CC Bio, developer of preventative solutions for microbiome dysbiosis, announced today it has been awarded a major grant from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to support its ongoing research into the use of bacteriophage derived endolysins for the treatment of recurrent bacterial vaginosis.
The research project that has received the grant, entitled “Development of clinically translatable therapies for the treatment and prevention of bacterial vaginosis” is a continued collaboration between CC Bio and Brunel University, building upon previous Innovation Voucher funding secured between the two parties.
The CC Bio-developed endolysins, of which CCB2.1 is the pre-clinical lead candidate, will enable more effective treatment of recurrent bacterial vaginosis (BV).
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BV affects up to 30% of women of childbearing age in Europe/US, who face numerous prenatal and sexual health risks through carriage of the causative organism, Gardnerella vaginalis.
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Current antibiotic therapeutics are ineffective, with 70% of symptomatic patients experiencing a recurrence of the condition within 9 months of therapy.
The CC Bio endolysins developed through this Innovate funding will reduce such recurrence risks, without the side effects and worrying antimicrobial resistance of current antibiotic therapies.
“We are proud to be working to resolve a condition which affects the lives of so many women worldwide. Given the risks of G. vaginalis carriage, the current treatment options are unacceptable and lead to a condition recurrence cycle which is so familiar and demoralising to patients. In collaboration with our expert partners at Brunel University, the funding provided from this grant will allow us to take the first step to resolving this situation, through our precision endolysin technology” said Dr. Matthew Cummings, CEO and co-founder of CC Bio. “Bacterial Vaginosis represents the pivotal first application of our exciting endolysin discovery platform, which we will further leverage to a number of therapeutic areas in the near future.”
“We are very excited to be working with CC Bio to tackle BV and to visualise the ability of pre-clinical endolysin leads to disrupt G.vaginalis biofilm formation, a key phenotype linked to infection recurrence” said Dr. Ronan McCarthy, Co-Investigator on the grant, Biosciences Division, Department of Life Sciences, Brunel University London.
ABOUT INNOVATE UK
Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency. It works with people, companies and partner organisations to find and drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the UK economy.
For further information visit www.innovateuk.gov.uk
ABOUT CC BIO.
CC Bio harnesses the power bacteriophage derived endolysins to modify the composition of a number of human microbiome environments, resolving dysbiosis before manifestation of disease. Current active therapeutic programmes include bacterial vaginosis, and additional human health applications.
CC Bio was founded in 2018 and is currently headquartered at the prestigious Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge UK. It emerged from Deep Science Ventures, an early stage venture creation programme which aims to address the largest STEM challenges worldwide and has been further fostered by the P4 Precision Medicine Accelerator, in partnership with University College London.
CC Bio continues to build out a world-class, patent-protected IP portfolio generated by its endolysin discovery programme, and are interested in partnerships to expedite the progress of their research programmes, and to explore new opportunities in microbiome manipulation. For further information visit: www.ccbio.co.uk
Original source: www.ccbio.co.uk/27-9-19