About Engitix
The ECM company
Engitix is the global leader in ECM-based drug discovery and development, delivering life-changing therapies to patients with chronic diseases.
Treatments can't be predictive. Engitix is uniquely positioned to build first- and best-in-class therapies addressing fibro-inflammatory diseases and solid tumors through ECM biology, by leveraging a proprietary, end-to-end discovery platform to create more predictive preclinical insights and to advance more effective treatment candidates for fibrosis, inflammation, and solid tumours.
By combining cutting-edge ECM science with advanced AI/ML methods and translational patient models, Engitix offers pharma partners and investors a proven, data-driven platform with the power to reshape how complex diseases are understood and treated.
Our recent awards
Everything we do at Engitix is built upon our four pillars
Platform
We are decoding the role of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in health and disease to discover novel therapeutic strategies, including new drug targets and biomarkers, to improve the management of fibrosis, inflammation and solid tumours.
Pipeline
The assets being developed in our discovery stage portfolio target disease-specific changes within the ECM, with the aim of improving clinical outcomes in patients with fibrosis, inflammation and solid tumours.
Partnerships
Agreements with Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Dompé Farmaceutici aim to create value for Engitix and our partners through the discovery of effective therapies for patients with fibrosis, inflammation and solid tumours.
People & Operations
Our ambitious and entrepreneurial team has a wealth of scientific and clinical expertise on the role of the extracellular matrix in chronic diseases and a track record of delivering molecules into the clinic.
Our best-in-class, proprietary ECM discovery platform
Built on one of the world’s largest ECM bioarchives and state-of-the-art 3D human cell models, our proprietary discovery platform uses advanced AI and machine learning to decode the complexity of matrix biology. This data-driven approach enables us to discover new targets, reveal novel mechanisms, and predict therapeutic efficacy with greater precision than ever before.
Our pipeline: from matrix to medicine
We are developing a broad pipeline of internal and partnered therapeutic programmes for fibrosis, inflammation and solid tumours by leveraging the power of our human extracellular matrix (ECM)-based discovery platform.
Not only does the ECM provide cells and tissues with structural support, but it also creates a bioactive microenvironment that can promote healthy organ function or drive pathological processes.
Partnerships powered by ECM
We have several discovery and development collaborations with Takeda Pharmaceuticals in advanced fibrotic liver diseases including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and fibrostenotic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
We also have a collaboration with Dompé Farmaceutici to enable identification and engineering of new precision medicines against fibrosis and solid tumours using Dompé’s AI supercomputer structure-based drug design platform.
All chronic diseases involve changes to the ECM. Our first- and best-in-class ECM discovery platform is able to address all fibrotic and solid tumours indications, and we remain open for new partnerships.
Our people drive drug discovery and our operations scale it
Engitix has a 13,000 square feet facility of purpose-designed office and laboratory space that houses the latest state-of-the-art research instruments and tools.
Located at the Westworks building in the prestigious new life science cluster at White City Place, London, UK, we provide a stimulating and innovative research environment with excellent networking opportunities.
“Engitix’s unique proprietary ECM platform has immense potential to unlock our understanding of the drivers of chronic diseases. In my view, this is essential for developing novel therapeutics in areas of unmet medical need, as it delivers critical insight into disease biology to guide the drug discovery process.”
Eduardo Bravo, Chairman
Our Story
Engitix was created in 2016 to commercialise cutting-edge ECM research at the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, Division of Medicine, University College London (UCL) and is now a growing biotechnology company with a discovery stage therapeutic portfolio and over 50 employees.
The Fee-for-service Chapter
(2016-17)
2016
Incorporation of Engitix Ltd
5 years of research completed at UCL with more than 30 people working on the ECM
2017
Revenues from third party contracts in fibrosis
The first commercial application of Engitix 3D ECM platform applied to screen pre-clinical and clinical third-party products
The Platform Chapter
(2018-20)
2018
F1000Prime Recommended
Mazza G et al Sci Rep, 2017
$7 million Seed Round
for advancing the first human ECM platform for drug discovery in fibrosis and solid tumours
2019
UCL Innovation & Enterprise Award
Provost’s Spirit of Enterprise Award
Takeda awarded Engitix a Golden Ticket
to establish its presence in LabCentral, Cambridge, MA
Partnership signed with Morphic Therapeutic
for ECM-related target ID in inflammatory bowel disease
2020
Exclusive partnership with Takeda
for ECM-related drug target discovery, development and commercialization in liver fibrosis
New UK HQ
> 8,000 ft2 within London’s new biotech Hub, White City
The Pipeline Chapter
(2022 - Present)
2022
Strategic collaboration and investment agreement with Dompé
$54M Series A Financing
to support the development of Engitix internal pipeline in fibrosis and solid tumours
Expanded partnership with Takeda
to develop new anti-fibrotic therapies in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
HQ expansion
to a total of 13,000 ft2
2023
Strengthening the Board and Management Team
with Clinical and Drug Discovery and Development experts, Sonia Quaratino and Chris Stevenson
2024
Strengthening the Leadership Team
with Matt Edwards and Emma Huang
