Federation Bio Bags $50M to Engineer New Approach to Microbiome Drugs
Summary
But Venrock, which provided Federation Bio’s intial funding nearly two years ago, saw the potential for overlapping the technologies to develop different types of microbiome treatments: a community of microbes, a single engineered strain, or a combination of the two. Unlike the approach taken by Federation Bio, Novome is taking a bacterium found in the gut and engineering it to colonize the GI tract and break down oxalate. Federation Bio isn’t yet disclosing much about its engineered bacteria, but Conley says that this approach has the potential to address cancer and autoimmune disorders. She only says that while other microbiome companies are leveraging bacteria as they are found naturally, taking a broader approach to activating T cells, Federation Bio is engineering bacteria that “drive the immune system in a more specific way.” Federation Bio was founded in 2019 by Stanford University professors Michael Fischbach and Dylan Dodd, with initial funding from Venrock. Conley says the new cash enables the startup to continue developing its drug pipeline; the secondary hyperoxaluria candidate is expected to reach clinical testing in 2022.
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