Corporate History

Winning the MFIA 2008

Horizon was founded in 2007 by Dr Chris Torrance and Professor Alberto Bardelli and builds upon a 20 year heritage in oncology research, translational medicine and genome-editing. 

The company is a trusted supplier of genetically-defined cell lines, reporter gene assay kits, genomic reference standards and contract research services to many hundreds of organizations engaged in bio-pharmaceutical process optimization; drug discovery & development and clinical diagnostic development.   

Under the guidance of CEO and President Dr Darrin M Disley since September 2007, the company has made remarkable commercial progress and is one of the fastest growing biotechnology companies in Europe.

The company has attracted a high-quality investor base including DFJ Esprit LLP, Genentech Incorporated, Roche Venture Fund AG, MVM Life Sciences LLP, Providence Investment Company Ltd and private investors Dr Jonathan Milner, Mr David Evans, Mr Peter Collins, and Mr David Cleevely.

The growth of the company is reflected in a 100X increase the valuation obtained for its Seed Investment Round in March 2008. The company has provided part-exit opportunities for its early shareholders and investors including an 11-fold return on an initial investment made by Cambridge University Seed Funds.

Scientific Pedigree

Over 400 publications relating to the use of GENESIS™, X-MAN™ cell lines and applications thereof have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, PNAS, Cancer Cell, Cancer Research, The Journal of American Medical Association and The Journal of Clinical Oncology by Horizon founders, scientific advisers, Center of Excellence sites and research collaborators. The abstracts for these publications can be found in the reference library section of this web-site.

The company is part of 5 multi-national grant-funded translational research consortia, is a partner in over 100 academic research collaborations and has established over 30 rAAV human gene-editing Centers of Excellence including the US National Institutes of Health (NCI & NHGRI).

Intellectual Property

Horizon holds a dominant intellectual property position in virally-mediated gene-editing with a patent estate comprising eight granted patents underpinning the GENESIS™ platform itself. In addition, there are five pending patent applications claiming improvements to the platform that reflect the 10 fold improvement in gene targeting efficiency developed by Horizon in the course of industrialization of the platform in 2011-12.

The use of GENESIS™ and X-MAN™ technology in a variety of application areas is covered via a patent estate comprising seven granted patents, two pending patent applications and a pipeline of new inventions being filed in an on-going basis.

Through the Centers of Excellence program, Horizon allows academic researchers to access our dominant IP position in rAAV gene-editing and human isogenic disease models for the development of novel cell lines. This open innovation approach has already allowed the creation of additional intellectual property and product pipelines.