Katya Smirnyagina is a Senior Partner, Life Sciences, at Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE), which she joined in 2021 with over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry. Katya represents OSE on the boards of Beacon Therapeutics, Oxford Nanoimaging and SpyBiotech. Katya started her VC career in 2002 with Alta Partners, a healthcare focused USA fund, followed by Capricorn Partners in Belgium. She has been a director of a number of public and private companies in Europe and is the past Vice-Chair of InvestEurope. Katya holds a PhD in Cellular & Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by a post-doc in Microbiology & Immunology from the Stanford University School of Medicine.