Oxford drug design secures funding to combat cystic fibrosis lung infections

£3m programme to accelerate new antimicrobial treatment

Oxford Drug Design has been awarded a share of a £3 million Collaborative Discovery Programme (CDP) by the Cystic Fibrosis Antimicrobial Resistance (CF AMR) Syndicate. This initiative, funded by the not-for-profit medical research charity LifeArc, aims to accelerate the development of new treatments for lung infections in people with Cystic Fibrosis (CF).

The programme will support six early-stage antimicrobial projects over the next two years.

Oxford Drug Design, a biotechnology company leveraging AI computational methods to discover novel therapeutics, has received £466,000 to develop new therapies for bacterial infections in CF patients.

Dr. Paul Finn, Chief Scientific Officer of Oxford Drug Design, expressed his enthusiasm: “We are very excited to receive this CF AMR Syndicate Collaborative Drug Discovery Programme award. We will be expanding our antibacterial discovery efforts into this new area of application, which is of high unmet medical need, and advancing the programme with our proprietary computational and GenAI platform.”

The 18-month project will be conducted in collaboration with Professor Jo Fothergill of Liverpool University, building on Oxford Drug Design’s previous work in identifying compounds to treat multi-drug-resistant bacterial infections. These compounds will serve as the foundation for developing treatments specifically tailored for CF patients.

Dr Paula Sommer, Head of Research at the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, highlighted the importance of this initiative: “For people with CF, lung infections can cause breathlessness and difficulty breathing. They can also cause major disruptions to day-to-day life, meaning people can miss work or school. Lung infections are hard to treat due to antimicrobial resistance, which is why we’re delighted to see the CF AMR Syndicate support these projects that will develop new antimicrobial treatments for CF.”

The CF AMR Syndicate’s programme will also provide support from a cross-sector of experts, including those from drug discovery, academia, and clinical fields, as well as individuals with lived experience of CF.

This collaborative effort aims to address the urgent need for new therapies to improve the quality of life for those affected by CF.