‘Research here is world class’: son of Steve Jobs looks to invest in UK cancer care

“I saw my dad have cancer when I was a kid, and unfortunately that happens far too often. And that really motivated me to try to transform outcomes for other people out there.” Reed Jobs is talking about the death of his father, the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, to a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2011 at the age of 56, the experience that underlines his mission to make cancer a non-lethal, treatable disease. Now, the 34-year-old runs an oncology-focused venture capital fund that manages more than $1bn in assets, and is in the UK looking for investment opportunities. The San Francisco-based venture, called Yosemite, has already invested in about 20 healthcare startups, including Tune Therapeutics, Azalea Therapeutics, Chai Discovery and Sage Care in the US and some companies in the UK that have not been publicly announced, with a focus on gene therapy, cancer vaccines, radiopharmaceuticals and artificial intelligence. “As a firm, we invest in companies internationally, and we would love to look at opportunities in the UK,” Jobs says, speaking on the sidelines of a life sciences conference in London hosted by the British not-for-profit group LifeArc. “We’re here to meet with pharmaceutical partners and academics.” Yosemite receives investment from LifeArc, which focuses on rare diseases and was set up in 2000 as part of the UK’s Medical Research Council. It also has partnerships with Oxford and Cambridge universities, where it has provided philanthropic grants. …