Kanvas Biosciences is taking a major step forward in microbiome therapeutics with the announcement of $48 million in Series A funding, which will support a clinical trial later this year for the company’s lead cancer immunotherapy treatment.
The startup, whose foundational technology emerged from research at Cornell University, is also advancing additional therapies targeting inflammation and malnutrition-related gut disease.
Kanvas was founded by Cornell Ph.D. student Hao Shi, professor Iwijn De Vlaminck, and medical microbiologist Matt Cheng after the team developed HiPR-FISH, a breakthrough imaging platform capable of mapping the gut microbiome in unprecedented detail. The technology, which the team licensed through Cornell’s Center for Technology Licensing, allows researchers to identify not only which microbes are present in the gut, but exactly where they live and how they interact with human cells and one another.
