BioEscalator tenant Evolvere Biosciences believes that its precision antibiotics platform has the potential to revolutionise approaches to the global issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Innovate UK sees the potential too – as demonstrated with its recent award to co-founder Adam Winnifrith of an Unlocking Potential grant, and a place for the company on the AMR Global Business Innovation Programme (GBIP) in Switzerland. The research funded by the No Limits grant should enable Evolvere to prepare for its first round of venture capital funding – quite some progress for a company which started at the BioEscalator in free lab space won via the Oxford University Biotech Society Biohackathon in 2021.
The Innovate UK No Limits grant programme is focused on supporting groundbreaking solutions to pressing issues, as well as empowering innovators and diverse talent. In its project, ‘Improvement of antibacterial therapeutic proteins using AI’, Evolvere will accelerate the development of its platform and therapies by focusing on designing improved proteins with reduced immunogenicity and lower production costs then testing them in the laboratory. The company will also be able to access regulatory expertise from the MHRA.
Adam is a young founder (23) keen to develop as a leader and benefit others through diversity and innovation, and the grant allows him to do just that. Via the programme he will access mentoring and training, and will also use the resources to develop others with diverse backgrounds using an appropriate equality, diversity and inclusion recruiting policy.
Recently, Evolvere joined a delegation of the UK’s leading AMR businesses on a partnering and collaboration visit to Switzerland. There they met organisations involved in the country’s Swiss Antibiotic Resistance Strategy, including the research centre AntiResist, and attended a prestigious academic conference. The trip enabled the company to deepen links to clinical development and regulatory advisers, as well as discuss R&D partnerships.
Adam says, ‘Innovate UK’s non-dilutive support has come at an important time for Evolvere as we focus on generating the data needed for our first venture capital round. As well as advancing our platform for the unmet need of AMR it enables us to continue our development as a diverse and inclusive company where innovation includes and benefits everyone.’
Evolvere Biosciences was founded in 2021 by Adam and two other students - Piotr Jedryszek and Weronika Slesak – as they were undertaking their Masters Degrees at the University of Oxford.
1 The Lancet (https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02724-0)