Selux Diagnostics, a Charlestown-based biotech startup, received $9.6 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The startup develops a diagnostics platform that enables delivery of personalized therapies to treat superbug infections and combat antibiotic resistance.
The $9.6 million is the third funding tranche the company has received from BARDA as part of the company’s milestone-based contract, which is worth up to $45 million. Selux has now received $30.4 million in funding to date.
The company said that it will use the additional funding to advance the development of its next generation "Phenotyping" (NGP) technology, a rapid and precise antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST), through clinical trials.
"The SeLux platform will help understand the evolution of bacterial infections," said the startup's CEO Steve Lufkin. “This [BARDA funding] leadership is especially vital now, as new data indicate the antibiotic resistance crisis is even more threatening than previously understood. BARDA is leveraged by our private investor support to transform microbiology and put our life-saving capabilities into action.”
Today, patients get prescribed broad-spectrum antibiotics like amoxicillin and ampicillin for bacterial infections ranging from bronchitis to ear infections to sexually transmitted diseases.
Why is that not an effective solution? Firstly, it's due to its effect it has on the body’s normal microbial makeup – simply put, these can destroy normal body flora or good bacteria along with the bad. Secondly, over time, the bacteria mutates and evolves to develop resistance.
The five-year-old startup aims to bring personalized medicine and a treatment regimen specific to patients with infectious diseases. It does this through its platform that enables rapid susceptibility testing, two days faster than labs today can.
