Nuclera Raises £57M to Put Protein Synthesis on Every Researcher’s Desk

Nuclera, the Cambridge-based protein synthesis company, has raised £57.4 million to commercialise its desktop protein production platform. The round was led by existing investors British Patient Capital and Cambridge Innovation Capital, with participation from E Ink, Elevage Medical Technologies, GK Goh, M&G Catalyst, Uni Power Group, Verve Ventures, and a number of angel investors.

The company was co-founded by Jonathan Milner, the serial biotech entrepreneur best known for founding Abcam, the global antibody and protein reagents company that he built into a multi-billion pound business before its acquisition. Nuclera’s founding team also includes Michael Chen, Jiahao Huang, and Gordon McInroy, and the company emerged from research at the University of Cambridge.

Nuclera’s core product, the eProtein Discovery platform, uses electrobiological methods to produce proteins at the bench without specialist infrastructure. Conventional protein production typically involves weeks of work, outsourcing to specialist providers, or complex in-house bioprocessing. Nuclera’s system shrinks this to hours — letting scientists rapidly generate and test the specific proteins they need for drug discovery, diagnostics, or synthetic biology research.

The ability to produce proteins quickly and flexibly on demand is a significant bottleneck in biopharmaceutical research, and Nuclera is positioning its platform as the equivalent of a PCR machine for proteins: an instrument that fundamentally democratises access to a critical research tool. E Ink’s investment reflects the strategic interest of display technology companies in electrobiological interfaces.

The £57 million raise will fund commercial launch, manufacturing scale-up, and international expansion as Nuclera begins placing instruments with academic and pharmaceutical research customers.

Sources

• Nuclera company website
• Cambridge Innovation Capital — portfolio update (October 2024)