AvidBiotics nails DuPont deal to obliterate E. coli

AvidBiotics Corp.’s got a beef with its freshly minted multimillion-dollar deal with DuPont — and if things go as the small South San Francisco biotech company plans, it will have chicken and vegetables as well. AvidBiotics inked the deal Sept. 17 with DuPont’s health and nutrition business to develop a targeted protein to kill a strain of Escherichia coli, or E. coli, in meat processing plants. DuPont gave AvidBiotics upfront cash, took a minority stake in the eight-employee company and will pay all research and development costs.

One-on-One with Jim Knighton of AvidBiotics

AvidBiotics Corp. started work in human therapeutics several years ago, but it’s really taken a liking to food.
Just in time for the holidays, researchers at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and AvidBiotics said Monday that the South San Francisco-based company’s Avidocin proteins could prevent and treat E. coli-related diarrhea and intestinal inflammation in animals.
If the Thanksgiving table conversation turns staid, you can find the results of the study in the December issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
I spoke with Jim Knighton, co-founder and president of the “nine-people-and-a-dog” company, about the company’s food safety program, a key partnership and the new study.