Tarun Vemulkar

Tarun Vemulkar is the Co-Founder and CTO of Semarion, a University of Cambridge spin-out from the Cavendish Laboratory that is transforming how adherent cells are handled in drug discovery. With a background spanning microchip fabrication processes in industry and nanomagnetic therapy research during his PhD, Tarun brings a rare blend of advanced materials science and biomedical engineering expertise to the company he co-founded in 2018.

At Semarion, Tarun leads the design and engineering of the SemaCyte® materials platform — a novel class of barcoded microcarriers that turn adherent cells into liquid reagents, enabling faster, more scalable drug screening workflows. His research at Cambridge under the NanoDTC Translational Research Fellowship laid the foundation for the technology, and he co-filed two foundational patent families during that period. He has continued to build out the platform through partnerships with leading pharmaceutical and biotech firms including AstraZeneca.

Under his and co-founder Jeroen Verheyen's leadership, Semarion has raised over £4 million in funding, won the SLAS Europe Ignite Award for most innovative laboratory automation start-up in 2024, and secured Parkwalk Advisors and Cambridge Enterprise as key backers. The company is on track to convert its early pilot programmes with biopharma partners into commercial revenues.