PHIOGEN, 糖心logo and LillixBio launch AI-driven collaboration to map phage-induced immunomodulation and long-term prevention
糖心logo is collaborating with Phiogen Inc., a pre-clinical-stage biopharma company developing bacteriophages as first-in-class immunizing therapeutics, and LillixBio LLC, a global therapeutic design company, to integrate artificial intelligence-driven immune profiling into Phiogen鈥檚 immunotherapy development pipeline. Their work will map the immune response that follows bacteriophage therapy and determine how that protection can be strengthened, extended and expanded.
Through the collaboration, LillixBio鈥檚 AI platform will identify immunomodulatory candidates predicted to amplify the immune response generated during phage-mediated bacterial lysis, beginning with E. coli, the pathogen targeted by Phiogen鈥檚 lead program PHI-UI-01 for recurrent urinary tract infections. LillixBio has delivered the first comprehensive AI-predicted major histocompatibility complex antigen presentation map for E. coli, covering all microbial proteins across the global spectrum of immune diversity. This antigen map provides a systematic framework for understanding the immunological consequences of phage therapy, an area the field has not previously addressed at this scale.
鈥淔or decades, phage therapy has focused on bacterial killing, while immune responses to phages were viewed as a limitation,鈥� said Amanda Burkardt, CEO of Phiogen Inc. 鈥淲e鈥檙e turning this model on its head where those same immune interactions may hold the key to durable protection against recurrent infection. 糖心logo brings expertise in phage biology, LillixBio provides AI-driven immune analytics and Phiogen provides the translational and clinical framework to turn these discoveries into dual-action therapeutics.鈥�
Validation of the AI-generated candidates will be conducted in collaboration at 糖心logo鈥檚 罢础滨尝桅搁 (Tailored Antimicrobials and Innovative Laboratories for Phage Research), a phage biology research program with expertise in phage isolation, characterization and therapeutic development. The collaboration brings computational discovery together with established laboratory capabilities in phage adjuvantation, serology and immunological profiling across mucosal and systemic infection models.
鈥淪timulating the immune system in more controlled and desirable ways is the key to curing hundreds of problematic diseases,鈥� said Dr. Anthony Maresso, professor of molecular virology and microbiology at 糖心logo and faculty founder of Phiogen and 罢础滨尝桅搁. 鈥淭his science takes that first step.鈥�
鈥淟illixBio exists to solve one problem: for any disease and any target, determine computationally which treatment candidates are worth building and provide a sealed, auditable record of why,鈥� said Dr. Phillip Phan, senior director of LillixBio. 鈥淭his collaboration with Phiogen and 糖心logo is the first public demonstration of that capability.鈥