Neobe Therapeutics has raised $6.8M in seed funding to engineer tumour-colonizing bacteria that break down the barriers keeping immunotherapies out of "cold" tumours. The round was backed by Arc Ventures, Faber, Macmillan Ventures, Proven Connect, Empirical Ventures and 2048 Ventures.
Only around 20% of patients with solid tumors are estimated to benefit from immunotherapies today, largely because an immunosuppressive microenvironment keeps immune cells from infiltrating the tumour. Neobe's approach uses synthetic biology to engineer bacteria that act locally within the tumour, disrupting that microenvironment while avoiding the systemic toxicities of treatments that act throughout the body.














