Biotech firm Sensible Biotechnologies raises £35.5m led by Oxford Science Enterprises
This article covers Sensible Biotechnologies, a biotech startup, which has raised £35.5m in a series A funding round to scale a cell-based platform for producing naturally modified mRNA and to build clinical-grade manufacturing capacity. The financing aims to address manufacturing and immunogenicity limits of conventional synthetic mRNA and to broaden mRNA use from vaccines into therapeutics that require higher or repeated dosing.
Sensible Biotechnologies, a biotech startup, has raised £35.5m in a series A funding round to scale a cell-based platform for producing naturally modified mRNA and to build clinical-grade manufacturing capacity. The financing aims to address manufacturing and immunogenicity limits of conventional synthetic mRNA and could broaden mRNA use from vaccines into therapeutics that require higher or repeated dosing.
Why it matters
mRNA turned into a mainstream tool during the pandemic because it enabled fast vaccine design and production. But translating that success into broader therapeutic areas — in vivo CAR-T, gene editing, cancer immunotherapy and other repeated- or high-dose indications — has been constrained by manufacturing cost, supply-chain complexity and unwanted immune responses tied to synthetic mRNA processes.
Sensible’s approach, which uses engineered eukaryotic cells to make naturally modified mRNA, targets those bottlenecks. If it delivers on claims of lower immunogenicity and higher protein expression at scale, it could change the economics and feasibility of mRNA therapeutics beyond vaccines.
Inside the product
Sensible’s VECTOR platform (Versatile Engine for Cell-based Therapeutic Optimisation of RNA) combines AI-enabled sequence design, high-throughput screening and proprietary engineered cells to produce what the company calls cell-made mRNA. Its PromPT technology is used to capture and protect mRNA inside cells before purification.
According to the company, external evaluations showed VECTOR-produced mRNA with no detectable double-stranded RNA contamination, reduced cytokine activation and higher protein expression versus synthetic mRNA in human immune-cell assays. The platform is intended to lower reliance on specialised raw materials used in chemical synthesis and to simplify supply chains by integrating design and manufacture within one loop.
The company has an industrial partnership with Sartorius to scale the cell-based process toward clinical-grade mRNA manufacturing. Sensible also points to peer-reviewed work on its cell-based circular RNA manufacturing published in Nature Biotechnology and Cell Chemical Biology.
Who are the investors?
The series A was led by Oxford Science Enterprises and included participation from OTB Ventures and In-Q-Tel alongside returning backers Recode Ventures, Isomer Capital, Y Combinator, Backed VC, Kaya VC, Civilization Ventures and BlueYard Capital. Individual investors named in the round include the family office of Christoph Huber, co-founder of BioNTech, and Tim Garnett, former chief medical officer at Eli Lilly. The financing package also includes up to £15.1m in non-dilutive funding from the Government of Slovakia and the European Union.
As part of the financing, Dr Vishal Gulati, FMedSci, Managing Partner at Recode Ventures, and Joel Schoppig, Partner at Oxford Science Enterprises, will join Sensible’s board alongside co-founders Miroslav Gasparek and Dr Marian Kupculak.
The announcement, Joel Schoppig, Partner at Oxford Science Enterprises and Board Member at Sensible, said:
The promise of computational drug design depends on connecting it to biology and the practical work of making a medicine. How mRNA is made can shape how it behaves, so manufacturing matters from the very start of developing a treatment. Sensible brings design and cell-based production together, giving the team an opportunity to improve both the performance of mRNA and the economics of making it. We led this round because we believe in the team’s ability to build a company that helps pharmaceutical partners develop a broader range of mRNA medicines. With this investment, Sensible can advance toward clinical-grade production and expand the pharmaceutical partnerships that will drive its commercial growth.
The announcement, Dr Vishal Gulati, FMedSci, Managing Partner at Recode Ventures and Board Member at Sensible, said:
The next wave of mRNA medicines reaches far beyond vaccines: in vivo CAR-T, gene editing, and cancer immunotherapy. Yet much of that promise is capped by the limits of today's mRNA design and manufacturing. Sensible has rebuilt the process from first principles. Its cell-based platform brings design, optimisation and manufacturing into a single loop, producing purer, low-immunogenicity mRNA at industrial scale. That is why we backed Sensible from its earliest round.
The announcement, Kamil Šaško, Minister of Health of the Slovak Republic, said:
Sensible represents exactly that kind of scientific innovation that can help shape the future of medicine. Its work to develop a new generation of mRNA technologies reflects the strength of biotechnology innovation emerging from Slovakia and Europe. We are proud to support Sensible as it advances pioneering science with the potential to enable better medicines, expand the possibilities of mRNA therapeutics, and ultimately improve the lives of patients around the world. Such support is an investment Europe truly needs not only in scientific progress, but in our ability to lead the next generation of biotechnology and healthcare innovation.
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Founder perspective
The announcement, Miroslav Gasparek, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Sensible Biotechnologies, said:
mRNA transformed vaccines, but we believe its greatest potential lies in therapeutics. The field still relies largely on synthetic manufacturing technology developed more than 40 years ago. We are taking a fundamentally different approach, using living cells to produce naturally modified mRNA while reducing the cost and supply-chain constraints of conventional production. With this financing, we can scale our platform and expand mRNA into therapeutic applications requiring high or repeated dosing that have historically been limited by cost.
The bigger picture
This round sits at the intersection of a few trends: renewed investment in mRNA beyond vaccines, interest in manufacturing-first biotech strategies, and the push to build regional capacity for clinical-grade biologics in Europe. Sensible’s cell-based manufacturing approach is one of several technical bets aimed at making mRNA therapeutics more economical and less immunogenic.
For UK and European biotech observers, the deal is notable for combining private capital with public non-dilutive support and for the involvement of technology-focused investors alongside traditional biotech backers. If Sensible’s platform advances to clinical-grade production and proves reproducible at scale, it could become a component of a more resilient European mRNA supply chain and influence how pharmaceutical partners approach mRNA therapeutic programmes.
They've invested in Sensible Biotechnologies
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