Pursuing Justice through Innovation in Biotech
Adam Winnifrith is the event lead for Catalyst 2024, a day of innovation and creativity for the Just Love Network. He's also a Just Love Oxford graduate and the Co-Founder of Ēvolvere Biosciences, a cutting-edge start-up designing a new generation of antibacterial medicines.
Adam reflects on the role of innovation and creativity in seeking social justice.
I'm so passionate about the power of innovation to bring God's kingdom. Done well, creative thinking and innovative problem-solving can have a monumental impact on people's lives.
Take tech. Tech is complicated. In our society, there's no doubt that technology has massive negative externalities - just look at the effect of social media, for instance. At the same time, technology has brought incredible improvements in human wellbeing, in everything from housing policy to clean water access, healthcare outcomes to food systems.
And it's not just technology. Whatever field we're in, from farming to finance, politics to pyschology, God has given each one of us amazing gifts. We get to be creative, reimagining the world around us and building better systems to improve people's lives.
Along with some friends from uni, I run Ēvolvere Biosciences, an applied evolutionary biology company pioneering the next generation of antibacterial medicine. We’re a team of young engineers, innovators, scientists, and entrepreneurs. We’re building highly interdisciplinary solutions to the world’s biggest problems.
We're essentially trying to make antibiotics 2.0, fixing the stuff that goes wrong when people's bacterial ecosystems get out of sync. To do this, we're building a synthetic biology platform based on big protein evolution datasets, generative AI for protein design, and hardcore bioengineering. This means lots of innovation, lots of science, and lots of fast-paced work with a big purpose: fundamentally if this works, we replace the foundations of modern medicine.
We've recently been awarded funding from the UK Government and Y Combinator (YC), one of the world's biggest incubator/start-up programmes. We've got our first prototype working but are now working hard on patents, hiring and strengthening the science itself!
At Catalyst 2024, I'm excited to bring what I'm learning about innovation, teams and strategy and apply it to the Just Love Network. With hundreds of us working all around the world on a huge range of issues, the Network has colossal potential to release a wave of new impactful social justice projects: campaigns, communities, movements, resources, podcasts, ethical businesses and more. Let's get in a room together and reimagine the world around us!
Join me and many others in London on Saturday 1st June for a really special day. See you there!
Catalyst is taking place in London on Saturday 1st June, 10am-4pm. Sign up now