£4.3m boost for Oxford-Glasgow spinout tackling antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major public health crisis throughout the world. It is estimated that around 1.27 million people per year die as a result of AMR due to the therapeutic failure of available antibiotics.

By 2050, AMR is predicted to surpass 10 million deaths globally per year at a cost of $100 trillion, and there is an urgent need to develop new effective antimicrobial therapeutics.

Glox Therapeutics is developing precision antibiotics by using engineered protein bacteriocins. These novel antimicrobials exhibit remarkable potency and specificity, enabling them to effectively and selectively target gram-negative pathogens that have already developed AMR.

Bacteriocins, which are naturally produced by bacteria, possess antimicrobial properties against strains of the same or related species. Leveraging the power of bacteriocins, Glox Therapeutics aims to advance the field of antimicrobial therapy by overcoming resistance to traditional antibiotics.

The focus is on selectively eradicating target pathogens while preserving the patient’s microbiomes, ensuring a more balanced and effective treatment strategy with reduced side-effects.

Our mission is to provide physicians and patients with highly potent, targeted antimicrobial therapies that can kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria for which there are diminishing options available for treatment. This seed funding is testament to the promise of Glox Therapeutics’ precise antibiotic therapies, and we are thrilled to have the backing of such high-calibre investors which will enable us to establish laboratories and attract top-tier talent.

Dr James Clark, CEO, Glox Therapeutics

Professor Colin Kleanthous FMedSci, Iveagh Professor of Microbial Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, co-founded Glox Therapeutics with Professor Daniel Walker from the University of Glasgow (now at the University of Strathclyde) and Dr James Clark, who has held several leadership roles in precision medicine and drug development companies.

Glox Therapeutics is built on advances in understanding bacteriocin structure and mode of action made collaboratively by the professors at the Universities of Oxford and Glasgow.

Professor Chas Bountra, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation, University of Oxford, said: ‘There is a growing consensus that the next generation of antibiotics should be narrow-spectrum therapeutics, able to target specific pathogenic AMR bacteria without collateral damage to the wider human microbiome, which is so vital to our health and wellbeing. Glox Therapeutics’ high-potency therapies offer the long-awaited solution to address these urgent unmet medical needs in tackling treatment-resistant bacterial infections.’

Learn more about innovation at the University of Oxford