Since the discovery and widespread use of antibiotics in the mid-twentieth century, the clinical management of bacterial infections has dramatically changed. Antibiotics turned then-deadly diseases into fully treatable ones, having a decisive impact on life quality and expectancy during the past century. However, the so-called “antibiotic era” has reached its conclusion due to the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria. The antimicrobial resistance crisis has become nowadays one of the greatest threats we face as a global community. Along with the unprecedented void in the discovery pipeline of new antibiotics, this crisis has evolved to a perfect storm, urging the world to return to the design table to develop novel classes of antibiotics. World leading healthcare authorities call for urgent solutions to tackle the global antimicrobial resistance crisis that will cause more deaths than cancer in 2050 when no action is undertaken.

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Obulytix will develop phage lysins as novel enzyme-based antibacterials. Lysins are naturally produced by phages, viruses that infect bacteria. They efficiently degrade the bacterial cell wall, resulting in a very rapid killing of the bacteria. Phage lysins fulfill all innovation criteria of novel antibiotics as defined by the World Health Organization and are therefore recognized as a highly promising class of antibiotics. Obulytix has developed the most advanced platform for hit-to-lead development of phage lysins, leveraged by artificial intelligence. Thousands of variants can be analyzed to develop the best possible phage lysins tailored for their clinical application. Obulytix will use its proprietary platform to develop phage lysins to treat patients suffering from life-threatening conditions at intensive care units.

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Obulytix is a spin-off of Ghent University and KU Leuven. Over two decades the research groups of prof. Yves Briers and prof. Rob Lavigne have been pioneering phage lysin research from understanding its fundamental biology to their development as a broad class of enzyme-based antibacterials. The founders are seasoned experts in phage lysin research who have developed Obulytix’ advanced proprietary platform for phage lysin development to bring phage lysins to the clinic.

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Our modern healthcare heavily relies on the availability of efficient antibiotics, not only to treat bacterial infections but also to protect patients with a weakened immunity (for example, cancer patients or patients receiving immunosuppressive drugs upon organ transplantation) or to prevent complications when placing implants. Innovative antibiotics with new modalities are highly needed to sustain our advanced healthcare system. Phage lysins can be customized to treat any potential disease-causing bacterium at any infection site. Obulytix’ platform will allow to deliver these tailormade drugs for any condition for a more targeted, personalized medicine of infectious diseases.

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