Jonathan Kwok
Dr Jonathan Kwok is a clinician scientist of East Asian heritage whose career has spanned oncology, vaccinology, clinical trials, strategy consulting, and investment banking across more than two decades. He completed his DPhil at Merton College, University of Oxford, where he was a Cancer Research UK cancer vaccines fellow, and his clinical training was grounded in infectious diseases and oncology at some of the UK's leading institutions. This blend of deep scientific expertise and commercial acumen positioned him unusually well for the challenge of translating laboratory-stage cancer vaccine science into a viable, funded biotech.
Kwok co-founded Infinitopes Precision Immunomics in September 2021, bringing together intellectual property developed in the laboratories of Professor Paul Klenerman and Associate Professor Nicola Ternette at Oxford, and clinical programmes led by Professor Mark Middleton. The founding thesis was to solve three simultaneous failures that had long held back cancer vaccines: identifying the right antigens, delivering them in a way that produced durable immune responses, and doing so through an off-the-shelf rather than personalised process. Under his leadership as CEO, Infinitopes has grown from three academic co-founders to a team of over 20 full-time equivalents, becoming the largest tenant at Oxford University's BioEscalator Innovation Building.
As CEO, Kwok has led Infinitopes through more than $35 million in total seed financing, including rounds led by Octopus Ventures and Amplify Bio, and has secured significant non-dilutive recognition from Innovate UK. He has also navigated the company to a landmark regulatory milestone: in April 2025, Infinitopes received Clinical Trial Application approval from the UK MHRA for the VISTA study — a first-in-human, double-blind, randomised Phase I/IIa trial of ITOP1, the company's lead precision cancer vaccine targeting oesophageal adenocarcinoma. The trial is being conducted across multiple UK NHS university cancer centres.
Kwok has presented Infinitopes' research at major international oncology conferences including SITC and Immuno-Oncology Europe, and has been shortlisted for both the OBN UK Best Startup Biotech and the CRUK New Startup of the Year awards. His mission — to develop accessible, high-efficiency vaccines that prevent cancer metastases — represents one of the most scientifically ambitious and clinically meaningful pursuits in British biotech.
