The treatment of autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis, remains a major medical challenge, with current
medicines unable to satisfactorily treat a large number of
autoimmune diseases and often generating unpleasant side effects.

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Servatus is engineering recombinant proteins to improve their clinical
utility and boost their potential to provide more-effective treatment
of autoimmune diseases, with minimal side effects.
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In parallel, in one of the most exciting areas of global drug
development, Servatus is developing Live Biotherapeutics for the
treatment of microbiome-associated conditions, such as rheumatoid
arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis), irritable bowel syndrome and chronic insomnia.

Servatus has already completed preliminary research work on both
the Engineered Proteins and LBP candidates and is proceeding with
advanced pre-clinical work and clinical trials.

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Servatus’ core intellectual property and provisional patents include a
patent on “the directed alteration for improving clinical performance
of selected protein drugs”. The company holds other provisional
patents for various LBPs, including for the treatment of wound
infections, respiratory infections, inflammatory conditions, and
conditions of the gastrointestinal tract.
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Servatus’ goal is to commercialise its proprietary technology and
engage with one or more corporate partners in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Historically, the application of selected bacterial strains has been devoted to the modulation and repair of the gut microbiome. However, Servatus’ research concentrates on developing LBPs that are applicable to the prevention, treatment or cure of specific diseases or conditions in humans.
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Servatus targets autoimmune and inflammatory conditions associated with dysbiosis and immune dysregulation, including ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, atopic dermatitis, and gastrointestinal.

Servatus utilises bacterial strains that have not been widely employed previously. They have demonstrated bioactive properties that inhibit pathogenic bacterial growth and infection, modulate immune responses and regulate inflammatory signals.
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The efficacy of the bacterial strains is due to structures on their cell surface and, importantly, the biological effector molecules they secrete, which interact and communicate with the body’s own cells.

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The bacterial candidates are developed to act directly at specific sites within the gastrointestinal tract and at targeted organ sites that are influenced by microbial interactions.

Servatus has designed and produced modified derivatives with better solubility and half-life characteristics to cater to the growing market for therapeutic proteins with new modes of action.
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Servatus focuses on proteins that have demonstrated clear clinical utility and data in human disease. Through rational redesign of key features, Servatus improves the protein’s bioavailability, half-life or biological potency.

Servatus applies state-of-the-art computation to design protein variants in silico to engineer improved characteristics with direct application to their clinical performance.

These protein variants are then rapidly cloned and expressed in amounts suitable for physico-chemical and pre-clinical assays. The assays screen for the most suitable protein variants to be tested in animal disease models prior to clinical testing to confirm their improved clinical utility.