Platform 1: Pre-Clinical : Early-stage drug discovery
Accelerating the development of new innovative antibiotics that can combat resistant infections, Platform 1 is speeding up the response to pandemics and creating new treatments to tackle the increasing global threat of drug resistance. The work is led by Infex Therapeutics and provides a subsidised, cost- effective mechanism to accelerate the progress of novel therapies.
Infex has advanced its lead programme, RESP-X, for drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, from early discovery through to in-patient clinical trials within iiCON. That progress demonstrates the iiCON model working as intended: combining academic research infrastructure with industry expertise to advance novel mechanisms through the highest-risk stages of development. Infex is now applying this approach across its broader anti-infective pipeline to advance promising new therapies for some of the most challenging drug-resistant infections.
Designed to drive innovation and support companies of all sizes on the discovery journey, this platform also offers industry early access to one of the world’s largest and most diverse, and completely novel Bioactives Libraries, developed by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
This vast, untapped pool of thousands of environmental, bacterial, and fungal isolates has the potential to shape the next generation of transformative novel antimicrobial products and therapies. The library is designed in a modular format to improve usability and increase efficiency. This enables a targeted approach, where specific isolate groups can be screened quickly and cost-efficiently. World-class end-to-end expertise and after-care from the expert team at LSTM ensures companies are supported at every stage of the discovery journey.
Expert antimicrobial product development support, validation, and consultancy is also available to industry partners at the early stage of the product development journey.
For more information or to learn how your business can engage with this platform.
Platform Lead
Dr Derek Lindsay
Chief Operating Officer, Infex Therapeutics
Dr Lindsay was a co-founder of Redx Pharma and its Chief Operating Officer from 2012-17. His former roles include a Director of Innovation of pharmaceutical industry consortium Britest Ltd from 2006 to 2012, and R&D Director of Avecia Pharmaceutical Products in a management career of more than 30 years. Derek has worked in R&D, Process Development and Hazards at Avecia and its predecessor businesses, Zeneca and ICI, which he joined in 1988, after initially working in R&D at BP from 1985.
Professor Adam Roberts
Professor, Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and Resistance, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Professor Adam Roberts
Professor, Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and Resistance, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Adam Roberts is a Professor and AMR lead at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Adam has been investigating the fundamental mechanisms of transferable AMR for more than 20 years and, since arriving at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 2017, has focussed on translational aspects of AMR and early-stage drug discovery and development.
His current research activities include investigations into the many drivers of resistance in a One Health context, the molecular genetics of resistance mechanisms and mobile genetic elements and how they contribute to the dissemination of AMR and the use of evolutionary biology to inform antibiotic treatment regimens and drug design. His team also carry out discovery projects, investigating novel antimicrobial natural products, target-site identification, mechanism of action, and determining the resistance development potential of novel molecules within the LSTM’s drug development pipeline.
Adam’s research activities have led to more than 100 peer reviewed publications and reviews on AMR and his group is currently funded by the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, UK Research and Innovation’s Strength in Places Fund, and the European Regional Development Fund plus various charities including the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Foundation. He runs The Transposon Registry and the award-winning citizen-science, drug-discovery project Swab and Send, is the Network coordinator of the JPIAMR Network of European and African Researchers on AMR (NEAR-AMR) and is a policy advisor (Drug Resistance) to the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
