2. What is the problem?
• In 2009, 1.7 million hospital associated bacterial
infections caused or contributed to 99,000
deaths
• Gram negative bacteria were responsible for 2/3
of the mortality
– 20% of the isolates were resistant to all known
antibiotics
– High antibiotic resistance; limited clinical options
3. How does product/service solve problem?
• This High-Throughput
Screening assay (HTS): identifies molecules that
block bacterial iron transport.
• These discovered molecules may become
antibacterial drugs.
4. What is the market use?
• Use the HTS assay to identify and produce new
non-resistant antibacterial drugs
• Reduce illness and death
• Screen for a variety of iron uptake processes
5. What competition exists?
• Genomic profiling of iron-regulated genes using
luminscent technology (Bjarnason et al. 2003. J.
Bacteriol. 185:4973-82)
– This article does not seek to screen inhibitors of bacterial iron
transport, but it uses genomic profiling to identify iron-
regulated cellular proteins in the related Gram-negative
bacterium Salmonella typhimurium
• A whole-cell growth assay in iron-deficit media to find
inhibitors of TonB-dependent transport (Yep et al. 2014.
Mbio 5:e01089-13).
– This paper looks for inhibitors of bacterial growth in iron-
deficient liquid media
6. What is the status of the intellectual property?
• PCT Application filed
• Publication No.: WO 2017/004577
7. What is the stage of development?
• HTS assay has been applied to E. coli
• Methodology has been validated
– https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26518031
• Describes the assay
– https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28242720
• Describes the results
• HTS could be applied to Acinetobacter
baumannii
– Recently rated as Priority 1: CRITITCAL by the WHO
Priority Pathogens list for R&D of new antibiotics
8. What is needed for further development?
• HTS assay has been validated for A. baumannii
• Need to screen libraries for A. baumannii -- This
was done for E. Coli
