EpilepsyGTx
This UCL Ventures spinout focuses on cutting-edge treatments for focal refractory epilepsy.
EpilepsyGTx is a late preclinical-stage biotech, developing cutting-edge gene therapies that will transform the management of focal refractory epilepsy (FRE).
The spinout's goal is to make patients with FRE seizure-free.
Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological diseases, affecting over 50 million people worldwide (WHO). Focal epilepsy is a group of disorders in which patients experience seizures that arise from a specific part of the brain, while refractory epilepsy occurs when seizures persist despite trials of at least two tolerated and appropriately chosen antiseizure treatments.
Approximately one in five patients with epilepsy has focal refractory epilepsy.
The mortality in people with refractory epilepsy is four times higher than in the general population. In the UK alone, approximately 1,000 epilepsy-related deaths are recorded each year. The hallmark symptom of FRE is recurrent and unpredictable seizures, which can cause injury and become life-threatening.
People with epilepsy often struggle with anxiety, depression, and the social stigma associated with their disease, and their professional life is severely restricted.
The EpilepsyGTx journey so far:
- 2024: EpilepsyGTx raised $10 million seed funding
- 2025: A $33 million Series A followed in 2025
Our people
Dr Weng Sie Wong
Senior Business Manager
Dr Wong brings extensive experience of all aspects of university technology transfer activities from strategic IP management to licence negotiations and spinout formation.
As a Senior Business
Manager focusing on the commercialisation of medical technologies, healthcare engineering, medical imaging and AI-enabled healthcare innovations arising from UCL research, she has been involved in the formation of multiple spinouts and acted as a director on various boards.
Prior to joining UCL Ventures, Dr Wong was a senior technology transfer manager at Oxford University’s TTO, Oxford University Innovation, working on a diverse range of both life and physical science projects over a 10-year period.
Weng holds an MBA from Edinburgh University and a PhD in pharmacology from UCL.
Dr. Will Mortimore
Senior Business Manager
Dr Will Mortimore is responsible for fostering UCL’s Physical Sciences IP portfolio into commercial opportunities across a broad range of technologies and sectors, with a key focus on Climate
Tech.
Will joined UCL Ventures from the University of Surrey where he managed technology transfer for the faculty of engineering and physical sciences, leading the creation of several spinouts and commercial opportunities. This has been built upon solid international commercial experience as a business development manager for technical products covering a wide range of industries from aviation to medical devices.
Prior to this, Will held a number of materials development roles from a PhD in fuel cells through to product development and scientific consultancy for the power sector.
Yashita Jha
Legal Counsel
Yashita is a corporate and commercial lawyer qualified to practise in England and Wales (Solicitor) and India (Advocate). She specialises in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private equity
investments, debt funding and strategic investments.
Before joining UCL Ventures in 2021, she worked with leading Indian law firms in Bangalore advising private equity clients investing in start-ups. She has worked with global investment funds, successful start-ups and multinational corporate houses on transactions across sectors like pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, logistics, e-commerce, healthcare and technology. As Legal Counsel, Corporate, she handles corporate and commercial matters and gives legal advice on spinout companies.
Team
Professor Dimitri Kullman
Chief Scientific Officer; Scientific Founder
He is part of the Queen Square Institute of Neurology.
Professor Stephanie Schorge
Scientific Founder
Stephanie is the Sophia Jex-Blake Professor of Neuroscience at UCL and the Head of the Research Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology (NPP). She has been at UCL since 1999.
Prof Matthew Walker (UCL Institute of Neurology)
Prof Gabriele Liagnani (UCL Institute of Neurology)
Dr. Caitriona O'Rourke (Away from office)
Senior Business Manager
Dr O’Rourke joined us in 2018, having worked as a research associate within UCL on several diverse life science / pharmaceutical research projects covering the areas of tissue engineering, drug
delivery, regenerative medicine, biomaterials and stem cell biology.
Caitriona holds a PhD in tissue engineering from the Open University and a MSc in neuropharmacology from the National University of Galway, Ireland.