Reed Jobs, the son of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, is seeking investment opportunities in the UK for his oncology-focused venture capital fund, Yosemite, which manages over $1 billion in assets. Speaking at the LifeArc Translational Science Summit in London, he emphasized his mission to transform cancer into a non-lethal, treatable disease, inspired by his father's death from pancreatic cancer in 2011.
Personal Motivation and Fund Strategy
Jobs, now 34, recounted his personal experience: "I saw my dad have cancer when I was a kid, and unfortunately that happens far too often. That really motivated me to try to transform outcomes for other people out there." Yosemite, named after the national park where his parents married, has already invested in about 20 healthcare startups, including Tune Therapeutics, Azalea Therapeutics, Chai Discovery, and Sage Care in the US, as well as undisclosed UK companies. The fund focuses on gene therapy, cancer vaccines, radiopharmaceuticals, and artificial intelligence.
UK Collaborations and Philanthropy
Yosemite receives investment from LifeArc, a British not-for-profit group focused on rare diseases, and has partnerships with Oxford and Cambridge universities, providing philanthropic grants. "Research here is world class," Jobs noted. The fund has a for-profit venture investing in healthcare companies and a donor-advised fund that awards grants to early-stage scientists.
Cancer Care Vision
Jobs hopes that within his lifetime, cancer will shift from an "end-stage disease" to an illness diagnosed early, monitored, and treated, similar to advances in HIV and cardiovascular disease. He criticized the current state: "Today far too many cancers are either diagnosed incidentally, because there's no good early biomarker, or only diagnosed once they are metastatic and extremely advanced. That is unacceptable." He believes better detection and personalized therapy will drive change.
Focus on Immunotherapy and Rare Cancers
Jobs highlighted immunotherapy as a promising area: "It's one of the areas I think is going to have the most promise for patients in the next couple of decades." He noted that 20% of cancers are rare. Lone Friis, who runs the C-Further paediatric oncology programme at LifeArc, added that while childhood cancers are rare (4,000 new cases annually in the UK), cancer is the leading disease cause of death in children, with only eight new paediatric medications in the last two decades compared to up to 150 for adults. "We need to do better," she said.
