Mary Canning

Mary Canning is a Partner at Epidarex Capital, a transatlantic venture capital firm that builds and backs early-stage life science and health technology companies in emerging and under-ventured research hubs across the UK and US. She joined the firm in 2013 as an Associate and rose through the ranks to Principal and then Partner, and today leads due diligence for Epidarex's investments. She works out of the firm's Edinburgh office.

She brings more than 15 years of experience commercialising early-stage health science technologies. Before Epidarex, she served as a Business Manager at Medical Research Council Technology (MRCT, now LifeArc), where she was responsible for exploiting intellectual property arising from a number of leading UK academic research institutes and MRC research institutions. Earlier, she oversaw the life sciences portfolio of the Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept Programme, giving her deep experience in translating academic research into fundable companies.

Canning holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh and carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Glasgow, grounding her investment work in hands-on scientific training. This combination of bench science, technology-transfer, and venture experience underpins her role vetting deep-tech biotech opportunities.

As an active board member and observer, she sits close to the companies Epidarex founds and funds, supporting them from spin-out through follow-on financing. Her director and observer seats span several of the firm's therapeutics-platform portfolio companies.

• Invests as a founding / seed investor, providing seed or Series A funding to spin out innovations from highly regarded medical research universities and institutions in the UK and US.
• Targets "emerging and under-ventured research hubs" — regions and institutions Epidarex believes are underserved by traditional VC — rather than only London/Cambridge/Boston/SF.
• Sector focus across most life science areas: biotechnology and pharmaceuticals (therapeutics), medical devices, and health tech.
• Looks for: disruptive platform technologies addressing unmet medical need, novel innovation with sustainable competitive advantage, robust IP portfolios, early market validation and key-opinion-leader support, clear regulatory/commercialisation pathways, and — in Epidarex's own words — "highly driven and tenacious founders and entrepreneurs."
• Values companies that can attract follow-on investment from top-tier funds — Epidarex explicitly builds toward syndicated later rounds.
• Canning personally leads due diligence, so scientific rigour, defensible IP, and a credible path from lab to clinic weigh heavily in a "yes."