Dia Beta Labs are a seed stage biotech company who spun out of Ulster University in October 2022 and are based in the Diabetes Research Group lab on the UU Coleraine site. They are developing transformative therapeutics for management of metabolic diseases, specifically those which provide targeted fat loss while sparing muscle in obesity and rescue the insulin producing cells of the pancreas which are progressively lost in Type 2 diabetes.
Dia Beta Labs are a by-product of the Innovate UK funded ICURe programme (Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research). Through this programme, Dia Beta Labs were given 3 months to speak to key opinion leaders in pharma, academia and healthcare provision to validate there was a market for our innovations. This culminated in a winning pitch to a panel of industry experts, who recommended Dia Beta Labs receive ring-fenced funding of £300K to facilitate spinout in October 2022 which provided 18-months runway to develop our molecules further.
Ryan Lafferty, Co-founder and CEO developed these molecules to form this venture as part of his PhD at Ulster University has invested a considerable portion of his career to their development.
He tells us “I am passionate about making positive change in metabolic disease, one of the biggest and most overlooked healthcare challenges of our time. There is barely a person on the planet who does not know someone afflicted or struggling with obesity or diabetes”
Dia Beta Labs approach has set themselves apart from the competition, by focusing on non-GLP-1 therapies which avoids three common pitfalls: –
- The high occurrence of side-effects leading to high discontinuation rates (70% of users discontinuing within 24-months)
- The waning therapeutic benefits for blood sugar and weight control
- The risk of frailty due to muscle loss.
Ryan continues,
“These differentiated mechanisms of action mean that we provide high-quality, sustainable weight loss which brings about significant fat loss while sparing muscle, and with a longer-lasting following treatment withdrawal than currently available therapies.
Ryan gave us an insight into how he pivoted from working as an allied health professional to drug discovery in metabolic diseases and how this experience has benefitted his professional path.
“I originally trained as a pharmacist, working as a locum all over Belfast so had a very patient facing role. My first foray into the start-up world came when a colleague recommended me for a diabetes startup based in Dundonald who were looking for someone with a pharmacy background. I ended up getting the job and working with the company for just shy of a year (I lost my job due to company financing – again a first taste of how cutthroat the start-up world is!) but witnessing the impact innovation had on the lives of diabetic patients to improve their overall quality of life imparted a desire to pursue a PhD with the Diabetes Research Group at Ulster. If it hadn’t of been for me taking a bit of a left turn into that job and eventually losing it, Dia Beta Labs would likely not exist!”
Website: https://diabetalabs.com/#
CEO, Ryan Lafferty’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-lafferty-aa085716a/
Dia Beta Labs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dia-beta-labs-ltd/
