A biotech company, co-founded by a researcher from The University of Western Australia, has been honoured in the WA Innovator of the Year Awards in recognition of its technology to fight potentially deadly antimicrobial resistance.

Lixa, which was formed to capitalise on technology that infiltrates the protective biofilm surrounding bacteria, received the Wesfarmers Wellbeing Platinum award at a ceremony on Monday. 

The company was founded by Dr Angela Fonceca, a Research Fellow at UWA’s School of Biomedical Sciences, and Dr Maud Eijkenboom. 

Dr Fonceca said it was a proud moment for their company, which was launched in late August this year.

“We are honoured to be recognised for developing our antibiofilm technology, NeoX,” Dr Fonceca said. 

“All the support we have continues to motivate us to work even harder on our mission to prevent and cure recurring bacterial infections for anyone, anything and anywhere.

“The calibre of finalists and previous winners across all categories was incredibly high so we are thrilled to be named winners and grateful for this award.”

Dr Fonceca said antimicrobial resistance was a growing problem around the world and the technology had applications in a large number of areas including medicine, animal health and marine technology.

The Wesfarmers Wellbeing Platinum Award recognises innovators who have developed an outstanding innovation which raises the profile and contributes to developing WA’s reputation as an innovative State.