Cancer has cut another promising life shorter. According to sources, renowned and budding scientist Dr. Kirsty Smitten lost her long battle with Cancer on October 4 this year. Only in January was she diagnosed with Angio Sarcoma, the tumor in the heart that is usually fatal.
Her relative said about her difficult journey, “Kirsty fought to the very end but this was such an aggressive cancer she couldn’t beat it. She kept saying how much she had to live for – her brother, Dan, is getting married in November and Matt and I are expecting a baby in February. She would have been the most wonderful auntie. We’re all heartbroken.”
Legacy Of Kirsty Smitten
Dr.Smitten who was just 29 put herself on the map when she was completing her PhD in Microbiology. Her research at the University of Sheffield gave birth to a class of compounds that changed the game totally.
The antibiotics particularly targeted diseases that were otherwise considered resistant to other antibiotics. Anti-microbial resistance or AMR occurs over time when the body stops fighting bacteria, fungi, or parasites.
Even though the person takes medications, due to higher evolution, the microbial resist the medicine and it becomes difficult to tackle. 2 Million people in the U.S. alone fall prey to AMR-related complications every year. While the government is initiating educational programs and pumping more funds into research to make some real developments. Dr. Smitten’s firm, Metallobio, defines its development as, “the first new antimicrobial compounds to emerge for nearly 40 years.
This is a new inorganic chemistry platform capable of creating powerful antimicrobial agents for pharmaceutical drugs, medical devices, and material coatings and additives.” The compound they develop is “two novel ruthenium-based antimicrobial compounds that will be used to treat multi-drug resistant pathogens. Currently, both compounds are in preclinical development, with the aim of reaching phase I (first in man) clinical trials by 2025.”
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Her family believes, “Her work was her passion and she was even working as she went through chemotherapy. She was still pitching and trying to get grants when she was struggling to breathe and to walk. She carried on trying to help push the research forward.” Her family remembers how she couldn’t even take more than a minute to process the news.
She cried and then realized the importance of her work and went back to her professional mode. Founded in 2021, the company received awards from the Royal Chemistry Society, and Dr.Smitten was ranked on the Forbes list of 30 under 30. She also talked about her work, “A new class of antibiotics hasn’t reached clinics in over 30 years, and by 2050 antibiotic microbial resistance is expected to kill 10 million people, which is a death every three seconds per year. We would be able to prevent that.
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I now see how important my work is. If I get an infection I have about an hour to get IV antibiotics before it becomes fatal because with chemo I don’t have an immune system at the moment. I still work, I just can’t work the same as I used to and I can’t go to as many in-person things. I think it hits a lot of our investments.
A lot of the investors we have are very committed to me, and how I built the company the passion I have for what we’re doing, and my drive to take it forward.”Though she might not be around she thought would be carried forward by her fellow companions and might even see the daylight to even get a Nobel prize.
The family is organizing a fundraiser to support the cause and welcomes any and every contribution to her life’s legacy and hopes her philanthropic activities remain forever.
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