Revolver Therapeutics, a spin-out company from the University of Bath that develops new drug discovery technologies, has won the Health category of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Emerging Technologies Competition 2026. This prestigious annual competition celebrates the best of the UK’s early-stage deep-tech chemistry talent.
The interdisciplinary judging panel – made up of scientists, industry specialists, entrepreneurs and investors – selected the winning pitches at the final at the Society’s historic home at Burlington House in London on 21 July.
Prizes were awarded in four categories: Health, Energy, Environment and Enabling Technologies.
The winners from each of the categories took home a share in the £50,000 prize pot and will be given support, feedback, and opportunities for profile raising.
Opening up “undruggable” cancer targets
Revolver Therapeutics was founded by Professor Jody Mason from the University’s Centre for Drug Discovery and the Department of Life Sciences to develop peptide therapeutics against disease-driving proteins that have historically been considered “undruggable”.
These include transcription factors – proteins that control gene expression and play central roles in many cancers, but which have proved extremely difficult to target with conventional drugs.
The company’s proprietary discovery platform generates and tests millions of constrained peptide drug candidates directly inside living cells, selecting from the outset for molecules that can switch off disease-driving transcription factor activity. This cell-based approach could open up new treatment options for cancers that have remained beyond the reach of traditional drug discovery.
Professor Jody Mason said: “We’re absolutely delighted to win the Health category of the RSC Emerging Technologies Competition.
“For Revolver, this is important external validation of both the science behind our intracellular constrained peptide discovery platform and its potential to generate a new class of therapeutics against aggressive cancers driven by intracellular proteins that conventional drugs cannot reach.
“It comes at a particularly exciting time for the company, following our recent funding round and growing interest from pharmaceutical companies and investors. The £10,000 prize will also help us generate further validation data to support future partnering discussions.
“Most importantly, this is a reflection of the work of the whole Revolver team. I’m hugely grateful to Mark Treherne, Andrew Brennan, Kathryn Watt and Ubah Abdi, and Simon Tang as well as our wider academic and commercial collaborators and the University of Bath team, including Jenni Rogers, who have supported the company from its earliest stages.”
Revolver Therapeutics is funded by investors QantX, UKI2S, o2h, and the University of Bath.
Supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs
Royal Society of Chemistry trustee Dr Alexander Reip – himself an entrepreneur and now Chair of Enterprise Oxford – summed up his day at the Emerging Technologies Competition, speaking on an expert panel and taking part as a judge for the Energy category.
He said: “The experience has been fantastic today. To be able to bring people together, show them what they need to do, and then to really be able to reward them for the excellent work they are doing – not only the technology but the sorts of businesses that they're building – is really, really important."
“This is one of the really great things that the Royal Society of Chemistry do to be able to help support this sort of next generation of entrepreneurs moving forward. It's a pleasure to be part of it.
“Chemistry underpins almost everything, especially in the industrial strategy sectors, so to be able to grow new chemical businesses will really help support the future of the United Kingdom.”