Life Sciences graduate earns "richly deserved" OBE

Much of his work is in and around Cambridge University but he also has strong contacts with the University of Salford from where he holds a BSc in Chemistry.

Queen's Award for Enterprise        

Dr Disley previously won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion and is an adviser, investor and philanthropist, supporting over 40 life science business ventures, social enterprises, and educational schemes aimed at promoting social mobility for the economically underprivileged. .        

He transformed Horizon Discovery into a global leader in gene editing and gene modulation technologies – taking the formative business from a seed funding in March 2008 to a record £69 million IPO on AIM in 2014, four international acquisitions and a peak market capitalisation of £440m in 2017.        

In recent years he was named Cambridge Business Person of the Year twice, UK Quoted Company Entrepreneur, UK Life Science Public Company CEO, UK Iconic Male Entrepreneur, European Life Science Business Leader and Scrip Biotech and Pharma Executive of Year as well as one of the 100 game-changing disruptive    UK    entrepreneurs    and    one of the 100 Faces of a Vibrant UK Economy.        

Darrin Disley is also an Honorary Visiting Fellow, an adviser on science and industry to the University of Salford and winner of the 2015 University of Salford Alumni Achievement Award.        

He explained his warm relationship with Salford during his last visit to our Bodmer Laboratories in 2017.