Layla Hosseini-Gerami

Layla Hosseini-Gerami is the co-founder of Ignota Labs, an East of England-based company. Their AI platform rescues failed medicines by identifying and addressing the precise biological and chemical reasons behind their preclinical or Phase I failures. As the daughter of Iranian immigrant parents, Layla credits them with instilling in her a strong sense of resilience and determination. Layla discovered AI’s transformative potential in drug discovery during her industry year at university, leading her to pursue a PhD at Cambridge developing novel methods for drug-body interactions.

Failed drugs represent significant waste in pharmaceutical development, with compounds often abandoned despite potential alternative uses. Ignota Labs’ platform analyses each drug to detect off-target binding and problematic substructures causing adverse effects, then optimises these compounds for new therapeutic uses. Their approach reduces waste from discarded drug candidates while accelerating the development of safer, more effective therapies.

Layla’s achievements include winning the 2024 Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Technologies award, securing a Sanofi iDEA-Tech award, and receiving an Innovate UK SMART Grant.

“Being a Women in Innovation Award winner is both an honour and a validation of the hard work and determination that’s gone into our mission,” says Layla. Through the programme, she hopes to

accelerate work on personalised toxicity risk assessment based on genomic background, strengthening their platform’s ability to address safety issues for diverse patient populations.

“One of the biggest barriers I had to overcome was getting investors to take me seriously, especially being both young and a woman in a highly technical field,” Layla reflects. “I focused on refining my presentations to pre-empt every possible question, grounding my pitches in solid data, and demonstrating our results.”

Her advice to aspiring innovators? “Trust your instincts, build a solid network, and remember that the challenges you overcome make you and your vision even stronger.”

For more information on Women in Innovation

Find out more about the Women in Innovation Award and other support available across the Innovate UK ecosystem on the Women in Innovation programme page.