Mentoring start-ups and students
Cambridge’s thriving life sciences ecosystem depends on a steady stream of academic founders turning new ideas into successful start-ups and spinouts.
Both partners play an important role in supporting these founders through the University’s accelerator programmes and AstraZeneca’s mentoring initiatives.
Helping Cambridge students identify career opportunities in the life sciences and equipping them with the knowledge and skills to pursue those opportunities is another important aspect of the partnership. These activities help to develop the next generation of talented scientists and professionals who have the potential to make breakthrough discoveries.
Case Study
Qureight: Meet its founder, Dr Muhunthan Thillai
What is Qureight?
Our mission is to advance understanding of lung and heart disease, revolutionise clinical trials and accelerate drug development through data curation and AI-powered decision-making. We work with pharmaceutical companies, contract research organisations and hospitals, helping to accelerate approval of promising drugs for patients with lung and heart diseases.
How did you get involved with both the University and AstraZeneca?
At the same time as we founded the company, we were accepted onto Accelerate Cambridge, a three-month
programme based at the Cambridge Judge Business School to support aspiring entrepreneurs.
We learned a huge amount about how to set up a new venture and we were introduced to a whole host of investors, lawyers and accountants – essentially all the people you are going to need when setting up a company.
A couple of the mentors were from AstraZeneca. We started talking to them about what we were doing, and they invited us to The Discovery Centre (DISC) and made lots of useful introductions.
"We are proud to foster growth in Cambridge by mentoring science-led entrepreneurs and young companies, helping advance the next wave of innovation from which we all benefit.
We support a number of mentoring initiatives across Cambridge, and a significant and growing number of pioneering innovators and startups have benefited from our knowledge and experience since our move to the region."
Caroline Austin, Vice-President, Head of Transactions UK, Business Development, AstraZeneca
How did you benefit from Accelerate Cambridge?
It gave us two things: credibility with potential industry partners and a really strong network. In fact, AstraZeneca was not our first industry partner but through our prior connections, they heard we were working on imaging and fibrotic lung diseases and approached us to see if our technology could be applied to the medicines they were investigating.
Another significant benefit of the network is that four years ago we met Caroline Austin who is Vice-President, Head of Transactions UK, Business Development at AstraZeneca. She subsequently joined Qureight’s Board of Directors as a non-executive director (NED) through AstraZeneca’s NED programme.
Caroline brings her expertise in life sciences business development to Qureight but her role with us is entirely separate from our partnership with AstraZeneca.
How has partnering with AstraZeneca helped Qureight?
We have already shown that by using our deep learning and imaging technology in partnership with AstraZeneca, we are able to predict progression in a range of fibrotic lung diseases.
We have recently published our findings in a joint paper in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, demonstrating that our approach supports shorter and smaller trials that are easier for both patients and investigators.
"Our guest mentors are essential to the development of Accelerate Cambridge ventures at an early stage, providing both specialised and general advice.
AstraZeneca mentors have generously given their time and expertise to provide invaluable insights and support for our fledgling life sciences companies."
Luther Phillips, Accelerate Cambridge Programme Manager
Other joint initiatives
For students
AstraZeneca is the principal sponsor of two initiatives at Lucy Cavendish, helping Cambridge students identify career opportunities in the life sciences and equipping them with the knowledge and skills to pursue those opportunities is an important aspect of the partnership.
The Life Sciences Community at Lucy Cavendish
Part of the College’s careers, employability and enterprise programme, the Life Sciences Community is a programme of activities designed to help students build their knowledge and understanding of career paths in the life sciences.
Future Global Leaders
Many students aspiring to future leadership positions are seeking opportunities to understand the global context and challenges they will face – and how they will need to apply their deep course-specific learning to lead effectively.
For start-ups
Founders at the University of Cambridge
Founders at the University of Cambridge is a University-backed accelerator providing structured engagement attracting investors, customers and partners.
AstraZeneca was one of six partners announced at launch in 2023, bringing deep industry knowledge and a commitment to encourage innovation in the life sciences sector.
The Founders initiative provides programmatic support for venture scientists and founding teams. In addition, a community of more than 270 experts is on hand to inspire, advise and support the next generation of entrepreneurial talent.
University of Cambridge accelerator and mentorship programmes supported by AstraZeneca include:
Founders at the University of Cambridge
Accelerate Cambridge
Murray Edwards Enterprising Women
Lucy Cavendish Future Global Leaders Programme
Images
People in a business meeting: credit: GettyImages/
10'000 Hours
Dr Muhunthan Thillai: credit: Qureight
Veeva ID: GB-68356
Date of preparation: July 2025