Scarlet Therapeutics

Scarlet Therapeutics is a spin-out from the University of Bristol and NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) research. Scarlet was also built on learning from the RESTORE clinical trial, a collaboration between NHSBT, Bristol University, University of Cambridge and partners. This trial is currently assessing the safety and performance of lab-grown red blood cells compared to standard donated red blood cells from the same donor.

Founded by Professors Jan Frayne and Ashley Toye, Scarlet is developing red blood cell-based therapeutics (tRBCs). The team initially set out to culture red blood cells to address ongoing rare blood shortages both in the UK and abroad but quickly realised the potential of applying synthetic biology approaches to generate novel engineered tRBCs that could treat rare metabolic diseases. Their technology combines the use of cell lines to produce the red blood cells and manipulation of the cell lines to pack these tRBCs with therapeutic proteins.

BrisSynBio supported Professor Toye’s research into engineering RBCs for drug delivery, enabled collaboration and idea generation, and provided skilled staff and PhD students. Scarlet was incorporated in 2022 and has since received seed financing from Science Creates Ventures and Meltwind for further development of its tRBC platform, plus grants from Innovate UK to progress two candidate products to proof-of-concept studies. The company is located in the Science Creates Old Market Incubator.