Transforming women's health

What motivated you to study science at school? The first thing to say, is that I went to a French-speaking school in London and one of the great things about a French education is that you don't have to specialise. Even though I did the Scientific Baccalaureate, it included things like history, Spanish, Latin and sport. I pretty much loved it all.

Having said that, from the age of three, I wanted to be a vet. My choices at school were determined by what I thought was my calling.

But you didn't end up a vet. What happened? I came to Cambridge to study veterinary medicine and loved the pre-clinical course which mixed vets in with medics. To my surprise, I ended up enjoying human more than the animal medicine.

In my third year, I specialised in neuroscience and discovered a passion for it. Then, in the fourth year, when it was time to really embrace the clinical side of being vet, I realised that while I still loved animals, I loved research more.

Coming to terms with the fact that I didn't want to be a vet any more was not easy. But my college (Fitzwilliam) was hugely supportive and helped me find a way to do a PhD, studying neurodegeneration.

I was lucky enough to get a joint scholarship from Gates Cambridge and the Medical Research Council's Doctoral Training Programme.

After your PhD, you joined Altos. What was that like? Perfect timing! For my PhD, although it was on neurodegeneration, I was studying the behaviour of stem cells which doesn't necessarily help us understand what happens as we age.

Altos had just set up in Cambridge and was interested in addressing age-related disease using a new model: bring in a lot of academics, give them big budgets, take away the need to publish scientific papers and see if we can do discovery science better.

It felt very exciting and was a huge learning curve. I loved that there were all these great minds from different disciplines and there were no restrictions on who you could talk to and collaborate with.

Although we were working with comparatively large budgets, it came with a clear focus on both outcomes and pace.

It was also where I met my brilliant co-founder, Professor Kevin Chalut.

Was it always an ambition to be a company founder? To be honest, I'm not sure I knew what an entrepreneur was until I came to Cambridge - and, of course, for all those years I was harbouring dreams of becoming a vet.

But from a very young age, I was definitely someone who liked to take charge of teams and projects. The University also really shaped me and my personality. You can join all these amazing societies and clubs which give you a sense of belonging and, from that, the confidence to try new things.

The reason I made the leap to become a founder was a sense that 'if no-one else is going to do this, I better had'.

Why Cyclana? I've always been passionate about women's health which remains a hugely under-researched area.

It's not just about gynaecological conditions. For example, we still have such a limited understanding of the role of hormones in our health. Of course, that applies to men too but the cyclical nature of women's health is particularly fascinating.

One of the barriers we face in understanding disease models is that we need greater access to human tissue. Women's health is a prime example of where animal models simply don't work. Mice, for example, don't menstruate, so how can we learn from them about diseases such as endometriosis which are thought to be caused, at least in part, by that process?

It seemed to me that there was an opportunity to really pursue one disease - endometriosis - and solve it.

There is also a personal aspect to this in that I have been diagnosed with endometriosis. I hope one day to have children but endometriosis is associated with a 40% reduction in fertility. This is definitely a spur for me to start Cyclana sooner than I had initially anticipated.

Cyclana is all about doing science in a new way, focusing on tissue biology. Endometriosis is just the start: we want to develop the science behind women's health issues more broadly.

What stage is Cyclana at now? We were very successful at fundraising very quickly, securing £5 million in oversubscribed investment rounds. We currently have three scientists and are hoping another three will join us soon.

Have you encountered any resistance to you being a female founder working in women's health? Women's health is currently in an unusual position. I'd say half of investors still think it's a bit niche but the other half have really bought into it being the next frontier.

Because we were being very open about what we were doing, we were approached by investors who were clearly comfortable both with the domain that we are working in and that I'm a female entrepreneur.

Having said that, it has sometimes been assumed that I was Kevin's PhD student. In fact, we met as fellow scientists at Altos and found that we had a very complementary approach to science.

Although I believe we do need to talk about the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs, I try as much as possible not to think about it when I'm walking into a boardroom or an investor call. You have to be confident if you are going to make a convincing case and you don't want intrusive thoughts that could make you hesitate.

Founding a company requires vision and the ability to lead a team through successes and failures. Your father is a successful manager of high-performing teams. What have you learned from him? Actually, I think I'm a blend of both my parents. I have an inherent drive to succeed which was definitely nurtured by both of them. My mum was a professional basketball player so they were both in performance sports.

The beauty of sport is that you've got nowhere to hide - your wins and losses are for all to see. Growing up in that kind of environment makes you aware of risk. There was always a chance Dad could be fired and we would have to uproot and move to another country.

Recently, I went with my father to Downing Street where he was giving a talk about what he learnt in football and how those lessons could be applied to leadership. I sat there thinking, 'that's exactly what I do' - so I must have learned something from him.

When you grow up with a celebrity father there is an expectation that you won't achieve anything. I always wanted to fight against that and, probably, in a competitive way, beat my dad. If I can solve a major disease, that's got to be better than winning at football, right?

I realise it's too early to ask but do you think you might go on to found more companies in the future? I'm hoping Cyclana is going to be so successful that I don't ever get the opportunity to answer that question. If it goes to plan, I want to stay with it for as long as possible.

What are you most proud of in your career thus far? I try not to attach too much importance to individual achievements but I guess setting up Cyclana and persuading people to work for us and invest in us.

Having said that, I think my proudest moment was as President of the Cambridge University Athletic Club during COVID-19. We were all ready for the Varsity Match (against Oxford) when Oxford tried to cancel giving us just three days' notice. This was a huge blow for our team, many of whom would not get another chance to win a much-coveted 'blue'.

I found a new venue and essentially reorganised the whole thing in three days, including dealing with all the licensing and regulatory hurdles that were thrown at me. I simply refused to accept that it wasn't going to happen. That is probably my proudest moment, not least because we beat Oxford!

What about setbacks? Have you had any and, if so, how have you dealt with them? I definitely have, but the fact that I can't think of any straightaway is probably a reflection of my rose-tinted, entrepreneurial mindset: analyse your setbacks, deal with the consequences and move on.

What would your colleagues say is your greatest strength? Probably my ability to power through a million things at once. My co-founder has lots of scientific ideas and I'm always thinking how we can make them work in the lab.

Has being in Cambridge, as part of the University and now part of the innovation ecosystem, helped you? Definitely. As a student, the collegiate system opened my eyes to opportunities beyond veterinary medicine and the clubs I was able to join gave me confidence.

As a founder, being in Cambridge has been hugely helpful. There's a super-concentrated collection of incredible minds in a relatively small geographical area giving you extraordinary access to amazing academics and entrepreneurs.

It also helps that the Cambridge name is recognised when I'm in front of international investors, particularly those in the US.

On top of all that, being in Cambridge enables you to get on with the science. The Babraham Accelerator, for example, gives you a year's free lab space plus the support of a really committed team to support you.

What's the secret of a successful co-founding partnership? You need to be able to fight and make up quickly. More than complementary skills sets, the most important thing is if they still want to work with you, having seen the worst version of you.

What's really helpful about having a co-founder is that you are rarely in the same phase of hope and disappointment as each other.

Finally, what do you do in your spare time, if you have any? I'm married to a triathlete so I have no options there. I train once or twice a day. It's an incredible way to keep switched on.

I have some of my best ideas during a swim. I take my waterproof phone into the shower with me afterwards so that I can capture them on the spot.

Training is also a really important way in which I maintain a social life outside work. Seeing friends on a regular basis puts everything into perspective.