Periodontitis is an inflammation of the gums mainly caused by a microbiotic shift towards pathogenic bacteria
It affects nearly 20 - 50% of the global population and is associated with a range of co-morbitities like diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease.
Current treatments involve painful removal of the whole biofilm followed by daily disinfection or antibiotics that keep disrupting the natural biofilm. Therefore patients loose biofilm homeostasis incl. beneficial bacteria with its metabolic and immunologic support and are more prone to recurrent infections.
We‘ve developed an innovative anti-infective drug that is capable of targeting only the disease causing pathogens and therefore represents an effective alternative to classic broad spectrum antibiotics. Protecting the commensal bacteria should encourage a shift towards a natural microbiome, thus preventing the reoccurrence of the disease.
The key element of this strategy is an enzyme called glutaminyl cyclase (QC) type II, which is exclusively present within pathogenic bacteria of the oral biofilm where Porphyromonas gingivalis is the main catalyst of the disease.
Picture:
Courtesy of Dr. Sandor Nietzsche
Center for Electron Microscopy
Jena University Hospital, Germany
Team
Our team and all of the founders possess many years of experience in drug development with a long-lasting history in a biotech environment and with additional background in one of the largest organizations for applied research worldwide. The company’s team combine competences in the field of medicinal chemistry and compound characterization, microbiology and management/business development. This is completed by the strong support of the additional founders with their experiences that includes biochemistry, target validation, pharmacology and drug development. The collectively track record includes the successful development of several drug development projects in the area of small molecules. Some hallmarks are the development of DP4 inhibitors as antidiabetics, the development of a completely novel pharmacological approach currently in clinical development for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and the development of a new approach for the treatment of fibrosis caused diseases (non-clinical stage).
Dr. Mirko Buchholz CEO Mirko is the CSO of PerioTrap Pharmaceuticals with 20 years of experience in drug development. He is a pharmacist by training and holds a PhD in Medicinal-/Computational Chemistry. Previously he worked at Probiodrug AG (now Vivoryon AG) for more than 10 years on several positions, before he was a group leader for medicinal and analytical chemistry at Fraunhofer IZI-MWT. He is one of the co-founder of the company as a spin-off from the institute.
Pierre Tangermann CEO Pierre holds the CEO position of PerioTrap Pharmaceuticals GmbH. Previously, he has served as business development manager at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology in Leipzig and was later heading the business development and marketing department of its subsidiary in Potsdam. He graduated in Biochemistry (M.Sc.) at Leipzig University and the University of Queensland as well as in General Management (M.A.) at the University of Applied Sciences Leipzig.
Dr. Nadine Taudte Senior Scientist Our Senior Scientist Nadine holds a diploma in Biology and a PhD in Molecular Microbiology from MLU Halle/ Wittenberg with residences at the University of Arizona and Nebraska-Lincoln. After working several years in drug development for a BioTech Company and Fraunhofer in the field of target validation, Nadine now closes the gap to her microbiological roots supervising our pathogenic work and drug testing.
PerioTrap's founders have a long history of working with experts and key opinion leaders in the field of periodontitis and related areas. For example, projects on periodontitis have been successfully completed with the Institute of Microbiology at the Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Prof. J. Potempa), the Department of Periodontology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Bern (Prof. S. Eick) and the Pharmaceutical Technology Research Group at the Institute of Pharmacy at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Prof. K. Mäder). This network of top scientific consultants is being further established and expanded for PerioTrap Pharmaceuticals GmbH.
Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Demuth Honorary Professor of Proteinbiotechnolgy, Department of Biotechnology, Anhalt University of Applied Science, Köthen, Germany
Prof. Dr. Jan Potempa Head of Microbiology Department, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland and Distinguish University Scholar, Department of Oral Immunity and Infectious Diseases, University of Louisville School of Dentistry, Louisville, KY, USA.
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Holger Jentsch Clinic for Cariology, Endodontology and Periodontology, University Hospital of Leipzig.
