Obulytix appoints Dr. Kristof Van Emelen as Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Van Emelen will lead Obulytix through its transition from a technology-focused company to a drug development company. This appointment is a significant step towards delivering on Obulytix’s commitment to combat antimicrobial resistance and provide transformative therapies to patients globally.

 Dr. Van Emelen brings over 25 years of experience in drug discovery, early-stage drug development and executive leadership within the Life Sciences sector. Most recently, he served as Vice President Drug Discovery at Scenic Biotech in The Netherlands, where he headed the discovery and preclinical evaluation of first-in-class small molecule modalities as therapeutic solution for rare diseases.

Prior to his tenure with Scenic Biotech, Dr. Van Emelen held senior leadership roles at Ermium Therapeutics, as Head Medicinal Chemistry, and as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the VIB, leading the scientific and technical validation of an innovative biotherapeutics platform. Between 1997 and 2017, Dr. Van Emelen held various scientific and leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson, across different therapeutic areas. Dr. Van Emelen holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from KU Leuven.

Prof. Dr. Ir. Yves Briers, who will transition into the role of CSO, played a crucial role in establishing the company. He secured the funding for company creation, oversaw the implementation of the technology platform with the founding team and initiated the first discovery project. As CSO, Prof. Dr. Ir. Briers will continue to support and guide Obulytix in its further development.

About Obulytix

Obulytix is a biotech company pioneering the discovery and development of first-in-class phage lysin-based antibiotics designed to combat the most severe antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Originally a spin-off from Ghent University and KU Leuven and incorporated in 2023, Obulytix is at the forefront of addressing the global antimicrobial resistance crisis with its innovative phage lysin-based platform, enabled by advanced high-throughput screening methods, AI and state-of-the-art protein engineering.

Phage lysins are powerful enzymes derived from bacterial viruses known as bacteriophages.

These enzymes represent a broad class of antibiotics that can be engineered to target specific bacterial infections, reducing the likelihood of resistance development compared to traditional antibiotics. Obulytix’s proprietary platform excels in both efficiency and throughput, enabling the rapid development of engineered phage lysins.

About AMR

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) continues to pose a major global public health threat. In 2021 alone, AMR was associated with the deaths of 4.71 million individuals, according to the latest report in The Lancet. One out of every five deaths related to AMR occurred in children under the age of 5, underscoring the urgent need for new effective antimicrobial therapeutics.

For more information, please visit www.obulytix.com or contact info@obulytix.com.