The University of Aberdeen’s mycoBiologics team has received a £400,000 boost from Scottish Enterprise’s High Growth Spin-out Programme (HGSP) to advance its development of life-saving treatments for deadly fungal infections and antibiotic resistance.
Led by Dr. Fiona Rudkin, the team has been working since 2012 on targeted antifungal antibodies to combat serious fungal infections, which claim 1.5 million lives annually. Those at increased risk include cancer, ICU, surgical, and transplant patients—a growing population due to improved disease treatment and survival rates. With no similar antifungal drugs currently approved for clinical use, mycoBiologics has a significant opportunity to address a critical unmet need in a market projected to reach $13.45 billion by 2023.
In addition to antifungal treatments, the team is also developing antibacterial antibodies as an alternative to antibiotics, addressing the urgent global health threat of antibiotic resistance identified by the World Health Organization (WHO).