Can Gut Bacteria Treat Disease?

Founded in 2017, Aberdeen-based EnteroBiotix is rapidly emerging as one of the UK’s most innovative biotechnology companies.

The company has achieved a world-first by receiving a Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) license to produce faecal microbiota for therapeutic use. Additionally, EnteroBiotix has raised over £1.5 million in seed funding to support the development of its cutting-edge product portfolio.

But who is EnteroBiotix, and what do they do?

The company was founded by Dr. James McIlroy, who, while still a medical student, came across a study that demonstrated how faecal matter transplanted from a lean mouse to an obese mouse led to significant weight loss in the obese mouse. This sparked McIlroy’s interest in the potential for applying this concept to humans, ultimately leading to the creation of EnteroBiotix.

Today, the company is at the forefront of pioneering research in the gut microbiome, focused on harnessing the therapeutic potential of gut bacteria to prevent and treat infections and disease. One of EnteroBiotix’s most promising projects is engineering the gut microbiome to address critical health challenges.

As a rapidly expanding biotechnology company, EnteroBiotix develops novel medicinal products aimed at addressing infections and diseases linked to imbalances in the human gut microbiota. The company has established ISO-accredited donation and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-compliant processing facilities for collecting and processing faecal microbiota for therapeutic use. With its first product already scaled internationally, EnteroBiotix is now advancing a range of follow-on products aimed at conditions with significant unmet clinical needs.

Dr. James McIlroy emphasizes “We are dedicated to researching, cultivating, and applying gut bacteria to prevent and treat infections and diseases. Our work is expanding to encompass a range of conditions where the gut microbiome plays a central role.”

Moreover, EnteroBiotix is actively collaborating with other researchers, companies and healthcare professionals, such us ourselves, The Functional Gut Clinic, to gather data from studies that manipulate the gut microbiome. The goal is to identify correlations between gut microbiome signatures and clinical outcomes, which will inform the development of future microbiome-based therapeutics.

Encouraging recent studies highlight the potential for faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). For example, research from Norway demonstrated that FMT led to significant symptom relief in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), with 65% of participants responding positively to treatment after three months.

Here at The Functional Gut Clinic, we had the pleasure of collaborating with EnteroBiotix on an FMT study investigating the use of FMT in individuals with IBS-D. Stay tuned for our upcoming findings which will be published later this year.