunology. Winfried brings more than 15 years of project and team leadership experience spanning discovery, translational research and drug discovery in both academia and industry. He joins from IFM Therapeutics where he was the Executive Director of Innate Immunity focusing on drugging targets in the inflammasome and the nucleic acid sensing pathways. Prior to that, he worked at Roche as a discovery area leader in innate immunity and in academia at the University of Bonn where he was the Professor of Translational Immunology at the German Centre for Infection Research.
Ros Deegan, CEO of OMass said: “It is an exciting period of growth for OMass Therapeutics as we move to our new premises, bringing all our staff under one roof, and welcome Winfried to the senior leadership team. Winfried brings a wealth of expertise in immunology as we continue to execute on our plans to discover drugs for previously undruggable targets, and ultimately, bring life changing medicines to patients.”
