CURE

What CURE does

CURE (full title: 'Constructing a Eubiosis Reinstatement Therapy for Asthma') is a European Union Horizon 2020-funded research consortium that ran from October 2017 to March 2022 under Grant Agreement No 767015. It was coordinated by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) in Greece and brought together 10 partners across 7 European countries. The project's functional objective was to develop respiratory phage therapies that rebalance the airway microbiome — a concept termed 'eubiosis reinstatement' — as a potential curative intervention for asthma, a condition affecting more than 30 million Europeans.

The core technology stack integrates three layers: (1) deep metagenomic reconstruction of both bacteriome and virome in healthy and asthmatic individuals across a longitudinal clinical cohort of approximately 60 asthma patients and 30 healthy controls; (2) experimentally validated mathematical models and a custom bacteriophage-bacteria network algorithm designed to predict the ecological and clinical impact of specific phage interventions, enabling personalized phage cocktail design; and (3) a custom microfluidic Trans Epithelial Electrical Resistance (TEER) measurement system, co-developed by NKUA and the University of Western Australia's microSENSES lab, to evaluate epithelial barrier effects of phages. The consortium produced a library of more than 30 newly isolated and characterized phages targeting respiratory pathogens including Moraxella, Acinetobacter, Streptococcus, Haemophilus, and Staphylococcus.

CURE does not operate as a commercial enterprise. It has no products or services for sale, no pricing model, no paying customers, and no disclosed revenue. Its funding derives entirely from the EU Horizon 2020 grant, disbursed across the consortium partners for defined research work packages. Its 'customers' in a clinical-research sense are the study participants, while its external stakeholder relationships — notably with the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients' Associations (EFA) — serve dissemination and policy-engagement purposes rather than commercial go-to-market functions.

Name

CURE

Legal name

CURE - Constructing a Eubiosis Reinstatement Therapy for Asthma

Website

https://cureasthma.eu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CURE is an EU Horizon 2020-funded research consortium (Grant Agreement No 767015) that developed bacteriophage-based 'eubiosis reinstatement' therapies to rebalance the airway microbiome and potentially cure asthma, operating across 10 partners in 7 European countries without commercial revenue.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Pharmaceutical Research

NAICS

Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories (6215)

akta.pro primary industry

Asthma & Allergy-Related Pulmonary Care (HLAKANAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Microbiome Modulating Small Molecules & Antibiotic Alternatives (HLAAAFAG), Asthma & Airway Disease Specialty Care (HLAKAAAC), Respiratory & Allergy Pharmaceuticals (HLAIAAAH)

Keywords

• Phage therapy research
• Respiratory microbiome analysis
• Metagenomics research
• Bacteriophage isolation
• Asthma therapeutics development

Headquarters

HQ city

Athens

HQ country

Greece

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

CURE is an EU Horizon 2020-funded research programme developing respiratory bacteriophage (phage) therapy to rebalance the airway microbiome and control immune dysregulation in asthma. It combines metagenomic analysis, mathematical modeling, and a custom microfluidic TEER system to design personalized phage cocktails as a potential cure for asthma.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CURE Phage Therapy Research Programme An EU Horizon 2020-funded research programme developing respiratory phage therapies to rebalance the airway microbiome (eubiosis reinstatement) as a treatment for asthma, integrating metagenomics, mathematical modeling, and microfluidic TEER measurement technology for personalized phage cocktail development. Targeted at the scientific community, asthma patients, and regulators.
• Eubiosis Reinstatement Therapy A therapeutic concept developed by CURE proposing that restoration of healthy symbiotic microbial communities (eubiosis) in the airways may be more appropriate than elimination of bacteria for treating chronic inflammatory conditions like asthma. It underpins the consortium's work on personalized phage cocktails.

