UMI3 finds place in Amprologix

University of Manchester’s commercialisation arm UMI3 has picked up a stake in UK-based Amprologix, a newly-founded antibiotics spinout from University of Plymouth.
Commercialisation firm Frontier IP will own 10% of the new company and synthetic biology provider Ingenza has also taken equity.
Amprologix has been formed to commercialise a class of antibiotics called epidermicin capable of killing infections resistant to drugs such as methicillin, an antibiotic first discovered in 1960.
A dearth of new antibiotics has led to the emergence of superbugs such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (commonly known as MRSA), a potent and dangerous infection primarily affecting patients in hospital wards.
Amprologix’s lead product is an antibiotic designated Epidermicin Ni01, named for its origins in the skin bacterium, or Staphylococcus epidermis, and later replicated using methods of synthetic biology.
The company also plans to use tools such as artificial intelligence to discover other antibiotic classes. Ingenza will provide Amprologix with assistance in research and manufacturing.
Amprologix builds on work performed at UMI3 by the company’s chief scientific officer, Mathew Upton, now head of the antibiotic-resistant pathogens group at University of Plymouth’s School of Biomedical Sciences.
Upton said: “The World Health Organisation warned in February this year that ‘antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development today’, so to have this company established is the next step to helping tackle the problem.”