MetalloBio and Nottingham Trent University secure funding

MetalloBio, an award-winning biotechnology company developing a completely new class of antimicrobial compounds, has been awarded funding from the National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC) to progress its novel inorganic antibiofilm urinary catheter coating towards market, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University.

The award is one of seven collaborative projects supported through NBIC's Industrial Challenge Response Fund (ICRF), which has committed a total of £357,891 to industry-led projects tackling biofilm challenges across energy, engineering biology, food, health, marine, personal care and water.

This collaborative project between MetalloBio and Nottingham Trent University will generate the safety, biocompatibility and antimicrobial performance data needed to support regulatory approval and future clinical translation. 

Using internationally recognised standards and realistic laboratory models, the work will move the spinout's coating closer to the patients who need it most.

(Left to right: Dr Michael Murray, Dr Samantha McLean, Dr Adam Varney)

A major clinical problem

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are among the most persistent challenges in modern healthcare. 

One in four people who stay in hospital will have a urinary catheter fitted, and in more than half of these cases, catheterisation will result in an infection. In the US alone, this amounts to over 500,000 catheterised hospital patients developing UTIs every year.

Bacteria that colonise catheter surfaces form protective communities that are notoriously difficult to clear, fuelling high recurrence rates and contributing to the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a global crisis responsible for over a million deaths annually.

A new approach to antimicrobial materials

Existing antibiotics are often limited by their historical designs, allowing bacteria to develop resistance rapidly. 

MetalloBio's innovative chemistry has so far produced over 45 new antibacterial compounds that, in extensive emergence of resistance studies, appear not to trigger bacterial resistance readily.

MetalloBio's catheter coating is designed to protect hundreds of thousands of hospital patients from avoidable infections by tackling biofilm formation at the source. 

The company's position is underpinned by composition of matter patents granted in 32 countries and trade secrets protecting its industrial scale-up process, and it is well placed to address the antimicrobial catheter coatings market, estimated at $2.56 billion by 2033.

Building on momentum
‍

The award follows MetalloBio's recent pre-series A raise of over £401K, supported by Oxford Technology Management (OTM), OTM's Wider Oxford Technology Angel Network (WOTAN) and a successful crowdfunding campaign with Republic Europe. 

Together, the funding will help the company reach critical pre-clinical R&D and commercial milestones, including toxicology testing, clinical trial strategy development and a licensing campaign for its proprietary coatings and materials.

Designed to remove sector-specific barriers and accelerate innovation, the ICRF supports rapid, low-risk collaboration between academia and industry, with private sector co-investment leveraging additional investment. Since December 2017, NBIC has awarded support to 104 collaborative projects, representing a total investment of £4.9 million from NBIC and an overall project value of £9.4 million.

Professor Jo Slater-Jefferies, NBIC Chief Executive Officer, said: "This ICRF call attracted an excellent range of collaborative projects that demonstrate both the strength of UK biofilm research and the appetite from industry to work with academic partners to address critical biofilm-related challenges."

Dr Michael Murray, CEO of MetalloBio, said: "For MetalloBio this is another opportunity to work with Dr Sam McLean and Dr Adam Varney at Nottingham Trent University. The working relationship is now over 7 years old and continues to be hugely productive with great commercial R&D developments and academic papers, as well as being a total pleasure. We believe this is the epitome of a strong and successful industry/academic multi-year collaboration.”

Dr Samantha McLean, Associate Professor of Infection Prevention and Control at Nottingham Trent University, said: "Catheter-associated infections are a daily clinical challenge, and biofilms are a big reason they are so hard to prevent and treat. Collaborating with MetalloBio lets us bring our infection prevention expertise together with their innovative chemistry, so that the testing we do reflects real healthcare needs."