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Eligo Bioscience came out on top in the Startup Battle at Labiotech Refresh, watch the founder’s pitch to see how!
CRISPR can be used to cut and replace virtually any gene, which has fueled a fierce patent battle over the rights to use it for gene therapy in humans. Eligo Bioscience, however, focuses on using this powerful tool to reshape microbiology engineering and create programmable drugs to target specific bacterial populations: “In five years, we want to have vectors to engineer the whole microbiome”.
The startup’s revolutionary approach consists in delivering CRISPR via phages to selectively kill nocive bacterial strains. These “sequence-specific antimicrobials discriminate the bugs at the strain level while leaving the rest of the flora completely intact“. Since a healthy microbiome is closely linked with multiple aspects of human health, this technique could make a big change in how we fight disease. Companies like Enterome are already targeting the microbiome to fight cancer.
With data from a proof of concept experiment in vivo, Eligo seems well prepared to bring this novel therapy to the clinic. Watch the video to get all the details!
