Victoria House is fast becoming the go-to destination for life sciences in central London. In the heart of Bloomsbury, this Grade II-listed Art Deco building has been transformed into a unique and stunning state-of-the-art innovation hub. It combines cutting-edge laboratory space with heritage architecture and a growing list of pioneering residents.

One such member of this next-generation community is Xterna, a biotech startup focused on solving one of medicine’s biggest problems: how to get drugs to the right place in the body. As the first resident of Victoria House’s newly launched incubator labs, Xterna is helping to set the tone for a collaborative, commercially focused life sciences cluster in the heart of the capital.

Incubator Labs Designed for Startups

Xterna now operates out of the incubator space on the seventh floor of Victoria House, which is fully fitted with shared instrumentation, a cell culture suite, cold storage, and high-spec lab equipment. These premium facilities allow early-stage companies to conduct advanced research without the upfront costs of setting up a lab from scratch.

Speaking about what it’s like to be one of the first residents in the incubator labs, Dr Jess Corry, CEO and Co-Founder of Xterna, says: “It’s been a brilliant opportunity to be the first in. We have been able to help shape the space to our needs, and the flexibility has been invaluable.

“One of the biggest advantages is access to core facilities. Victoria House offers shared equipment like confocal microscopes and flow cytometers, which would be prohibitively expensive for us to purchase outright. That’s a game-changer for an early-stage company where every penny counts. The building itself is also beautiful – very different from a typical lab environment – it’s a talking point for attracting talent.”

The incubator labs at Victoria House are already home to four early-stage companies – Xterna, AAVantgarde Bio, Curecraft and Emles Bioventures – spanning research in cancer therapies, therapeutic proteins and next-gen health tech. With a strong pipeline of enquiries, the space is already proving its value in addressing the need for highly flexible lab facilities for companies in their earliest stages.

Jess adds: “The community at Victoria House is a major asset. From monthly tenant lunches, to internal events, we can connect with other similar stage startups. Coming from academia, where projects can operate in silo, it’s helpful to learn from others in the startup ecosystem, experiencing similar pains!”

Xterna: Engineering Better Drug Delivery

Founded by Dr Jess Corry and Dr Chris Wan, who met as postdoctoral researchers, Xterna was born from a shared frustration with academia’s focus on publishing rather than on translational impact.

The company is taking a novel approach, building targeted delivery vehicles using xeno-nucleic acids (XNAs) to ensure that treatments reach the tissues and organs they’re designed for. It’s a solution to the chronic inefficiency in modern medicine, where most drugs fail in clinical trials, often because they do not reach their intended site of action.

Jess explains: “We engineer vehicles for a passenger drug. By getting drugs to the right place in the body, we can improve effectiveness and reduce toxicity.”

The use of modified nucleic acids, XNAs, allows Xterna to engineer specific and biologically stable solutions, particularly well-suited for delivering other nucleic acid therapeutics.

A Full-Spectrum Life Sciences Community

Victoria House is the first building of its kind to offer serviced office space alongside its incubator labs tailored to life sciences occupiers, with 27,000 sq ft now live on the fourth floor. Nine companies have already taken space here, including digital health and AI-driven research startups such as Deep Mirror, Caerulus, Neurocentrx, and Forcefield Therapeutics. Residents benefit from access to the building’s eighth floor club lounge, heritage meeting rooms, and rooftop terrace, as well as a steady calendar of community events and accelerator programmes.

Antara Woodring, Vice President, Life Sciences at Oxford Properties, commented: “Our North Star for Victoria House has always been the creation of a dynamic ecosystem in the heart of London’s Knowledge Quarter for life sciences organisations, large and small, to come together under one roof.

“The serviced office space we have successfully launched in this carefully phased project is unique within London’s current life sciences offering; it is a vital element in ensuring we have as broad a base of mutually supportive businesses working in proximity to each other as possible. Welcoming these firms to the Victoria House community comes ahead of the opening of the lab spaces in a couple of months’ time, which will mark the completion of the transformation of this historic property.”

The building is also home to the BioIndustry Association (BIA), which established its UK headquarters at Victoria House last year, further reinforcing the site’s role as a centre of influence and activity for the sector.

What’s Next for Xterna?

For Xterna, the focus now is scaling the team and accelerating R&D. Jess says: “In the next 12-18 months, we’re planning to expand our team from 2 to 5 people. Scientifically, we’re also scaling up our screening capabilities and developing proprietary methodology that allows us to assess our systems built from our unique chemistry directly in a biologically relevant system.”

What’s Next for Victoria House?

The broader Victoria House ecosystem continues to evolve. Strategic partnerships with Thermo Fisher Scientific and Miltenyi Biotec will bring advanced instruments, technical support, and startup resources directly into the building – another step in making it a magnet for talent and capital in London’s Knowledge Quarter.

Miranda Knaggs, Corporate Development Director of Pioneer Group, comments: “Biotech entrepreneurs often need to commit to multiyear leases, large footprints and expensive lab build-outs when they aren’t even sure they have a viable product yet. The flexibility of our incubator labs and serviced office offerings are filling a gap in the market and the latest phase of our business plan is playing out even better than expected.”

The development is on track to open its full 220,000 sq ft of life sciences space later this year, including Grade A wet labs designed for companies at every stage.

“Being at Victoria House helps us move faster,” Jess concludes. “It’s just the start for Victoria House, and we’re proud to be part of that community from the beginning and to witness the space grow, alongside Xterna.”