Aleks Engel on LinkedIn: Very pleased to announce a 25% investment in Sejet Plant Breeding, a… (2024)

Here a relevant close-to-home case of near-death due to a drug-resistant bacterial infection. Jim Hagemann Snabe is a prominent business man serving as chair-person on several large corporations, who nearly died and lost his leg due to infection of a small scrape acquired on a morning swim. As many Scandinavians, he went on a morning swim in the ocean on a crisp winter day. A small slip on the ladder led to a scrape of the shin. However, a multi-drug resistant bacteria originating in Peru also entered the water from a nearby sewage pipe, probably from a traveler washing their clothes.He leaves for a business trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, but his leg pain get acutely worse, his resting pulse jumps to 180+, and he is rushed to the hospital. The infection level, which should be below 5, is 422. His organs fail, and he is promptly sent to the operating table. "Liver, kidneys, all organs have stopped functioning. The doctor said afterwards that if I had arrived an hour later, I would have been dead," says Jim Hagemann Snabe.He is put into artificial coma, and undergoes six surgeries over the next four weeks. Now, many month later Jim is OK, and telling his story. Thank you for that! The tragedy is of course that for every Jim there are thousands of similar cases in less privileged locales for which the outcome is most certainly much much worse.Unfortunately there is no putting the genie back in the bottle on resistant pathogens; however, we have to develop new drugs and diagnostics to stay one step ahead. Story in Danish here (behind paywall)

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The World Health Organization released their most recent (2023) report on antibacterial agents in clinical and pre-clinical development here:https://lnkd.in/dFrgWRMjThe clinical pipeline contains 97 agents, which is UP from 2021 (80 agents) -- this is decidedly excellent in particular given the extremely difficult funding environment. There are a variety of serious gaps (orals, critical priority pathogens, novelty, etc) but choosing to see the glass as half full today.

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Excellent to see below funding for novel anti-fungal therapeutic development. Elion's lead program targets invasive aspergillosis, which has a fatality rate of around 30%.

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📣 Senior investor dream job alert in #Mumbai. Build the Novo Holdings India investment office working with Amit Kakar MD and team.

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Here is some joyous news! The Longitude Prize (£8m - way bigger than Nobel and way older -- started in 1714 offered as a prize to figure out -- you guessed it-- longitude while sailing around the world) has been awarded to researchers that developed a faster antibiotic susceptibility test (AST). The technology is now being developed by Sysmex Astrego AB. Big congrats to Özden Baltekin and team!!https://lnkd.in/dJG_RGPn

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Listerine mouthwash may apparently change the oral microbiome such that bad actors such Fusobacterium nucleatumandStreptococcus anginosus (which have been linked to certain cancers) become more prevalent. An unintended finding in a study looking to reduce STDs.https://lnkd.in/ddCrgY4m

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Cultivated meat is a phenomenal idea, which unfortunately has not worked out commercially yet. The promise is real meat grown in a tank instead of killing an animal with the same great taste and a vastly improved planetary footprint. The challenge - economics (expensive media, tanks, quality control etc)! SCiFi Foods was one of the pioneers in the field, which is closing up shop. Through engineered cell lines, cheaper tanks, eliminating growth factors, clever scaffolds, etc the industry has reduced the price of a hamburger patty from €250,000 (Mark Post, 2013) 1000-fold to about €250 today. If you then blend with 50% plant fiber, you can get close to $100. Better improvement than Moore's law over these 10 years but still not a commercially attractive product.That is the challenge of bio-industrial solutions -- that the product at the end of the day does not have monopoly pricing, which certain innovations enjoy, but have to compete against commodity products, whether meat, cement, materials for your sneakers, bio-fuel, etc. There is only a small green premium certain consumers are willing to pay.Here is to celebrating the boldness of the SciFi team! Looking forward to hearing what you are up to next.

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This partnership was almost fated. Big congratulations to Bugworks Research Inc. and , probably two of the organizations most dedicated to global health and fighting drug-resistant infections.

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Innovation accelerating in plant breeding, a critical technology to sustainably feed the world. The Novo Nordisk Foundation supporting a good example here

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