Chang Lu
Nomaly uses functional genomics to reveal disease-driving biology and identify new treatment opportunities for rare and complex diseases.
Project
Outsee Limited
URL
Year founded
2022
Business stage
Seed
High-growth sectors
Life Sciences
Sector
Biotechnology
Location
East of England
Funding
Highly Commended Applicant
The problem and opportunity
90% of drugs entering clinical trials fail, and half fail simply because they don’t work: the target was linked to the disease but didn’t cause it. This wastes billions and leaves patients without treatments. Existing genomic methods need large patient populations to find targets, so they break down exactly where the unmet need is greatest – over 7,000 rare diseases and increasingly, common diseases recognised as multiple rarer subtypes.
The solution and innovation
Nomaly flips genomic analysis on its head. Rather than testing millions of statistical associations, it uses biological knowledge to find “functional outliers”, testing a smaller number of assumptions so that it works in small patient groups where other methods fail. We especially focus on people who carry disease-causing mutations yet stay healthy, whose biology points to targets that may work.
Market and ambition
We serve pharma and the underserved rare diseases within a $5B target-discovery market. Our lead Parkinson’s programme is in a drug development partnership, and we are starting experiments on a novel rare disease target. Over three years we aim to scale licensing and partnerships toward Series A.
Founder perspective
Chang Lu is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of OutSee, and the scientist behind Nomaly, published in Nature Communications. After years studying genetic variation and biological function, she founded Nomaly to address one of drug discovery’s biggest challenges: identifying targets that change patient outcomes. As a woman leading deep technology in drug discovery, she is determined to show that technical founders can build companies tackling the field’s hardest problems.
Women in Innovation Award
Highly commended applicant of the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award 2025/26, receiving tailored business support, and access to specialist training and networks. View all winners and highly commended applicants from the Women in Innovation cohort 2025/2026.