Selective milk-inspired peptides for treatment of bacterial vaginosis
Ishita Shah
CEO, Matrubials, Inc.
Matrubials Inc. is developing milk-inspired therapeutics to address infectious diseases. Globally, drug-resistant infections cause ~1.2M deaths a year. In women, recurrent bacterial vaginosis and subsequent repeat urinary tract and yeast infections and reproductive issues remain unresolved for ~1bn women world-wide. This is because existing antibiotics are either resistant to in ~68% patients, or are non-selective and alter the healthy microbiome. Milk-inspired, potent bactericidal, selective and safe, antimicrobial peptide(s) in Matrubials’ portfolio can be scaled in a lab and developed into topical applications to reduce the burden of BV and umbrella of associated clinical complications (FDA route- medical product), and additional infections, starting with all-gender skin & soft tissue infections (B2B/DTC route- cosmetic product and a medical product). Our validated AI-enabled strategy for candidate identification will continue to provide a platform for portfolio expansion to address other infections.
Matrubials is a spin-out from the Foods for Health Institute at UC Davis, backed by Y Combinator, and has been awarded a Phase I NIH/NIAID SBIR grant and a pilot grant from the BIll and Melinda Gates Foundation for milestone-driven preclinical (efficacy and in vivo safety enabling) studies towards product development. These funds have led to in vitro and ex vivo efficacy validation, in vitro safety validation leading to priority candidate selection for formulation optimization and in vivo safety evaluation.