A North East biomedical firm working to discover new antibiotics has been given £800,000 in new funding to fuel its work.
In a sign of the growing strength of the region’s life sciences sector, Demuris Limited has partnered with Newcastle University to investigate newly discovered compounds that kill bacteria.
The research could be used to develop new antibiotic drugs, a growing challenge as more bacteria become resistant to many of the medicines currently in use.
Demuris has now received £800,000 from the Medical Research Council to fund the important research taking place in Newcastle.
The Newcastle company’s work will prove important to develop new medication designed to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Prof Nikolay Zenkin, from Newcastle University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences and an academic lead of the study, said: “This is an exciting development for the future treatment of rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis and shows what can be achieved when local businesses and universities work together.”
According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis is the leading cause of death by infections disease, with 1.7m people dying from the condition each year.
Demuris is a spin-out company from Newcastle University and was founded by Prof Jeff Errington, who is also director of the university’s Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology.
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In May the business received a grant of £340,000 from Innovate 海角视频’s SBRI programme. The money was used to carry out genome DNA sequencing on a large number of bacteria that could produce antibiotics.
The firm is looking to find antibiotics that can be used to treat “gram-negative” bacteria, which have a unique outer membrane meaning that most antibiotics can’t affect them.
Last month Demuris also struck a partnership with Newcastle University to develop new ways of treating mitochondrial diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.
Mitochondria are known as the “power house of cells” and are how the body is able to turn sugars, fats, and proteins into energy.
However, mitochondrial diseases occur when they fail to produce enough energy for the body. This can cause conditions such as heart, liver, and kidney disease and diabetes and affect one in 5,000 people.