Our technology portfolio is anchored by a broad and exclusive license of more than 30 years of bacteriophage research from the Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas (UTHSCSA). This technology portfolio essentially represents the life work of our Founder, Dr. Philip Serwer, who has been a professor at UTHSCSA since the 1970’s.
Among the many areas of innovation are unique methods for isolating, purifying and characterizing phage with a procedure that others do not use. Our procedures isolate phages at a much higher rate (~100x) and yield (90+% vs 20%-40%) than achieved via typical, well-known isolation procedures. Our procedures include a suite of phage preparations. These preparations amplify and purify phage “feedstock” and can extend their shelf life from days to months and even years.
A planned extension to these methods rapidly determines the likely persistence of a target phage (that is, the time a phage remains active in the organism before the immune system tries to suppress it). The multi-phage aspect of cocktails used for therapy amplifies the value of knowing the probability of high persistence for each of the separate phages. We are using tests that can be performed in urgent cases (i.e. Compassionate Use for gravely ill patients) in less than two days.
A future capability extension, which is currently undergoing translational R&D efforts, extends the persistence and stability of phage that have already been shown to be effective in therapeutic applications.
Our longer-term development pipeline contains numerous proprietary scientific advancements with substantial commercial potential, such as greatly improving anti-cancer drug delivery using highly adapted phage as well as novel treatment of amyloid neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s) via phage-based delivery of genetically engineered interventions.