Antibiotics the World Desperately Needs

Drug-resistant infections kill more than a million people every year, and the pipeline for new antibiotics has been running dry for decades. Stoked Bio is developing enterololin, a novel antibiotic that targets Enterobacteriaceae — a family of WHO priority pathogens implicated in drug-resistant infections and Crohn's disease. Founded in 2024 as a spinout from McMaster University, the company is advancing therapeutic candidates identified through a biology-first, AI-guided discovery process.

The company closed an oversubscribed $2.5M seed financing round, with 99% of investment sourced from Ontario investors. The funding will advance Stoked Bio's internal pipeline products toward proof of concept.

Where AI Meets the Lab Bench

Jon Stokes built a world-leading AI-guided drug discovery platform at McMaster University, combining computational models with wet-lab validation to identify compounds that traditional screening methods miss. Stoked Bio is the commercial arm of his academic lab — translating years of research into drugs that can reach patients. The $2.5M seed advances enterololin and the broader pipeline, positioning the company to tackle some of the most urgent antimicrobial resistance challenges on the planet.