New biotech venture PHIOGEN, a spinoff of BCM’s TAILOR Labs, to tackle the global threat of antimicrobial resistance
The new biotech venture PHIOGEN is a spin-off company from Baylor College of Medicine’s TAILOR Labs, one of the United States only academic phage therapy cores with a decade’s worth of revolutionary research related to bacteriophages, viruses that infect and destroy bacteria.
The company made its debut at the 6th World Conference on Targeting Phage Therapy in Paris, June 1-2, 2023. During the conference, PHIOGEN was recognized by organizers with the ‘Best Scientific Innovation Award’ among 11 other competitors.
PHIOGEN’s R&D efforts are led by phage researcher Dr. Anthony Maresso, founder of TAILOR Labs and PHIOGEN and Joseph Melnick Professor of Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor, whose phage therapy work has attracted funding of more than $5 million to date.
The globally renowned research team behind PHIOGEN is housed in the world’s largest medical complex inside the prestigious Texas Medical Center’s Innovation Hub.
PHIOGEN has developed a world-first technology platform that mobilizes the natural power of bacteriophages to tackle critical and life-threatening infections. This marks a significant medical breakthrough for countering the global threat of antimicrobial resistance.
The World Health Organization deems drug resistant infections as one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity with estimates of over 5 million deaths worldwide attributed to antibiotic resistant infections.
The proprietary first-of-its-kind technology platform that is being spearheaded by PHIOGEN is able to discover and screen at-scale naturally occurring bacteriophages, singling out those with elite bacteria-fighting abilities, and directing biological changes to evolve the phage into antimicrobials that overcome resistance.
This creates a new business model for phage therapy as the group is able to create products that treat populations of people instead of on a per patient basis. By optimizing nature’s defenders, the team has produced unprecedented phage treatments which have already successfully saved the lives of several patients in FDA approved, compassionate use cases.
“We receive high-performing phage fighters that are trained and ready to deliver safe and effective treatments for clinical applications,” said Amanda Burkardt, CEO at PHIOGEN.
About PHIOGEN
PHIOGEN™ is a trademark of PHIOGEN INC. PHIOGEN is an innovative biotech company housed in the Texas Medical Center Innovation Hub. It is committed to using proven technology to deliver patient-ready bacteriophage products to tackle the most deadly and serious bacterial infections. PHIOGEN’s world-class patented process has received early proof of concept validation through several in vivo studies as well as for patients in FDA-approved compassionate use cases.
Learn more about the clinical successes of phage therapy in this video interview with Dr. Maresso.
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