Innovate UK grant success for Samantha McLean

The Research Team from MTIF are pleased to share that Dr Samantha McLean recently secured an Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst grant to support her research on ‘Understanding the mechanism of action for two ruthenium-based antimicrobial compounds’. This funding will be vital for Samantha’s team to progress with their antimicrobial research project, in collaboration with MetalloBio Ltd.

Urgent action

A review commissioned by the UK Government concluded that if we don’t take urgent action, by 2050 untreatable infections will have a higher global mortality rate than cancer, causing 10 million deaths per year and resulting in a £66 trillion loss to the global economy annually. This includes bringing new classes of antimicrobials to the market that can treat infections caused by multi-drug-resistant pathogens. No new class of antibiotics have successfully reached the clinic in over 30 years, therefore the need for new and effective treatments has been highlighted as an urgent priority by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

It is hoped that the research carried out by Samantha’s team – in partnership with MetalloBio Ltd – will progress this new class of antimicrobials towards regulatory approval and commercialisation.