Danish Bactolife A/S grabs funding

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested US$5m to accelerate Bactolife A/S’s mission of developing effective and affordable food and feed supplememts to combat some of the largest gut health issues worldwide. The Copenhagen-based microbiome and llama antibody specialist has developed a technology platform that produces so-called Binding Proteins™ that reduce the risk of gut infections in humans and animals and that might prevent antimicrobial resistance (AMR). 

Binding proteins consist of a peptide, DARPin or antibody fragment that binds to a component such as an adhesion or virulence factor or a secreted component such as a toxin or beta-lactamase produced by a microbial pathogen, a linker, as well as a second peptide that leads to crosslinking of the pathogen with another pathogen or another gut bacterium resulting in the inhibition of adhesion, destruction of  beta-lactam antibiotics or neutralisation of virulance factors or toxins. Thus, the pathogens are neutralised without affecting other parts of the gut microbiome. It’s also possible to link prebiotics to the second peptide. In a research project with Novozymes and scientists from the University of Aarhus, the company  prevented proliferation of F4+ enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli by crosslining their fimbrae thus preventing post-weaning diarrhea in industrial pig production.

Bactolife uses its platform technology to strengthen the gut microbiome and help solve the daunting challenge of antimicrobial resistance development as well as the general burden of infectious diseases. Its proprietary platform consists of a technology for selecting and producing Binding Proteins without targeting growth or killing the bacteria directly. Binding Proteins are stable and highly cost-effective and can be produced at a large scale using leading-edge systems for biomanufacturing.