b'Case Study LEARNING FROM NATURE TO PREVENT BACTERIAL COMMUNICATIONSupporting academic and industrial partnerships to tackle global biofilm problemsMany biofilms are harmful, resulting in shedding of bacteria, infections in people and animals and even accelerating the erosion and destruction of surfaces such as concrete and steel. Within a biofilm, microbes are exceptionally resilient and present a tremendous obstacle to intervention Penrhos Bio, is a clean biotech start-up, with the brand name Remora, formed by a collaboration between Unilever and a company called, Innova Partnerships, based in Scotland. Learning from the natural biologyRed seaweed near Leigh, of the oceans, Penrhos Bio has developed a novelNew Zealand.and sustainable solution to preventing harmful biofilms. Their platform technology solution is based on the natural way in which the red seaweed Delisea pulchra has evolved a sophisticated chemical defenceSince NBICs support, the data created and the mechanism against microbial contamination. Drevidence around the efficacy of the molecule and its Richard Hammond, Penrhos Bio CEO said, potential applications has been really pivotal in raising Whats really unique about the technology is, its afunds for us.completely different way of preventing biofilms - The company has been awarded Series A funding, rather than killing the biofilm, the technologyraised over 2.5m of private investor support and interferes with the quorum sensing that prevents have recieved support from Scottish Enterprise. They initial biofilm formation have recently taken on two new colleagues to support The result of this work is an intellectual propertythe commercial team and are now recruiting further portfolio based around a single novel molecule. Thatcolleagues in the R&D team. molecule effectively and sustainably blocks biofilmNBICs funding and support has been part of our core formation in a wide range of applications. message and when talking to investors and to the Weve had funding through Unilever from NBIC for apublic, having that support has been really importantnumber of projects based in universities, where theGoing forwards, the advice and support of NBIC, in results of the data has supported our commercialterms of helping identify and focus on our commercial venture, which has enabled us to have discussions withareas and the support around regulatory work is potential commercial partners. This has been hugelyongoing, and that means a lot to us.effective, and is something we couldnt have achieved without that support.Dr Richard Hammond Dr Richard Hammond joined Penrhos Bio full time in February 2022 having helped develop the original business model. As a veterinarian, Richard has a broad experience across commercial, academic, and veterinary clinical sectors for which he has been awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. He has worked as part of the commercial operation of a major pharma company and was part of the leadership team taking a new major Veterinary School (Nottingham). Dr Hammond grew a small commercial veterinary enterprise from 60 staff and a breakeven position to over 280 staff and a turnover of circa 22m in the 7 years prior to joining Penrhos Bio. Richard is Professor Emeritus at the University of Bristol.54'