CRO redefined: how RoukenBio went from Scottish biotech start-up to global immunology pioneer
RoukenBio has grown from a bold Scottish start-up to an award-winning immunology contract research organisation (CRO) with global clientele. Find out how we’ve supported it along the way through leadership development, workplace innovation support, and targeted grants.
5 August 2025 | 6 minute read
We began working with Motherwell-based RoukenBio in 2017. Since then, the company has developed patent-pending technology, opened a 24,000-square-foot facility with laboratories housing high-tech instrumentation, and attracted major investment from NorthEdge.
So, how does a Scottish biotech start-up grow from three employees and a bold ambition into a global pre-clinical CRO?
Step one: harness expertise and ambition
RoukenBio was founded in 2015 by CEO Andy Upsall. He wanted to use his decades of bioanalytical experience to build a CRO that blended scientific excellence with a collaborative culture.
Traditionally, CROs conduct testing for pharmaceutical and biotech companies and returning results.
Andy envisioned a more integrated approach, through which a CRO could enable their client’s research by co-designing studies, troubleshooting live challenges, and evolving alongside its partners.
Step two: build your business with support
We began our relationship with RoukenBio in 2017 and have helped the company with both financial and non-financial support since. A key element of this has been one-to-one account management and workplace innovation specialist support. As part of this specialist support, the company has taken part in several of our leadership development and growth programmes. It's also been signposted to various organisations, events, and opportunities to make key networking connections.
We’ve also provided grant and feasibility support for the business to further develop its offering.
In 2018, the company pivoted from its initial focus on biosimilar testing to discovery-phase immunology services. To this day, RoukenBio is one of very few CROs worldwide that focuses on immunology, supporting biotherapeutics developers who treat immune-mediated diseases.
Its aim was to try and solve the drug-discovery challenges the industry faces, so it established an in-house innovation team dedicated to doing just that. The outcome of this research was the company’s first proprietary technology: the dual-inducible cell line platform IndEx-2.
This platform transformed how scientists evaluate the safety and efficacy of targeted immunotherapies, particularly those for cancer and, more recently, autoimmune diseases. In layman’s terms, IndEx-2 is a research tool that lets scientists switch on a target protein and fine-tune how much of it is expressed on cells to test when therapies will act or stay safe.
This helps developers understand their therapeutic candidates (potential new treatments or drugs being tested) earlier in the drug discovery process, before the costly clinical trial phases. Coupled with the company’s deep immunology expertise, this has the potential to drastically speed up development of the therapies by selecting better clinical candidates (drugs or treatments ready to be tested in humans).
Step three: grow your team and culture
The breakthrough of IndEx-2 catalysed the spin-out of a specialist cell engineering department run by talented cell and molecular biologists – but for this, the company needed more space. In 2022 it moved into a purpose-built facility in Motherwell that now hosts more than 100 employees – a unique mix of in-house specialists made up of immunologists, oncologists, molecular biologists, cell biologists, cell-based bioassay specialists, and biophysicists.
This rapid growth signalled success but also brought new pressures. A bigger lab needs more scientists, and more scientists need advanced training to stay at the cutting edge, not to mention new leadership requirements.
Fortunately, we could help with that. With the support of our workplace innovation specialist, RoukenBio underwent an organisational development review. This helped the company master the principles of self-managed teams to drive a high-performance culture.
Meanwhile, senior staff members attended several of our leadership-focused programmes, including Leading With Change, Growth Leadership, Essential Leadership, and Managing People for Growth. These programmes provided the skills needed to help the company embed self-managed teams, adopt fair work principles, and explore innovative working practices that boost resilience and productivity.
Step four: get investment ready
We also supported the company as it embarked on several talent and workplace innovation projects. This included coaching, funding for inclusive training, sponsoring technical workshops, and more.
We also connected RoukenBio with Skills Development Scotland for a Skills for Growth review and youth-recruitment strategy. This secured a pipeline of apprentices and graduates to reinforce the business's long-term talent supply.
The combination of support allowed RoukenBio to develop and embed a clear people strategy, robust performance systems, and a cohesive culture that could survive every phase of expansion.
This provided the final piece of the puzzle on RoukenBio’s journey to investment readiness. Now RoukenBio has a clear mission, complete with a full service offering, proprietary products, and a purpose-built culture.
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Step five: target your capital
In 2023, the immunology CRO secured a multi-million-pound investment from private equity firm NorthEdge.
This investment marked a major milestone for RoukenBio, which would allow it to scale its groundbreaking work.
The company used the investment to expand its facilities at Motherwell, getting more specialist equipment and increasing the capacity of its in-house laboratories.
This not only gave the company room to grow but also allowed – and continues to allow – it to develop technologies and services that address the industry’s demands and ensure its continuing status as a pioneer in innovative immunology research.
RoukenBio’s most recent innovation is LocIn – pronounced ‘loch-in’ to echo the company’s proud Scottish roots.
This advanced cell line generation platform offers a fast and reliable way to make identical cell lines, cutting down the time needed to develop new candidate therapeutics.
Combined with RoukenBio’s flagship platform IndEx-2, LocIn enables scientists to accurately compare construct designs (molecular blueprints used to design how a drug or therapy works) and accelerate the testing of molecules. These designs form the basis of more advanced therapeutics in the future of immunotherapies for the treatment of cancers, autoimmune diseases, allergy, inflammation, and more.
Learn more about RoukenBio's services on the websiteopens in a new window
Step six: plan for the future
RoukenBio now has more than 100 staff and ranks among the world’s most trusted CROs. It’s sought out by clients for its technical excellence and collaborative, solutions-driven approach – but its journey is far from finished.
The company has enormous ambitions and a clear roadmap to achieve them. Having recently completed phase two of its facility growth, a shot-term goal is to complete the final stages (phase three) of this process, with the build-out of its lab and office spaces in Motherwell. This expansion will double the company’s footprint, with capacity for 250 staff.
While it continues to further its expertise in immune-regulated diseases, it’s working on piloting the next generation of primary cell assays (lab tests using real, freshly isolated cells to see how a drug might act in the body) and three-dimensional cellular models to enable the selection of the best therapeutic candidates for clinical trial testing
With its cutting-edge technology, expert scientists, and clear ambition, RoukenBio is ready to bid for even bigger global contracts – pursuing its mission to be the most trusted CRO for biotherapeutic developers in the world.
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