Kirsty's Legacy | Metallobio

The MetalloBio story is very much the story of Dr Kirsty Louise Smitten.

MetalloBio was established in March 2021 by co-founders, Dr Kirsty Smitten and Professor Jim Thomas, from the Department of Chemistry at The University of Sheffield.

Kirsty first arrived in Sheffield as an undergraduate student in 2012, and went on to complete a PhD working on the challenge of antimicrobial resistance.

Her PhD thesis led to a series of high-impact papers and the filing of a patent. In 2020, Kirsty enrolled on the UK government’s ICURe programme to explore the commercial landscape for products based on what became the MetalloBio technology. On 26 March 2021, having been awarded £300,000 of start-up funding from Innovate UK, she co-founded MetalloBio with Professor Jim Thomas, becoming its first CEO.

MetalloBio’s focus was based on this groundbreaking work to create new antimicrobial compounds that could potentially be the first to enter the clinic for nearly 40 years and would be used to treat bacterial infections that have become resistant to currently used drugs.

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Photo fo Kirsty Smitten — Dr Kirsty Louise Smitten

During her time as CEO, Kirsty brought in more than £2m of non-dilutive funds into MetalloBio.

Kirsty won multiple awards, both personally and for the company, including a Forbes Magazine 30 under 30 award for Science and Healthcare, a Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship, an Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award, and The UK Federation of Small Businesses Entrepreneur of the Year 2023.

Tragically, in 2023 she was given a terminal diagnosis of cardiac angiosarcoma – an extremely rare and aggressive form of cancer.

She went on to document her life on social media and use this as a lever for fundraising activities, including setting up an online support group for cardiac angio-sarcoma to help others across the world, and being nominated to become a SarcomaUK Young Sarcoma Voice of the Year.

On 4 October 2023 Kirsty died from complications related to the series of pneumonia infections she had been suffering from. There were no antimicrobial treatments available that could deal with her infections.

Today, MetalloBio is the continuation of Kirsty’s life’s work. We carry forward the ruthenium-based platform she perfected. Every milestone we reach in the fight against antimicrobial resistance is a tribute to her intelligence, her generosity, and her refusal to let the ‘superbug’ win.

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