Saturday, June 29, 2024
Waypoint Bio, a biotechnology company, has secured $14.5 million in seed funding led by Hummingbird Ventures, with participation from Recode Ventures and Fifty Years. The company focuses on developing innovative cell therapies for solid tumors using in vivo spatial pooled screening technology.
The recent FDA approval of the first cell therapy for solid tumors underscores the slow pace of innovation in this challenging field. Waypoint Bio's platform integrates spatial biology with pooled screening to conduct initial screens of cell therapy designs directly in vivo. This approach enables simultaneous measurement of hundreds of phenotypes at the single cell level, critical for understanding interactions within the solid tumor microenvironment and guiding the development of therapies for diseases like pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Xinchen Wang, CEO and co-founder, highlighted the platform's enhancement of traditional pooled screening by incorporating spatial biology, providing detailed, multivariate insights into each perturbation. This capability accelerates the identification of promising drug candidates with higher potential for clinical success.
Dr. David Phizicky, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, emphasized Waypoint Bio's ability to perform high-throughput in vivo testing in mouse models, bypassing costly in vitro stages. This approach speeds up the screening of innovative cell therapy designs, aiming for improved clinical applicability.
The seed funding will support Waypoint Bio's initial focus on designing CAR T-cell therapies targeting the tumor microenvironment, followed by Treg therapies for autoimmune diseases.
Pablo Lubroth from Hummingbird Ventures expressed enthusiasm about partnering with Waypoint Bio, highlighting the founders' expertise in wet lab and computational biology. This expertise positions Waypoint Bio to revolutionize drug discovery through AI, automation, and spatial biology, potentially transforming treatments for challenging diseases.
Waypoint Bio was co-founded by MIT alumni Dr. Xinchen Wang and Dr. David Phizicky, supported by a team of 11 researchers, scientists, and engineers. The company also boasts a distinguished Scientific Advisory Board comprising experts from institutions like the Broad Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Source: businesswire.com
