Engineering tailored biotherapeutics to target vaginal pathogens

Project partners: University of Glasgow & CC Bio

Project focus area: Health

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common vaginal dysbiosis in women of childbearing age. It is linked to adverse health outcomes, including preterm birth and increased risk of sexually transmitted infections. Current antimicrobials fail to treat this condition effectively, resulting in unacceptably high relapse rates.

This project will explore the potential of using engineered probiotic bacteria to deploy antimicrobial enzymes targeting different species of Gardnerella bacteria, which are key drivers of vaginal dysbiosis/bacterial vaginosis (BV). CC Bio, the project industrial partner, has already developed a bacteriolytic enzyme (“lysin”) that shows strong antimicrobial activity against Gardnerella species when produced and secreted from the industrially relevant bacterium, Bacillus subtilis.

This project will investigate whether the same lysin can be expressed and secreted by Lactobacillus species: given that Lactobacillus represent the dominant beneficial bacteria in the vaginal microbiome, this would create a more cost effective, efficacious and sustainable approach to managing vaginal health. The project will use cutting-edge synthetic biology techniques to introduce the lysin gene into three common vaginal Lactobacillus species: L. crispatus, L. jensenii, and L. gasseri. The resulting engineered strains will then be tested for their ability to produce, secrete and inhibit growth of Gardnerella species under laboratory conditions. This early-stage feasibility work will lay the groundwork for a new class of engineered live biotherapeutic products aimed at reducing recurrent BV and promoting vaginal health.

For more information

For more information on this project, contact us, or view all Engineering Biology SPARK Award winners.

This project funding is part of the Engineering Biology Innovation Network, led by Innovate UK Business Connect in collaboration with Innovate UK and UKRI’s Technology Mission Fund. The network’s goal is to progress innovations, create a commercially focused community and foster new consortia to advance innovations towards commercial applications.