Dr Usman Munir

Dr Usman Munir is a Commercialisation Manager at Cambridge Enterprise, where he partners with Cambridge faculty, researchers and students to translate AI, deeptech and software research into companies, products and licensing deals — from IP de-risking and market assessment through to spinout formation and pre-seed investment readiness. He is a first point of contact for Cambridge researchers looking to explore the commercial potential of their work, and plays an active role in building the university’s deeptech and AI ecosystem.

A researcher by training, Usman holds a Doctor of Public Health from Harvard University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT’s Computer Science and AI Lab (CSAIL), where he led research on AI and sensing systems for dementia care — work that contributed to an MIT spinout and supported FDA biomarker approval.

He subsequently spent five years at Microsoft Research at the frontier of AI and life sciences. He began by building AI programmes in hospital care, mental health and clinical trials before leading the AI for Science initiative, where he architected an innovation ecosystem, forged strategic partnerships with organisations including Novartis and the Francis Crick Institute, and contributed to BioEmu — a protein structure prediction model published in Science.

Earlier in his career, he worked at the World Bank, advising on health policy and economics and helping shape investment strategies for a new $1 billion global health fund, with a particular focus on improving maternal and child health outcomes in under-resourced regions.

Usman has spent his career moving between research and real-world impact — and brings that full arc to bear in helping Cambridge’s researchers realise the commercial and societal potential of their work.