Quantifiable outcome

• Preschool children with asthma show reduced levels of bacteriophages in airways compared to non-asthmatic counterparts, suggesting phage deficiency may lead to ecological imbalance and reduced resilience to exacerbations
• +3 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2017Coordinator of the CURE project. Responsible for clinical cohort management, patient recruitment and follow-up, and overall project coordination. Led by Prof. Nikolaos Papadopoulos as CURE Coordinator.
• University of ManchestercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResponsible for respiratory microbial ecology analysis using metagenomics, including classification of species, diversity, function, genetic composition, evolution and interactions. Also developing mathematical models to predict microbiome changes after phage interventions.
• Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFocused on evaluating immunological reactions in relation to microbial composition and effects of bacteriophage introduction. Examining effects of phages on epithelial barrier integrity and human innate lymphoid cells.
• Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens (BRFAA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerExamining effect of direct exposure of mononuclear cells to phages. Conducting detailed immune cell profiling using multiparametric flow cytometry. Research on innate immunity in respiratory infections and exacerbations.
• Georgi Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology and Virology (ELIAVA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIdentifying, isolating and characterizing phages targeting 'bad' respiratory bacteria. One of the world's leading institutions in bacteriophage research with nearly a century of experience.
• Eliava BioPreparations LTDcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWorking with ELIAVA to construct prototypes of phage mixtures relevant to different phenotypes of asthma. Commercial entity focused on bacteriophage preparations for human health.
• Medical University of Lodz (MUL)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerClinical partner working with NKUA to track respiratory symptom variations, microbiome imbalances, and perturbations from asthma patients and healthy subjects over one year.
• European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients Associations (EFA)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerEnsuring all project outcomes and results are properly and constantly communicated to the public and particularly to people with asthma, the main beneficiary of CURE.
• Exelixis Research ManagementminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerSpecialized company providing project coordination and management services, guaranteeing good coordination and management of all project documents and administrative tasks.
• Queen Astrid Military Hospital, BrusselsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNon-profit hospital pioneering phage therapy applications in Belgium. Dr. Jean-Paul Pirnay, member of CURE's Ethics Advisory Board and head of the laboratory for molecular and cellular technology, contributed to integrating phage therapy into Belgian law.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• GSK: Global respiratory leader with established asthma biologics (Nucala, Trelegy) and large clinical infrastructure; comparable as the broad incumbent whose symptom-suppressing biologics define the bar CURE's curative approach would need to clear.
• AstraZeneca: Major respiratory pharma with a severe asthma franchise (e.g., Tezspire, Fasenra) and deep R&D capacity in airway disease; represents the incumbent landscape that any CURE-derived therapy would need to compete against or partner with.

Direct peers

• BiomX: Clinical-stage microbiome company using both phage cocktails and synthetic biology to modulate disease-associated bacteria, with therapeutic programs that overlap CURE's phage-based eubiosis reinstatement strategy.
• Intralytix: Commercial phage product company with FDA-approved food safety applications and a clinical pipeline, representing one of the few companies operationalizing phage biology at commercial scale analogous to CURE's aspirations.
• ContraFect: Biotech developing phage-derived lysins and other direct lytic agents for serious bacterial infections; comparable to CURE in translating bacteriophage biology into clinically validated therapeutics.
• Adaptive Phage Therapeutics: US clinical-stage phage therapy company developing personalized phage cocktails against bacterial infections, with a regulatory and manufacturing approach highly comparable to CURE's vision of patient-matched phage interventions.
• PhagoMed Biopharma: European phage therapy developer (acquired by BioNTech) focused on phage-based treatments, sharing CURE's emphasis on engineered/phage cocktail approaches for human therapeutic use rather than agricultural applications.
• Locus Biosciences: Developer of engineered phage therapies (crPhage platform) targeting specific bacterial populations, sharing CURE's principle of precise microbiome modulation rather than broad antibiotic use.
• Eliava BioPreparations: Commercial phage preparation company and core CURE consortium partner, with direct expertise in constructing phage mixtures relevant to different phenotypes of asthma. It is one of the only commercial entities globally translating phage therapy to human health products.

Emerging players

• Eligo Bioscience: Synthetic biology company engineering phages as precision antimicrobials to reshape the microbiome; conceptually aligned with CURE's eubiosis reinstatement paradigm using programmable phage-based interventions.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CURE_asthma
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cureasthma

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about CURE