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

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.

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 Inflammatory Bowel Disease (ulcerative colitis) and gastrointestinal conditions (C.diff infection and H.pylori infection).

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.

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.

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.

Servatus targets autoimmune and inflammatory conditions associated with dysbiosis and immune dysregulation, including ulcerative colitis, arthritis, atopic dermatitis, and gastrointestinal and urogenital tract infections.

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.

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.

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.

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.