Engineering Skin Bacteria to Be Live Biotherapeutics

Netherton syndrome is a rare and chronic skin condition. One in ten infants with the disease will die as a result of infections and related complications. Azitra has developed a platform for engineering bacteria that naturally colonize the skin to produce proteins with therapeutic benefits to treat Netherton syndrome and other conditions. We spoke to Travis Whitfill, co-founder and chief operating officer of Azitra, about Netherton syndrome, the company’s platform technology for engineering live biotherapeutic products, and why it takes more than simply inserting a gene into a desired bacteria to produce these treatments.