We are delighted to welcome MitoRx to Babraham Research Campus. We recently caught up with the team about the company's journey so far, the milestones they have achieved, what attracted them to the Campus, and their ambitions for the future.
Throughout the Q&A, MitoRx highlights the importance of having access to the facilities, infrastructure and expertise needed to accelerate scientific innovation. From state-of-the-art imaging equipment and high-tech laboratory facilities to opportunities to connect with talent, the Campus provides an environment designed to support early-stage life science companies as they grow and advance their research towards the clinic.
What is MitoRx Therapeutics' mission, and what challenge are you aiming to solve?
MitoRx’s mission is to develop new medicines to restore mitochondrial metabolic health in high-risk obesity. The challenge patients currently face is that these high-risk patients living with metabolically unhealthy obesity have a disproportionate risk of progressing to more serious diseases such as T2D, MAFLD/MASH and ASCVD. The risk of MAFLD/MASH is up to 7-fold higher in these patients. They are offered GLP1 medicines with a cessation rate of 65-85% over 1-2 years, and though on average they initially experience benefits of body weight loss and improvement in cardiovascular lipid profile, post cessation these benefits are lost. The patient then returns to progressing on the trajectory toward more serious disease. MitoRx aims to reverse that trajectory toward metabolic health.
What inspired the founding of the company?
MitoRx was spun out of the University of Exeter in 2021. Jon Rees came across the research of Prof Matt Whiteman at Exeter University while attending BioSeed. There is a principle that great drugs that yield diverse clinical benefits across multiple indications through shared pathways important in several diseases. The results of the academic research demonstrated this fingerprint, with interesting pharmacological effects in endocrine disease models, muscle degeneration, and ageing, as well as lung inflammatory models fitted that principle.
Could you explain, in simple terms, the science behind your approach and why it is exciting?
Our lead drug development program, MTRX31, is a first-in-class novel small molecule with a unique mode of action that ‘flicks a cellular switch’, resetting the balance between fat and carbohydrate oxidation to that of a lean and healthy individual, to overcome the metabolic inflexibility characterized in obesity. Unlike many of the approved GLP-1 weight loss drugs it targets mitochondrial mechanism rather than appetite suppression to restore metabolic flexibility.
What stage is the company currently at, and what milestones are you most proud of so far?
MitoRx's lead drug candidate, MTRX31, a first-in-class small molecule being developed as a monotherapy for high-risk obesity by restoring healthy mitochondrial metabolism. It is in preclinical development and has shown superior magnitude, quality and durability of weight loss compared with tirzepatide standard of-care in an industry-standard preclinical model of obesity. Significantly, MTRX31-driven weight-loss does not involve lean mass loss which is unwanted side effect of many currently approved weight loss medications. MTRX31 is currently being advanced for subcutaneous administration and MitoRx is also optimizing an oral alternative to MTRX31. We are proud that we secured $10m in Q4 2025 in what was a quite tough moment for emerging biotech financing in the UK, and proud of the game-changing ongoing success that our growing R&D team is achieving.
What attracted MitoRx to Babraham Research Campus and the LiveLabs community?
The Babraham Research Campus and the LiveLabs community outside Cambridge comprise over 60 companies, 2,000 employees and 300 academic researchers with world class facilities and talent located in a beautiful setting, designed to inspire and enable discovery, innovation, and growth.
How do you hope being based at the Campus will support your future growth?
The good number of early stage and more mature companies make Babraham a unique place for MitoRx to grow and interact. The flexibility to grow from a Live-Labs-hosted company to a more mature and more developed organisation is simplified on the campus. We know BRC will be at our side, supporting any rapid growth for MitoRx. The Campus also gives us access to state-of-the-art imaging equipment, high-tech infrastructure and talent that will meaningfully accelerate our research capabilities as we approach the clinic.
Looking ahead, what are the key goals or milestones for the business over the next 12-18 months?
MitoRx is currently focussed on progressing the MTRX31 program into the clinic when we can test the development candidate in humans for the first time. Clinical Candidate Nomination is the next significant milestone to be followed by IND. We also progress our activities on orally administered leads. It is an exciting time for the business and will be a milestone event for us.