Gut microbiome medicine developer EnteroBiotix has been backed by University of Aberdeen in a round that brings its total to $3.2m.

UK-based gut microbiome medicine developer EnteroBiotix on Wednesday closed a £2m ($2.5m) pre-series A round backed by University of Aberdeen and Scottish Investment Bank, a subsidiary of government-owned economic development unit Scottish Enterprise.
Angel syndicate Equity Gap led the round, which was also backed by publicly-funded science archive National Collection of Industrial, Food and Marine Bacteria, and SIS Ventures, the VC arm of impact charity Social Investment Scotland.
Occupational support body Bank Workers Charity, venture firm Barwell, Gabriel Venture Partners, Syndicate Room and Fund Twenty8 also provided shares of the funding.
Founded in 2018, EnteroBiotix is working on drugs that exploit the mechanics of the network of microorganisms in the human gut, a collective officially known as the gut microbiome.
The spinout is primarily focused on therapeutics for gastrointestinal diseases and drug-resistant bacterial infections. Its lead candidates, two treatments for advanced diarrhoea called FM250 and FM125, have already been licensed for production by UK  regulator Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
EnteroBiotix will now pursue business in international markets including the US, where it recently opened an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the company looks to achieve certain regulatory, operational and clinical milestones.
The company has also entered a strategic alliance with University of Glasgow to conduct research into precision antimicrobials to enhance the potency of its microbiome drug candidates.
EnteroBiotix was founded by Dr James McIlroy, who earned his degree in medicine from University of Aberdeen.
The business previously obtained $660,000 in an Equity Gap-led seed round in 2017 that included Scottish Investment Bank and a $130,000 grant award from government enterprise support scheme Smart Scotland.
Bank Workers Charity supplied EnteroBiotix with approximately $64,000 in equity funding in 2018, according to the body’s annual report.