Education
Reared in England, Grainger graduated with degree in Natural Sciences (Biochemistry) from Cambridge University in 1989, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Vascular Cell Biology from the same institution in 1992.
chairman Chief Executive Officer
Reared in England, Grainger graduated with degree in Natural Sciences (Biochemistry) from Cambridge University in 1989, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Vascular Cell Biology from the same institution in 1992.
He was formerly with Index Ventures, an international venture capital firm with offices in London, Geneva and San Francisco, in the firm’s life sciences practice. He also writes for Forbes.com on topics related to the pharmaceutical industry. Following publications in Nature and elsewhere setting out his Protective Cytokine Hypothesis explaining the role of the cytokine Transforming growth factor-beta 1 in the cardiovascular system, Grainger was appointed principal investigator in the Department of Medicine at his alma mater, Cambridge University, in 1997.
While at Cambridge University, Grainger founded life sciences companies including FingerPrint Diagnostics (2001), and Funxional Therapeutics (2005).
FingerPrint Diagnostics merged with SmartBead Technologies to form Pronostics, a molecular diagnostics company, in 2006. Funxional Therapeutics, based on an anti-inflammatory drug candidate spun-out from Grainger"s Cambridge University lab, became an Index Ventures portfolio company where Grainger also served as chief scientific officer until it was sold to Boehringer Ingelheim in 2012.
Grainger joined Index Ventures in 2012, and a blogger on topics related to the pharmaceutical industry under the pen name “DrugBaron”.