The company’s mission is to develop new antifungal antibiotics with improved therapeutic and pharmacological properties based on the technology of engineered biosynthesis of nystatin. The latter compound, produced by the bacterium Streptomyces noursei and chemically related to amphotericin B, is too toxic to be used for treatment of systemic fungal infections. Scientists at Biosergen AS are using genetic engineering technology to produce variants of nystatin with improved properties (better activity/toxicity ratio, better bioavailability). Their work is supported by fundamental studies on nystatin biosynthesis at the Departments of Biotechnology at NTNU and SINTEF Materials & Chemistry. Publications

The company was jointly established in November 2004 by SINVENT AS (Norway) and Karolinska Development II AB (Sweden), and is located in Trondheim, Norway. Biosergen’s laboratory is located in the modern Natural Sciences Building on the campus of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and hosts employees with many years of experience in genetic manipulation of bacteria.