ABERDEEN biotechnology firm EnteroBiotix has raised £500,000 of finance to be used to both develop its product line and enhance its manufacturing and research team.
Run by chief executive James McIlroy, who is a final year medical student at Aberdeen University, the business focuses on using the body’s own microorganisms to treat infections and diseases.
The financing, which was led by business angel group Equity Gap, supported by the Scottish Investment Bank and includes a £100,000 SMART:Scotland feasibility grant, will enable the company to continue developing a pill designed to act as a ‘stool transplant’.
Currently those in need of faecal microbiota transplantation, which transplants faecal bacteria from healthy individuals into recipients whose guts have been damaged by treatments such as chemotherapy, have to undergo invasive procedures.
Mr McIlroy said the funding will be “pivotal in furthering the objectives of EnteroBiotix”, which has its sights set on becoming “a dominant player in this fast-moving field of science and medicine”.
In addition to developing a treatment that uses bacteria taken from other people’s guts, EnteroBiotix is looking to use individuals’ own bacteria too. To that end, it is creating a service that will allow patients to bank their own bacteria prior to undergoing treatments such as chemotherapy or long courses of antibiotics.
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