Start-up chemistry company Ziylo is the University of Bristol’s most successful spin out of the last decade, valued at more than £600 million. Acquired by pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk in 2018, its pioneering technology is being developed to treat diabetes more effectively.
422 million people live with diabetes worldwide (1). Around 10 per cent of these suffer with type 1 diabetes. They need regular injections of the glucose-regulating hormone insulin to manage this life-changing disease.
Synthetic glucose receptors could dramatically transform the lives of type 1 diabetics by enabling the development of a glucose-responsive insulin.
Professor Anthony Davis, from the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol, designed synthetic, glucose-binding molecules which exhibit an unprecedented selectivity to glucose in complex environments such as blood.
Professor Davis and his PhD student at the time, Harry Destecroix, recognised the commercial potential for these receptors as a core component of a sugar-sensing system that could accurately measure carbohydrates continuously. In 2014, they formed Ziylo, with Destecroix as CEO, to further develop the technology and bring it to market. (3)
The research underpinning the technology developed by Ziylo was part-funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
In 2018, Ziylo was acquired by Novo Nordisk, the world’s leading supplier of insulin, in a deal worth up to $830 million (£642 million). The acquisition gave Novo Nordisk full rights to Ziylo’s glucose binding molecule platform to develop glucose responsive insulins.
Developing the next generation of insulin should lead to a safer and more effective insulin therapy. A glucose responsive insulin would help eliminate the risk of hypoglycaemia, which is the main risk associated with insulin therapy and one of the main barriers for achieving optimal glucose control. A glucose responsive insulin could also lead to better metabolic control and thus overall reduce the burden of diabetes for people living with the disease. (4)
The sale of Ziylo led directly to the creation of new incubator facilities in central Bristol to provide specialist facilities for chemistry and biotech start-ups in the region. Companies based at the Science Creates St Phillips incubator, the first to be developed, work in diverse areas of science and engineering, from developing cancer treatments and tackling antibiotic resistance, to surveying greenhouse gas leaks and creating new materials for better batteries.