Evolvere Biosciences first became part of the BioEscalator community for a short time in the summer of 2021. The company won Oxford University Biotech Society's Biohackathon of that year, winning three months of lab space in the BioEscalator's Innovation Lab and £1000 consumables budget. Having the laboratory and business support of the BioEscalator allowed the company to obtain initial proof-of-concept results and seek further funding to commence the lead optimisation process. The company has now moved in as a fully-fledged BioEscalator resident.
Evolvere Biosciences is a young company founded by Oxford students Piotr Jedryszek (Biology, St Johns), Adam Winnifrith (Biochemistry, Corpus Christi) and Weronika Slesak (Biology, Worcester). Their long-term vision is to ensure that the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections endangers no one. Antibiotic resistance is one of humanity's biggest threats — both in humanitarian and economic terms. By making currently trivial infections lethal, it is predicted to become the third biggest killer globally by 2050, with 10 million deaths annually. Routine operations will become unsafe, and the crisis is predicted to cost $1.2TN in annual additional direct healthcare expenditure in 2050. The problem is made worse by the global scarcity of novel antibiotics and the dry pipeline for new treatments.
Evolvere Biosciences has a new way to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The company has envisioned a method to outsmart the evolution of antibiotic resistance by administering a safe and predictable cocktail of biologic therapeutics. This platform could not only treat patients without running the risk of inducing further resistance but also enable a relatively quick generation of cocktails targeted at new strains.
By creating a platform for developing therapeutics that can out evolve bacteria, we want to change the way we think about treating bacterial infections and help prevent future epidemics. The current model of an infinite race between new antibiotics and the evolution of resistance induces reimbursement hurdles, which slow down the development of new antibiotics. The system fails to prevent deaths, which already total 700,000 annually. Our therapy could be game-changing”
Weronika Slesak, Co-Founder of Evolvere Biosciences