BioInfect 2025 sees a great turnout for a day of AMR discussion
Published on 07/02/2025
BioInfect returned to The Spine in Liverpool for the second year in a row on 5th February, with over 175 delegates, 14 exhibitors and 15 poster abstracts focusing on the issues surrounding the increasing threat of AMR and how it can be addressed. An informal Biotech & Beers meetup held locally the night before was also well-attended and provided an opportunity for attendees to maximise their networking.
Once again the agenda was packed with a range of topics, starting with a State of the Possible panel before moving on to a progress report from the iiCON – UKRI Fund pilot projects and presentations on Keeping PACE with AMR: one year on - early-stage projects and enabling collaborations, and funding and Investment in AMR and how the North can take the lead, before closing with Increasing the Engagement of Young People with the issue of Antimicrobial Resistance featuring staff and students from the Liverpool Life Sciences UTC who were attending as part of the mentoring partnership between the college and Bionow.
The winner of the poster competition was also judged and announced, with congratulations to Medicines Discovery Catapult for their abstract titled CF-AMR Syndicate Collaborative Discovery Programme to accelerate the development of antimicrobials to treat lung infections in cystic fibrosis. A special mention to Mast Group’s Development of Mast Uri® plates for urinary tract infections antimicrobial resistance screening: Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) and the UKHSA’s Discovery and evaluation of antibiotic combinations to target AMR priority pathogens which came second and third, respectively.
The three keynote speakers for this year’s conference were the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)’s Associate Director of Research Strategy and Programmes, Jef Grainger; Chief of Research and Development at CARB-X, Erin Duffy; and Lloyd Payne, Drug Discovery Executive at Kineticos Life Sciences.
Kicking off the programme, Jef Grainger’s presentation focused on introducing the UKRI’s Strategic Themes (of which tackling infections is a key focus) and the AMR flagship programme.
With infectious disease threats becoming more acute, driven by biodiversity loss, changing climate, and human demographics and behaviours, it was noted that the landscape across human, animal and plant health could be more integrated and coordinated, with an opportunity to build on the foundations of disciplinary strength to foster innovative thinking and to capitalise on approaches and partnerships established during the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategy also set out to foster the development of systems-level understanding of how infectious diseases emerge and spread through natural environments, agricultural and water systems, and supply chains and societies, and use this alongside the development of innovative diagnostics, antimicrobial toolkits and effective tools to prevent and disrupt emergence and transmission.
Looking to the future, the UKRI plans to maintain core funding within disciplines and ensure completion of existing programmes, before advocating for continued interdisciplinary investment to secure long-term UK capability with co-investment with government partners around framework areas and ideally securing new investments with focus on understudied pathogens.
The next keynote, presented by Erin Duffy and giving a perspective on addressing the pipeline and access crisis for antibiotics, preventatives and complementary diagnostics, declared AMR a multi-faceted crisis: of innovation, with every FDA-approved antibiotic in use today for the treatment of Gram-negative bacterial infections based on a scientific discovery made before 1962; of access; of investment, with the cumulative loss for private investors at more than $2.8 billion; and of people, with 82% of researchers from six firms who abandoned AMR R&D between 2018 and 2023 moving out of the field of antibiotics.
The focus then moved on to how CARB-X is addressing these issues, as a global accelerator of new class therapeutics, non-traditional therapeutics, vaccines and rapid diagnostics, by issuing open funding calls with specific themes; funding successful projects in stages; and providing non-financial support, such as clinical advisory, portfolio acceleration and business development. There are currently 34 projects in CARB-X’s portfolio, covering therapeutics, preventatives and rapid diagnostics.
The third and final presentation by Lloyd Payne examined company creation in the AMR landscape, primarily navigating early-stage company creation.
It was highlighted that plotting a course for an antibacterial company can be especially daunting, but paths do exist, and can be navigated, by targeting fundraising activities around companies who either solely focus on funding AMR projects or have a strong interest in AMR.
Key takeaways included looking at the different routes to company creation, but also thinking further ahead (past the pre-clinical stage and into clinical and ongoing development); having a development route to treatment of a disease (not just a bug); considering areas for potential commercial traction and learning from what others have done; trying to get on a non-dilutive (raising capital for a business without giving up equity in the company) funding path as soon as possible; and finally, building relationships and asking for help at every opportunity.
The State of the Possible panel also provided some great insights, with the main calls to action including the need for holistic decisions, the all-important collaboration and innovation, accelerating new technology uptake and addressing the challenge of diagnostics in terms of cost but delivering value by preventing patient deterioration and unnecessary antibiotic use.
Commenting on the success of the conference Dr Geoff Davison, CEO of Bionow, said: “It is encouraging to see the progress of various research projects as well as hearing about the medium-term strategy for AMR reduction and prevention from experts in the field. I was especially delighted to see potentially the next generation of microbiologists in attendance, and I hope this event has given the students and the rest of the attendees food for thought, as well as plenty of opportunities to collaborate and share ideas, which is vital in this field.”
