New generation antibiotics to treat drug resistant infections
On 23 November, at the Dutch LifeSciences Conference videos of the six Venture Challenge teams delivering their final pitches were presented to the audience. Chretien Herben, Programme Director of LifeSciences@Work announced the winning team of this Fall edition: Synamp Pharmaceuticals.
Synamp’s goal is the discovery and development of entirely new classes of antibiotics capable of selectively targeting and killing bacterial cells via novel modes of action. To do so Synamp applies a strategy aimed at identifying compounds capable of binding lipid II, the unique molecular building block of the bacterial cell wall. Importantly, lipid II has no known role in human metabolism but is essential to bacterial growth and survival. The Synamp team who participated in the Venture Challenge consisted of : Nathaniel Martin, Timo Koopmans, Laurens Kleijn
Morbidity and mortality associated with drug-resistant bacterial infections present a major problem for healthcare providers worldwide. Antibiotic resistance is now spreading globally at an alarming rate and currently results in 25,000 annual deaths in the US alone with similar mortality rates in Europe. Despite growing concerns, therapies to combat drug-resistant pathogens are few and far between. Synamp Pharmaceuticals has discovered and patented a new class of antibiotics that effectively kill Gram-positive bacteria, including drug resistant pathogens, via a new mode of action unlike that of any current clinically used antibiotic. Synamp’s lead compounds are based on nisin, a potent antibacterial agent produced in nature by strains of Lactococcus lactis. While nisin is safe for human consumption, it is not suitable for use as a clinical antibiotic as it is rapidly degraded and deactivated in the body.
Due to its poor in vivo stability nisin has instead found a role in food preservation. Given its unique mode of action, researchers at Synamp have developed a “better nisin”, with enhanced stability and proven activity against a broad panel of Grampositive pathogens, including drug-resistant and difficult to treat strains such as VRE, MRSA and Clostridium difficile.
Synamp’s lead compounds operate via a new mode of action which importantly involves targeting a specific non-protein bacterial cell wall component making stable resistance to these antibiotics more difficult to develop.
Next to Synamp, the other Venture Challenge Fall 2015 teams were U-Pact, STENTIT, Novioscan, Exbiome and MaMaLoc.
More information on Synamp
Synamp Pharmaceuticals B.V. was founded in November 2014, by dr. Nathaniel Martin (assistant professor at Utrecht University, with years of experience in the field of antibiotics), Timo Koopmans (PhD candidate who developed the core technology), and Laurens Kleijn (PhD candidate, investigating the second generation of compounds for Synamp). Synamp’s board of supervisors consists of the highly experienced biotech professionals Johan Kleyn LLM (Crucell, ProQR), Pieter Strijkert PhD (Crucell, GistBrocades, Chiron), and Ronald Brus MD (Crucell, Galapagos)
Visit the LifeSciences@Work website for more information on the Health~Holland Venture Challenge.
