Aiming to develop treatments for multidrug-resistant infections, Telum Therapeutics on Wednesday raised €18 million ($20.5 million) in a series A led by the AMR Action Fund. The funds will be used to move its lead antibiotic candidate through Phase I testing."Telum was founded with the vision of developing a new generation of antimicrobial therapies capable of combating some of the world’s most dangerous drug-resistant pathogens," said Chief Operating Officer Roberto Díez, adding that the round "reflects the strength of our scientific platform, the progress of our lead programme, and the growing recognition that innovative solutions are urgently needed to address the global threat of antimicrobial resistance."The financing also saw participation from new investor Inveready as well as existing backers Invivo Partners, CDTI with its SICC Innvierte, Clave Capital and Sodena.AI design processThe Spain-based startup's lead candidate is designed to target hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia caused by Acinetobacter baumannii. It's also developing a pair of preclinical programmes: the first is aimed at prosthetic joint infections and cardiac implantable electronic device infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, and the second is directed against nosocomial infections caused by Enterococcus faecium.Rather than using naturally occurring bacteriophage lysins to combat infections, Telum's APEX platform combines metagenomic data, synthetic biology and machine learning to design and optimise new antimicrobial therapies.First, the company finds and decodes functional activity modules with inherent antimicrobial properties, then uses that knowledge to engineer phage lytic enzymes with improved potency, precision targeting and stability. With AI-informed protein engineering, Telum can combine enzymatic hydrolysis and substrate recognition domains to create tailor-made enzybiotics capable of eliminating multidrug-resistant bacteria, while also minimising the chance that resistance will develop. According to Telum, its synthetic phage lytic enzymes have enhanced antimicrobial activity and can kill bacterial pathogens externally.