Colorectal most cancers sufferers whose illness reveals sure uncommon genetic signatures have the option of treatment with immunotherapies. However these focused most cancers therapies haven’t labored for sufferers with the 2 subtypes that symbolize the vast majority of colorectal most cancers circumstances. The applied sciences of Cartography Biosciences allow its scientists to seek out their strategy to the best targets for cancers, and the startup now has $67 million to advance an internally found colorectal most cancers remedy to its first take a look at in people.
South San Francisco-based Cartography turns knowledge into medication. The corporate’s platform expertise, Atlas, analyzes two datasets, one with each cell in a wholesome human physique and the opposite containing targets particularly expressed on each most cancers cell. Synthetic intelligence and machine studying strategies energy evaluation of the datasets, enabling Cartography’s scientists to determine promising drug targets discovered on most cancers cells however not on wholesome ones. A second expertise platform, Summit, identifies the goal pairs that allow the corporate to develop medication that bind to 2 targets.
Lead Cartography program CBI-1214 is a T-cell engager, a bispecific antibody designed to bind to 2 targets, one on a most cancers cell and the opposite on an immune cell. Binding to each brings the 2 cells collectively, prompting the immune cell to kill the most cancers cell. The most cancers goal of Cartography’s drug is LY6G6D, an antigen that’s ample within the microsatellite secure and microsatellite instability-low subtypes of colorectal most cancers, representing the vast majority of sufferers with this most cancers.
In keeping with Cartography, CBI-1214 is engineered with options particularly designed to optimize anti-tumor exercise. Cartography presented preclinical data final yr throughout the annual assembly of the Society for Immunotherapy of Most cancers.
“Combining insights from hundreds of affected person tissue samples, our Atlas and Summit platforms have recognized a number of novel targets and goal pairs that now we have engineered new T-cell engagers towards,” Cartography CEO Kevin Parker stated in a ready assertion. “CBI-1214, our first introduced program, has the potential to be a first- and best-in-class molecule focusing on [colorectal cancer] and positions Cartography as an rising chief in new focused therapies.”
Cartography plans to file an investigational new drug utility for CBI-1214 later this yr and start trial enrollment in early 2026. This examine will allow the startup to maintain tempo with QLSF Biotherapeutics, one other South San Francisco-based biotech whose pipeline lists an LY6GCD-targeting T-cell engager in Part 1 testing for colorectal most cancers. Preclinical results for QLFS’s drug have been introduced throughout the 2024 annual assembly of the American Affiliation for Most cancers Analysis. Roche was within the hunt with its personal T-cell engager focusing on LY6G6D however removed the candidate from its pipeline final yr.
Cartography’s science has led to at least one partnership so far. Final yr, Gilead Sciences paid $20 million up entrance to kick off an alliance targeted on discovering and creating therapies for triple-negative breast most cancers and adenocarcinoma, which is the commonest type of non-small cell lung most cancers. If Gilead opts in to the targets recognized from the collaboration, it is going to be chargeable for advancing them by means of additional improvement. Cartography’s pipeline exhibits each applications are within the discovery stage. Two further Cartography applications are in preclinical improvement for stable tumors.
Cartography launched in 2022 backed by $57 million in financing. The financing introduced Thursday, a Sequence B spherical, was led by new investor Pfizer Ventures. Different new traders embody LG Corp, Amgen Ventures, Finchley H.V., World BioAccess Fund, and Lotte Holdings CVC. They have been joined by earlier traders Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Well being, 8VC, Wing Enterprise Capital, Catalio Capital Administration, AME Cloud Ventures, ARTIS Ventures, and Gaingels. With the most recent financing, Michael Baran, a accomplice at Pfizer Ventures, has joined Cartography’s board of administrators.
Illustration: Sebastian Kaulitzki/Science Photograph Library, by way of Getty Photos
