"Yade" company, which promotes applications based on the inventions of Weizmann Institute of Science scientists, recently granted MBcure a license to develop new approaches to regulate the population of bacteria living in the human body.
"Yade" company, which promotes applications based on the inventions of Weizmann Institute of Science scientists, recently granted MBcure a license to develop new approaches to regulate the population of bacteria living in the human body. These bacteria play a crucial role in shaping various processes in our body, including those involved in health and illness, and even in the emergence of risks for the development of various metabolic diseases.
MBcure is a pharmaceutical company operating in the FutuRx biotechnology incubator owned by the venture capital fund "Orbimed", "Johnson & Johnson Innovation" - JJDC, and the investment fund of the Japanese pharmaceutical company "Takeda", "Takeda Ventures Ltd". As part of the incubator, MBcure benefits from grants from the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Economy.
The company focuses, among other things, on the development of phage-based treatments - unique viruses that attack and kill bacteria, which may make it possible to make desired changes in the composition of the bacterial population in our bodies, and contain harmful bacteria, as a basis for medical treatments. The research and development in these areas are based on the research findings of Prof. Rotem Sorek from the Department of Molecular Genetics, and Dr. Eran Alinev from the Department of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
The research and development will begin in a pre-clinical phase, and the scientists and the company hope to move soon to clinical research, in humans. The first target is an intestinal disease caused by a bacterial infection in the digestive tract. Another goal is to curb the contribution of intestinal bacteria to the development of colon cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases.
"Interfering with the composition of the bacterial population in our body using phages," says Dr. Einat Zissman, CEO of FutuRx, "is significantly safer and more effective than existing antibiotic drugs. On top of that, the phages are also effective against bacteria that have developed resistance to antibiotics. For the FutuRx incubator, it is important to operate in innovative research fields that will shape the face of medicine in the near and far future. We hope that cooperation with leading scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science and with the company 'Yeda' will allow MBcure to illustrate the feasibility of this innovative therapeutic approach"
