GambitBio

Tiffany Ma brings a wealth of academic experience to her entrepreneurial journey. After completing degrees in Molecular Cell Biology and Translational Medicine at UC Berkeley, she earned a PhD in Oncology at the University of Oxford. GambitBio began as her entry in Oxford’s All-Innovate competition during her postdoctoral research, quickly evolving into a venture with real-world impact.

At the heart of GambitBio’s mission is a global healthcare challenge: unequal access to preventative care. 

Tiffany explains: 

Depending on which healthcare system you're in, whichever country you're in, there are varying degrees of access to healthcare and not everyone is able to conveniently undertake routine or preventive exams...We want people to be able to detect what is wrong earlier so clinicians can intervene and treat the problem sooner.

By enabling earlier intervention, GambitBio aims to drastically improve survival rates - up to 95% over 10 years for some cancers- through early detection. 

To meet that challenge, GambitBio is developing a saliva-based lateral flow test, similar to the ones used to detect COVID-19. The difference? Instead of searching for viral proteins, their test identifies novel biomarkers in that signal the presence of early-stage cancer - biomarkers that have never before been used in these clinical settings.

Tiffany tells us:

It’s about creating something accessible and non-invasive that can be used outside the clinic...I want to use what I’ve learned in research to build something tangible that genuinely improves lives.

This innovation aims to revolutionise cancer diagnostics with a low-cost, fast working and accessible early-stage detection tool. 

For Tiffany and her team, the University of Edinburgh and the Venture Builder Incubator played a vital role in making entrepreneurship feel achievable.

She states:

It demystified entrepreneurship for our team, as we met like-minded entrepreneurs who are also just getting started. It made the entire process less scary, and it felt good to have a friendly community filled with people who want to help each other.

The collaboration between the Venture Builder Incubator and Cancer Research Horizons provided critical support—both financial and strategic.

Being sponsored by Cancer Research Horizons made a huge difference - it enabled us to travel to Edinburgh and connect in-person with Scotland’s innovation community. Those face-to-face meetings opened doors to angel investors and incredible peers.

During the incubator programme, Tiffany was also able to secure her first round of angel investment. She credits this success to the support she received from the Venture Builder Incubator team, who helped her refine her pitch and develop a compelling narrative.

This was largely because of the help I got from the Venture Builder Incubator team, who taught me how to pitch effectively by telling a captivating story. They advised me to tone down the technical language when speaking to investors because most of them don’t come from a scientific background. This audience needs to understand the product, market and our business model more than anything else.

The programme not only empowered her with practical tools and strategic insight but also helped her translate complex research into a viable business opportunity that resonates with investors.

Tiffany encourages researchers with early-stage ideas to apply to the Venture Builder Incubator and take advantage of the networking opportunities and expert advice available: 

I hadn’t found a programme like the Venture Builder Incubator anywhere else, which is why I applied to join. I have found the Venture Builder Incubator to be very special – the programme is a unique mesh of community building activities as well as technical workshops.