Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Scientist–entrepreneur based in Oxford, UK. American / Hong Konger building at the intersection of biotechnology, precision medicine, and early cancer detection. Preventative, early-intervention, and precision medicine will define the future of healthcare. I believe the most powerful breakthroughs will come from combining deep biological insights with scalable technologies and medicines that empower people to take control of their health. 1️⃣ Co-Founder & CEO, GambitBio I co-founded GambitBio to make early cancer detection accessible to everyone. Up to one-third to half of cancers can be cured when detected early, yet screening remains inconvenient, expensive, or inaccessible for many people. At GambitBio we are developing saliva-based tests and machine learning approaches to identify molecular signals reflective of early disease biology and shift cancer screening toward earlier, more proactive detection. 2️⃣ Senior Discovery Scientist, Infinitopes I am also a Senior Discovery Immunomics Scientist at Infinitopes, a Cancer Research UK-backed Oxford spin-out developing next-generation therapeutic cancer vaccines. My work focuses on advancing immunopeptidomics methods to discover novel tumour antigens and enable more affordable, off-the-shelf and effective immunotherapies — particularly for cancers detected early and for preventing metastasis, the leading cause of cancer deaths. 3️⃣ Venture & leadership Beyond the lab, I am passionate about building and supporting transformative biotech companies. I was previously a Venture Fellow at Old Silver VC and currently co-host the Breakthrough podcast with Dr Samuel Hume, where we explore scientific innovation, notable biotech/ pharma news, and the future of medicine. I also frequently speak on topics including venture creation amongst young scientists and women, and the future of biotechnology.
GambitBio is an Oxford-founded biotech developing saliva-based tests for early cancer detection, identifying molecular signals reflective of early disease biology and applying machine learning to enable accessible population-scale screening. • Founded and led the company, recruiting a stellar scientific team including top researchers and clinicians from Oxford, Harvard, Poland and Hong Kong. • Developed a novel saliva-based biomarker discovery platform identifying molecular signals reflective of early disease biology and leveraging machine learning for early cancer detection. • Building a globally distributed scientific network with collaborators across the US, UK and Asia to accelerate biomarker discovery and clinical validation. • Raised and closed the seed financing round. • Winner of multiple venture and deep-tech competitions including Techstars Deep Tech Momentum (top 7 startups out of 170 European companies) and Oxford University OX1 Incubator Grand Prize. • Frequently invited speaker and panelist at biotech and entrepreneurship events on topics including cancer early detection, scientific entrepreneurship, and translational medicine. • Working toward the first clinical product launch by 2027, bringing scalable early cancer screening directly to consumers.
Selected to join the 7-member core fundraising team supporting Infinitopes’ $35M (£26M) Seed Extension round, contributing to scientific strategy, investor outreach and presentations, pitching, and technical due diligence. Led in-house wet-lab method development for high-sensitivity immunopeptidomics workflows, presented research at ASMS, and collaborated with Bruker on two mass spectrometry application notes. Represented Infinitopes at BIO 2025 in Boston alongside the CEO and VP as the only biotech selected for the UK Pavilion (invited by the UK Government Department for Business & Trade). Presented the company at the Dark Genome Conference 2025 and spearheaded a workshop for biotech startups and pharma in the field.
Infinitopes Cancer Vaccines is a pioneer in Precision Immunomics/machine learning medicines. We are a Cancer Research UK (CRUK) backed Oxford University spin-out, empowering the immune system to fight cancer metastases with unique, de novo antigen discovery technologies, innovative high efficiency vectors and intelligent clinical trial design. As a Senior Discovery Immunomics Scientist, I help spearhead Infinitopes' exciting Precision Immunomics™ pipeline where we reliably identify novel and immunogenic tumour antigens presented by cancer cells.
Part of the Cancer Research UK RadNet Centre Award at Oxford. My research interests include the DNA damage response, the unfolded protein response, oxidative stress/ ROS, R-loops, nucleolar stress and the tumour microenvironment. Publications: Ma, T. S.; Worth, K. R.; Maher, C.; Ng, N.; Beghè, C.; Gromak, N.; Rose, A. M.; Hammond, E. M. Hypoxia-induced transcriptional stress is mediated by ROS-induced R-loops. Nucleic Acids Res. 16 October 2023. Goncalves, T.; Cunniffe, S.; Ma, T. S.; Mattis, N.; Rose, A. W.; Kent, T.; Rose, A. M. Elevated Reactive Oxygen Species Can Drive the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres Pathway in ATRX-Null Cancers. Nucleic Acids Res. 2025, 53 (4), gkaf061. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkaf061.
Researching the biological response to hypoxia, a key feature of the tumour microenvironment, in Professor Ester Hammond's lab. Publications: * = co-first authorship/ equal contributions Ramachandran, S.*; Ma, T. S.*; Griffin, J.; Ng, N.; Foskolou, I. P.; Hwang, M. S.; Victoria, P.; Cheng W.C.; Buffa, F. M.; Leszczynska, K. B.; El-Khamisy, S. F.; Gromak, N.; Hammond, E. M. Hypoxia-induced SETX links replication stress with the unfolded protein response. Nat. Commun. 17 June 2021. Bolland, H.*; Ma, T. S.*; Ramlee, S.; Ramadan, K.; Hammond, E. M.; Links between the unfolded protein response and the DNA damage response in hypoxia: a systematic review. Biochem. Soc. Trans. 18 May 2021. Bader, S., Ma, T. S.; Simpson, C. J.; Liang, J.; Maezono, S. E. B.; Olcina, M. M.; Buffa, F. M.; Hammond, E. M.; Replication catastrophe induced by cyclic hypoxia leads to increased APOBEC3B activity. Nucleic Acids Res. 21 July 2021. Key technical skills: - Wet-lab molecular biology techniques: western blotting, immunofluorescence, RNA extraction, RT-qPCR, confocal microscopy, cell survival assays, DNA damage assays, chromatin immunoprecipitation, R-loop assays (DRIP, RNase D210N), cell cycle analyses, hypoxia treatments, measuring oxidative stress - Bioinformatic analyses: R-based analyses, gene signatures, GSEA - Literature review: designing & executing a systematic review using PRISMA guidelines - Scientific communication: writing manuscripts, theses, reports Awards: Awarded the inaugural British Association for Cancer Research (BACR) Student Impact Prize: https://www.oncology.ox.ac.uk/news/tiffany-ma-wins-the-inaugural-bacr-student-impact-award-2022 Awarded the 'Living by the Department's Values Award' - Department of Oncology, University of Oxford (2022)
Old Silver Venture Capital is an evergreen Langer family-associated fund that makes early stage investments in Biotech, Digital Health, AI, and Material Sciences. As a fellow, I evaluate biotech investment opportunities by conducting scientific due diligence.