Accelerating innovation within microbiome therapeutics

We’re helping to advance the growing field of live biotherapeutics and phage therapies.

Develop, optimise and scale up your microbiome therapeutics

We can help you to develop, optimise and scale up your therapeutic microbiome products; including whole-cell live biotherapeutic products (LBPs), cell lysates, postbiotics and anti-microbial molecules derived from host organisms.

We also support the development of phage therapies, helping you to create a product that can be used as a treatment against bacterial infections.

Our collaborative approach will help your product reach the market faster, and our team of experts can offer support throughout every step of your innovation journey.

Find out about our recent phage therapeutics project in this technical poster

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CPI scientist wearing turquoise gloves and a navy blue lab coat.

What opportunities exist within microbiome therapeutics?

From intestinal microbiota transplants and probiotic supplements, through to microbial vaccines, microbiome therapeutics is a rapidly developing field and holds great promise for the future of healthcare and medicine.

Microbiome therapeutics aim to treat disease by modulating the function of the microbiome and hold potential to manage a range of conditions linked to dysbiosis, such as irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.

In some areas, microbiome therapeutics are being used to create precision and personalised medicines. Emerging evidence suggests that a patient’s microbiome significantly influences drug efficacy and is therefore becoming a consideration for clinicians when predicting patient outcomes and constructing personalised healthcare plans.

Find out how we have supported Oxford Simcell in the development of their SimCell vaccine candidate

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A scientist's hand holding a petri dish, growing a culture of micro-organisms

How can we address antimicrobial resistance in this therapeutic area?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) as one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity. In clinical settings, we rely too much on antibiotics to treat bacterial infections. Bacteria are constantly undergoing mutations that can result in antibiotic resistance, rendering these once powerful drugs useless. Innovation in new antimicrobials is key to tackling this challenge.

Phage therapy has the potential to revolutionise how we treat bacterial infections. This is because bacteriophage (viruses that infect and kill bacteria) offer greater specificity and different mechanisms when compared with antibiotics, making them a great alternative or combination therapy with other medicines.

Antimicrobial resistant bacteria can also be targeted using antimicrobial peptides such as bacteriocins that can kill or inhibit pathogenic bacteria.

Our capabilities

We work with a range of host organisms including aerobes, anaerobes, consortia, single strains, wild type and genetically modified organisms from both hazard group 1 and 2 strains.
Strain characterisation using different microbiological, biochemical and molecular techniques to help enhance your product.
Primary recovery capabilities to support process development and scale-up, such as large-scale centrifugation, high-throughput sonication and high-throughput homogenisation.
Established analytical methods to determine the identity, purity and viability of microbial products, such as total viable counts and PCR-based enumeration methods including qPCR and digital PCR.
Development and testing of cryoprotectants to optimise the freeze-drying conditions for your microbial product and ensure shelf life and activity are maintained.
Development of an optimised drug delivery system, including tabletting, liquids, semi solids for topical delivery and encapsulation for targeted delivery and controlled release.
High-throughput optimisation of fermentation conditions for both mono- and co-culture of microbial cell-based products via the ambr250 HT system.
Scale-up of product using 2 – 10L bioreactors and pilot scale-up of product using bioreactors at 20L, 100L and 750L scale.
High-throughput capabilities for product and process formulation optimisation, characterisation, and scale-up.