UCL Advanced Therapies Symposium 2026: an ecosystem turning science into patient impact

As over 250 experts attend the UCL Advanced Therapies Symposium 2026 today, we examine how more than scientific excellence alone is needed for UCL to change lives.

CAR T-cell and gene therapies have revolutionised how we help patients with many hard-to-treat conditions. UCL Advanced Therapies Symposium 2026 examines the university’s wide-reaching role, as well as how UCL researchers are generating discoveries with real‑world impact.

A new report from the UCL Translational Research Office (TRO) and UCLB, Success: From Lab to Market 2026, highlights just how far that ecosystem has come, and why UCL is one of the world’s leading universities discovering, developing and delivering advanced therapies.

Early support

UCLB’s role in this structure is critical. Working alongside UCL clinicians, researchers and the TRO, it helps shape early‑stage discovery into investable, deliverable opportunities, guiding innovations from lab to market with clarity, rigour and purpose.

This important contribution has helped UCL achieve one of the largest advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) development pipelines globally, spanning early discovery through to getting therapies available on the NHS.

Professor Geraint Rees, UCL Vice-Provost for Research, Innovation and Global Engagement, added: “UCL’s ATMP pipeline is one expression of a broader strategic ambition to ensure that UCL’s research translates swiftly from lab to market, delivering innovations that benefit citizens in the UK and worldwide. The scale of this pipeline, combined with deep partnerships across London’s life sciences ecosystem, demonstrates UCL’s role in anchoring the UK’s innovation landscape.”

UCL’s productive environment

UCL partner hospitals (Barts Health NHS Trust; Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust; Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust; University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) are critical to the UK’s advanced therapies success story.

Around 44% of the UK’s academically sponsored ATMP clinical trials, and over 50% of commercially sponsored ATMP trials, are delivered through UCL partner hospitals.

This concentration reflects an environment designed to support complex therapies through development, regulation and adoption.

Within this landscape, UCLB works closely with the TRO, Therapeutic Innovation Networks (TINs) and specialist manufacturing and clinical partners. Together, they support researchers to address the questions that determine whether an advanced therapy can succeed beyond the lab. IP, risk reduction, and what evidence regulators and partners will need are crucial challenges when deciding which route to market is most appropriate.

Taking advanced therapies from the lab to the market

The impact of this joined‑up approach can be seen in UCL’s growing portfolio of advanced therapy spinout ventures.

Autolus’ CAR T-cell immunotherapy (AUCATZYL (obe-cel)) for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia recently received regulatory approval and is now available to NHS patients.

Beginning its journey with Proof of Concept funding, UCLB’s support included facilitating the spinout process, managing intellectual property, and fostering partnerships. The company has raised over $1.1bn of investment capital since incorporation.

The foundational research underpinning obe-cel was conducted at UCL and led by Dr. Martin Pule, and his collaborators at the UCL Cancer Institute and Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.

Another UCL biotech spinout, EpilepsyGTx is focusing on gene therapies for focal refractory epilepsy (FRE), a condition where seizures originate from a specific brain region and do not respond to at least two standard anti-seizure medications. EpilepsyGTx is developing EPY201, a gene therapy aimed at stopping seizures in patients with focal refractory epilepsy through a single, targeted treatment.

UCLB supported Epilepsy GTx’s formation, intellectual property protection, and helped secure £10m seed funding in 2024 for preclinical studies and Phase 1/2a trials.

Dr. Anne Lane, CEO, of UCLB, said: “2025 was truly a turning point in our work to bring cell and gene therapies from the lab to the clinic and the success stories we have seen this year show the effectiveness of the close collaboration between UCL Business, the Translational Research Office, UCL researchers, partner hospitals and funding and investment partners.”

Read more about UCLB’s advanced therapies, including Autolus and EpilepsyGtx, in this year’s Impact Report.

Such successes are underpinned by sustained investment across the pipeline. UCL’s active ATMP portfolio includes more than £70m invested in preclinical and Phase I/II projects, alongside targeted funding for over 50 discovery‑stage programmes.

UCLB helps academics navigate this landscape, aligning funding, partnerships and commercial strategy to build momentum without compromising scientific integrity.

This model, built on partnership, patience and purpose, continues to shape the future of medicine.

Read Success: From Lab to Market 2026.