Nemesis Bioscience Ltd announced today that it has been awarded a European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator grant of €2 million to advance its work in the prevention of antibiotic -resistant infections. In this highly competitive process, Nemesis was one of only 74 companies funded from many thousands of applicants.
In a two-year, EIC funded programme, Nemesis will work with Newcastle University to demonstrate that Transmids©, delivered by commensal bacterial donors, can decolonise the mammalian gut microbiome of selected antibiotic-resistant genes.
Commenting on the announcement Dr Frank Massam, CEO of Nemesis said, “On any given day, in the E.U. there are some 98,000 patients suffering with hospital-acquired infections (HAI) and in long-term care facilities this rises to 124,000. More worrying is the fact that more than 30% of these infections are resistant to multiple antibiotics.
“Globally, the WHO estimates that approx. 15% of all hospitalised patients suffer from HAI. The proportion of infected patients within intensive care units is as high as 51%. During hospitalisation, patients are exposed to pathogens through several sources in the environment including healthcare staff and other infected patients. Many serious and chronic HAIs are caused by bacteria which originate from the patient’s own gut. If the causal gut bacteria are antibiotic resistant, then any subsequent infections are also antibiotic resistant causing significant clinical problems and increasing the length of hospital stays.
“These infections are a significant clinical and economic burden on healthcare systems. The new EIC grant will allow us to demonstrate, using an appropriate in vivo model, that we can prevent resistant infections by decolonising patients’ gut microbiomes of antibiotic-resistant genes, thus addressing one of the biggest healthcare challenges of our time.”
ENDS
About Nemesis Bioscience Ltd.
Nemesis Bioscience Ltd was founded in 2014 by Dr Frank Massam, Professor Conrad Lichtenstein and Dr Gi Mikawa. Based in Cambridge, UK, the company has invented, and is developing, pioneering products that will resurrect anti-microbial therapies made ineffective by increasing microbial resistance. Nemesis will address one of the world’s most significant clinical problems by not only treating antibiotic resistant infections, but also by preventing them in susceptible patients. Large and rapidly growing opportunities exist for the company’s products in the antibiotic, wound care, and veterinary medicine markets.
For further information, contact:
Dr Frank Massam: Phone: +44 (0)7786 367053 Email: [email protected]
Web: www.nemesisbio.com
About The EIC Fund
The EIC Fund is a unique entity owned by the European Commission and established to make direct equity investments in companies. The EIC Accelerator supports individual Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), particularly startups and spinout companies, to develop and scale up game-changing innovations.
About Newcastle University
Newcastle University is a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities with a world-class reputation for research excellence in diverse fields of research including medicine, science, engineering, humanities, social sciences and the environment. Newcastle University academics are sharply focused on responding to the major challenges facing society today: by harnessing creative thinking we’re changing the world for the better. Newcastle University is ranked 15th in the UK for global research power.