"It's a slightly different pursuit," says Dr Timothy Weil, a molecular biologist at the University of Cambridge. "Many start-ups and venture capitalists are looking to solve a problem, searching for the answer to a known unknown. One of the most exciting aspects of basic, blue-sky research is the prospect of the unknown unknowns," he asserts.

When businesses profit from science it can have other impacts. That so much money is at stake can take funding away from blue-sky research – the pursuit of knowledge where unexpected and ground-breaking discoveries can be made. Some see this shift in research agendas as concerning.

Monetary goals may be the only factor for some, but Thakrar is also excited by following cutting-edge advances in medicine. "For the first time in the history of medicine we are on the verge of curing people – that's quite an exciting time to be exposed to companies that are curing disease rather than symptoms," he says.

To start with, if a company's drug or product is successful, the returns can be extremely lucrative, says Hitesh Thakrar, partner at life sciences venture fund, Syncona. Take gene editing. Estimates suggest that CRISPR treatment could cost up to $1m per patient. The UK government also offers tax breaks to invest in qualifying businesses under the Enterprise Investment Scheme. "I invest in start-ups as more innovation is happening from bottom up," says Thakrar.

These are but a handful of the biotech companies which have jumped on the rapidly advancing knowledge of genetics. Investors are keen to cash in on innovative treatments, but profits are not guaranteed and many start-ups will fail in the early rounds. Many companies doing early-stage research, like Immunocore, will not see any returns for many years to come. So why do people invest in medical sciences in the first place?

History tells us that just because money is thrown at a problem, it doesn't guarantee you're going to figure it out."

Another issue is that when patents are involved, scientific discoveries are not always shared with other scientists, despite the fact that it is often university researchers who make vital, early discoveries.

Funding for academic research, however, can be time consuming and competitive. Dr Pule splits his time between academia and business. He therefore says that "industrial investment allows the rapid application of large sums of money towards very focused goals." For him, CAR-T is an example where technological and clinical development has advanced really quickly. "It is a good example of the power of capitalism."

What is clear is that investment in emerging technology is growing at a rapid pace. This is why Prof Ali believes that there has never been a more exciting time to be working in biotech. "The influx of investment and establishment of many new companies just demonstrated how much confidence there is that the technology is going to deliver."

It also shows that advances in medicine can and do come from many different areas. "These are generational challenges and the more ways of approaching the problem, the better chance we have to find solutions," says Dr Weil.

It's a long way since Mendel and his pea plants. Rapidly advancing knowledge of the human genome means that these companies - and others like them - will help humans enter into a world where personalised medicine, tailored to individual genomes, will become the norm.