Oxford researcher and AURApeutics CEO Dr Victor Choi shares his work developing ultrasound technology to treat chronic wound infections, and his recent collaboration with the IOI Knowledge Exchange grant.
"If our technology can help even one person avoid a lifelong prescription to antibiotics, sepsis, or a serious surgery, then we’ll have achieved what we set out to do. Finding unique and creative solutions to problems like biofilms is crucial to tackling AMR. It’s vital that we encourage more interdisciplinary research, investigate new technology, and bring together international expertise. I’m grateful for the work of all my team members and fellow researchers at Oxford, as well as for the collaboration of world-leading teams, to help make our research into a reality."
More than 2 million people in the UK are affected by chronic wounds every year. These include diabetic ulcers, severe burns, and other injuries that take time to heal – and they often lead to recurring infections.
The leading cause of chronic infections is the presence of biofilms. A biofilm is a protective, slimy layer that bacteria form around themselves, which acts as a physical barrier that stops antibiotics from reaching their targets. Bacteria within biofilms can persist for much longer on surfaces, and are likely to be up to 1000 times more resistant to antibiotics than similar, unprotected bacteria.
Dr Victor Choi, Oxford researcher and CEO of biotechnology company AURApeutics, is developing new ways of using ultrasound to break through these biofilm boundaries and deliver antibiotics into the heart of chronic wound infections.
With the support of an Oxford AMR Network and IOI Knowledge Exchange grant, Victor has been able to test this technology beyond the lab, working with international partners to understand how it performs in real world settings.
"Biofilms play a huge role in perpetuating antimicrobial resistance by allowing bacteria to thrive within chronic wounds. During my doctoral research I combined ultrasound technology with novel antibiotic delivery mechanisms to find ways of making common antibiotics more effective against biofilms. This idea has led me to found a new company, focussed entirely on developing this technology into real-world treatments."
Breaking up the biofilm
Treatment for biofilms can be invasive and difficult. To avoid bacteria reaching the bloodstream, surgery may be required to remove the infected tissue, with severe cases needing limb amputation.
Patients may also need permanent courses of antibiotics to combat the recurring infections, which contributes to the global rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Victor and his team are investigating less damaging ways to remove biofilms, and to restore the power of antibiotics to treat chronic wound infections. His research led to the development of AURA (Antimicrobial-loaded Ultrasound Responsive Agents) particles: tiny droplets loaded with antibiotics, which are small enough to pass through the slimy matrix of a biofilm. Billions of these nanoparticles can be delivered into chronic wounds where they are then ‘activated’ by a conventional ultrasound emitter – creating tiny explosions from within the biofilm, and releasing their antibiotics deep into bacterial cells. Together, these effects clear infections far more effectively than conventional antibiotics.
"Ultrasound therapies have been extensively explored in fields like oncology and orthopaedics, and we wanted to bring them into the field of AMR treatment. For this, we needed interdisciplinary expertise to find ways of shrinking antibiotic-carrying particles until they could slip through biofilm defences, combining biology, chemistry and engineering to develop AURAs into a viable therapy."
Putting AURAs to the test
AURA particles have proved highly successful in lab studies, reducing the antibiotic dose needed to clear biofilms by up to 40-fold. However, to use this treatment in the real world, Victor and his team needed to test how well their method works on a real chronic wound.
With support from IOI and the Oxford AMR Network’s Knowledge Exchange fund, they travelled to the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Centre (TTUHSC) to work with their unique, gold-standard models for simulating real-life chronic wound infections.
There, the team tested their methods on both lab and live models. They saw massive improvements in bacterial reduction when using their antibiotic nanoparticles, with AURAs completely removing bacteria from samples, in some cases after a single round of ultrasound treatment.
Importantly, the treatment did not lead to the spread of bacteria to other organs, supporting its safety for future trials.
"95% of the therapies tested on this TTUHSC model fail, but we saw fantastic results. The team was confident in our methods – but we were still surprised by how well they worked in these tests! Now, we want to take AURAs from this proof-of-concept study to a more advanced stage of research, including further testing with the TTUHSC models, as well as in real-world situations against complex, multi-drug resistant bacteria."
Securing a future for this technology
This collaboration has helped secure significant further funding for researching AURA treatment, and has strengthened international partnership work between the two groups.
Victor has his team are now studying how wounds respond after treatment, and investigating factors like inflammation and tissue-healing. Further safety testing of the treatment will also provide the next crucial step towards clinical use.
Victor is also hoping to start recruiting for a clinical trial next year, potentially allowing him to start seeing the impacts of AURA treatment first-hand by as early as 2027.
"The Knowledge Exchange grant allowed us to receive direct training at TTUHSC, and to build strategic international partnerships with this expert team. We hope to continue utilising their experience with complex models and to share our expertise in return, ensuring that we develop a treatment that will make a real difference to people struggling with chronic infections around the world."
Main image: Dr Victor Choi giving a presentation on his work at the Conception X 2025 demo day. Credit: V. Choi