Synthetic Phage Program
Our proprietary phage engineering platform serves to enhance the clinical and commercial prospects of phage therapy. These attributes include expanded host range, improved potency which is a fundamental drug property that can translate into improved clinical efficacy, and importantly, biofilm disruption, which is a critical aspect of serious infections that needs to be addressed. Microbiologists at Armata evaluate the suitability of natural phages for engineering using our proprietary synthetic phage platform.
Discovery Research
In addition to our more advanced pipeline programs targeting Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus, Armata has phage discovery efforts to target other major bacterial pathogens of infectious disease, and preventable disease of the microbiome.
We see bacteriophages as a potentially safer and effective alternative to antibiotics and an essential response to the growing bacterial resistance to current classes of antibiotics. Bacteriophages or “phages” have a powerful and highly differentiated mechanism of action that enables binding to and killing of specific targeted bacteria while uniquely preserving the normal human microbiome or “healthy bacteria”. This is in direct contrast to traditional broad-spectrum antibiotics which can alter the human microbiome increasing susceptibility to opportunistic pathogens, such as Clostridium difficile.
The developing science of the microbiome highlights the potential to impact a broad array of human disease, from oral healthcare to systemic diseases, such as autoimmunity, and immuno-oncology. The complexity of the developing science demands a broad effort in clarifying microbial-host interactions, designing intervention strategies, and crafting a viable clinical path. Armata’s strategy is to seek partners that share a long-term commitment to develop meaningful microbiome therapies utilizing the exquisite specificity offered by natural and/or synthetic bacteriophages.