BioInfect 2025 is supported by Evotec, iiCON, Appleyard Lees, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and ReNewVax.
Once again the agenda was packed with a range of topics, starting with a State of the Possible panel before moving on to a progress report from the iiCON – UKRI Fund pilot projects and presentations on Keeping PACE with AMR: one year on - early-stage projects and enabling collaborations, and funding and Investment in AMR and how the North can take the lead, before closing with Increasing the Engagement of Young People with the issue of Antimicrobial Resistance featuring staff and students from the Liverpool Life Sciences UTC who were attending as part of the mentoring partnership between the college and Bionow.
The winner of the poster competition was also judged and announced, with congratulations to Medicines Discovery Catapult for their abstract titled CF-AMR Syndicate Collaborative Discovery Programme to accelerate the development of antimicrobials to treat lung infections in cystic fibrosis. A special mention to Mast Group’s Development of Mast Uri® plates for urinary tract infections antimicrobial resistance screening: Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) and the UKHSA’s Discovery and evaluation of antibiotic combinations to target AMR priority pathogens which came second and third, respectively.
The three keynote speakers for this year’s conference were the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)’s Associate Director of Research Strategy and Programmes, Jef Grainger; Chief of Research and Development at CARB-X, Erin Duffy; and Lloyd Payne, Drug Discovery Executive at Kineticos Life Sciences.
Kicking off the programme, Jef Grainger’s presentation focused on introducing the UKRI’s Strategic Themes (of which tackling infections is a key focus) and the AMR flagship programme.
With infectious disease threats becoming more acute, driven by biodiversity loss, changing climate, and human demographics and behaviours, it was noted that the landscape across human, animal and plant health could be more integrated and coordinated, with an opportunity to build on the foundations of disciplinary strength to foster innovative thinking and to capitalise on approaches and partnerships established during the COVID-19 pandemic. The strategy also set out to foster the development of systems-level understanding of how infectious diseases emerge and spread through natural environments, agricultural and water systems, and supply chains and societies, and use this alongside the development of innovative diagnostics, antimicrobial toolkits and effective tools to prevent and disrupt emergence and transmission.
Looking to the future, the UKRI plans to maintain core funding within disciplines and ensure completion of existing programmes, before advocating for continued interdisciplinary investment to secure long-term UK capability with co-investment with government partners around framework areas and ideally securing new investments with focus on understudied pathogens.
The next keynote, presented by Erin Duffy and giving a perspective on addressing the pipeline and access crisis for antibiotics, preventatives and complementary diagnostics, declared AMR a multi-faceted crisis: of innovation, with every FDA-approved antibiotic in use today for the treatment of Gram-negative bacterial infections based on a scientific discovery made before 1962; of access; of investment, with the cumulative loss for private investors at more than $2.8 billion; and of people, with 82% of researchers from six firms who abandoned AMR R&D between 2018 and 2023 moving out of the field of antibiotics.
The focus then moved on to how CARB-X is addressing these issues, as a global accelerator of new class therapeutics, non-traditional therapeutics, vaccines and rapid diagnostics, by issuing open funding calls with specific themes; funding successful projects in stages; and providing non-financial support, such as clinical advisory, portfolio acceleration and business development. There are currently 34 projects in CARB-X’s portfolio, covering therapeutics, preventatives and rapid diagnostics.
The third and final presentation by Lloyd Payne examined company creation in the AMR landscape, primarily navigating early-stage company creation.
It was highlighted that plotting a course for an antibacterial company can be especially daunting, but paths do exist, and can be navigated, by targeting fundraising activities around companies who either solely focus on funding AMR projects or have a strong interest in AMR.
Key takeaways included looking at the different routes to company creation, but also thinking further ahead (past the pre-clinical stage and into clinical and ongoing development); having a development route to treatment of a disease (not just a bug); considering areas for potential commercial traction and learning from what others have done; trying to get on a non-dilutive (raising capital for a business without giving up equity in the company) funding path as soon as possible; and finally, building relationships and asking for help at every opportunity.
The State of the Possible panel also provided some great insights, with the main calls to action including the need for holistic decisions, the all-important collaboration and innovation, accelerating new technology uptake and addressing the challenge of diagnostics in terms of cost but delivering value by preventing patient deterioration and unnecessary antibiotic use.
Commenting on the success of the conference Dr Geoff Davison, CEO of Bionow, said: “It is encouraging to see the progress of various research projects as well as hearing about the medium-term strategy for AMR reduction and prevention from experts in the field. I was especially delighted to see potentially the next generation of microbiologists in attendance, and I hope this event has given the students and the rest of the attendees food for thought, as well as plenty of opportunities to collaborate and share ideas, which is vital in this field.”
BioInfect 2025 is supported by Evotec, iiCON, Appleyard Lees, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and ReNewVax.
