Recently, Anthony Quinn (Research Coordinator – Data Science Theme) met with Mike Denis Chief Executive at Akrivia Health, a spin-out from the University of Oxford and closely linked with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, to discuss the development of Akrivia and the work being carried out in conjunction with our BRC.
It’s nice to meet you. Please could you start by telling us a bit about you.
I’m Mike Denis, I am a member of the Core Team of the Data Science Theme of the Oxford Health BRC, and I am the Chief Executive at Akrivia Health. Akrivia is a Neuroscience Data Discovery Company – a spin-out from the University of Oxford that is also closely linked with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. Akrivia was established in May 2019, so we are coming up to our 5th anniversary. We decided on the name “Akrivia Health” because “Akrivia” is the Greek word for “Precision” (ακρίβεια) and that’s how we see ourselves. We’re a Precision Health company and we are perfectly aligned with the vision of the Data Science Theme around precision mental health.
That’s interesting insight into the etymology of Akrivia. And where is Akrivia currently based?
Akrivia has moved offices three times in its short time of operation, but we’ve chosen, on each occasion, to stay in the centre of Oxford. We’re located on Cornmarket Street. Our need to move offices is driven by the expansion of our team and during the last five years we have doubled in size each year as a company in terms of employees – this has driven the need to keep moving office – even through the challenges of a pandemic and hybrid working, we found that we needed bigger and better office space to support our collaboration activities that inspire innovation. That’s what Akrivia is all about.
My next question is in relation to NIHR involvement and the OH BRC, could you talk me through how OH BRC has helped Akrivia in the past few years? Also, why was the NIHR and the OH BRC particularly interested in the advancement of Akrivia as a spin-out?
So, critical to answering this question is a recognition that prior to spinning out Akrivia Health, we were connected to the structure of OH BRC and we received funding from the NIHR. Through supportive negotiations, we agreed to pursue a sustainability model that would offer benefits beyond this funding from NIHR and would allow greater freedom to operate and to accelerate with strategic plans co-designed with OH BRC.
We required consent from the University of Oxford and NIHR to achieve the spin-out. All parties were interested because they saw the potential of an innovative model of working in partnership between healthcare, academia, and industry to advance the shared goals of the data science initiatives that were already under way – that advancement is in the form of acceleration, increased innovation and further external industry participation.
Ok and in terms of Akrivia as a current partner of the Data Science Theme, could you please talk me through what you are currently working on together?
Yes, well it stems from ensuring that the spin-out of the company remained close to the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and the OH BRC. We felt that was important and as we charted a new path into the world of industry, we were doing so at a time when the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy and Life Sciences vision had emerged and it became government policy and strategy to encourage close collaboration and partnership between health care, academia and industry. We saw ourselves very much as a company that could facilitate that aim of bringing those parties together and in a small way… we’re doing exactly that.
Whilst leading Akrivia Health, I also have a role within the Data Science Theme. This focuses on an intersection of interests between OH BRC and Akrivia and sits within the domain of Precision Psychiatry. One of the aims of the Data Science Theme and Akrivia is to ensure that within Psychiatry, precision approaches (that have been successful in Oncology research in the past couple of decades) are adopted across Neuroscience and in collaboration with the wider Oxford research infrastructure (including the Big Data Institute and Oxford BRC). Today, we can see all the new treatments available in Oncology and this success spurs us towards similar goals for Psychiatry.
and if someone was new to this area of research – Precision Psychiatry and Neuroscience – what piece of advice would you give them to be successful?
The first piece of advice I would give is to recognise and seek out opportunities for partnership and collaboration. I think it has been recognised, wherever you are, in any academic centre or any industry or organisation, doing work on your own or in single institution is not the best model to follow – it will be much slower and potentially less innovative than opportunities that can be brought about through collaborative activities.
As mentioned regarding Oncology, we need to learn from previous successes and understand why those successes occurred. We need to understand that the mechanisms at play across the broad spectrum of neuropsychiatric and neurogenerative diseases are incredibly complex. We’re still working with diagnostic categories designed a century ago which do not represent the pathology of the diseases and conditions that we’re currently investigating. Precision approaches based on extensive real-world data, combined with molecular, imaging, and digital datasets are going to be so important to undertake deep patient characterisation.
Excellent. Thanks for providing those examples. Before we finish, is there anything you would like to add in terms of work that Akrivia or the Data Science Theme are currently undertaking?
Yes. An area of considerable shared interest between Akrivia and OH BRC is the opportunity to extend collaboration on an international basis together. We’re advanced in establishing these in Canada with the University of Toronto and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. We’re hoping to advance collaborations with Harvard University around Digital Psychiatry and also in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, in Singapore and in Australia. Our work needs to reflect the very best research, and world class research cannot be achieved if you are not engaged with the rest of the world.
Our second area of shared interest is the issue of diversity. We have seen over the years that some very important work has been progressed on molecular targets based on genetics and proteomics… this has been focused on a largely Caucasian population… what we’re trying to do now is to address the important issue of diversity so we can ensure that representation of different ethnic groups can be introduced into studies. Akrivia is excited to be delivering a new study – a clinical genomics programme called Global Minds. We will be recruiting participants into this study from across the globe and looking to represent diverse communities. Watch this space!