Colorectal most cancers sufferers whose illness reveals sure uncommon genetic signatures have the possibility of therapy with immunotherapies. However these focused most cancers remedies haven’t labored for sufferers with the 2 subtypes that characterize the vast majority of colorectal most cancers instances. The applied sciences of Cartography Biosciences allow its scientists to seek out their technique to the correct targets for cancers, and the startup now has $67 million to advance an internally found colorectal most cancers remedy to its first check in people.
South San Francisco-based Cartography turns knowledge into medicine. 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 methods energy evaluation of the datasets, enabling Cartography’s scientists to establish 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 medicine 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 steady and microsatellite instability-low subtypes of colorectal most cancers, representing the vast majority of sufferers with this most cancers.
In line with Cartography, CBI-1214 is engineered with options particularly designed to optimize anti-tumor exercise. Cartography offered preclinical knowledge final yr in the course of the annual assembly of the Society for Immunotherapy of Most cancers.
“Combining insights from 1000’s of affected person tissue samples, our Atlas and Summit platforms have recognized a number of novel targets and goal pairs that we’ve engineered new T-cell engagers in opposition to,” 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 concentrating 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 research 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 Section 1 testing for colorectal most cancers. Preclinical outcomes for QLFS’s drug had been offered in the course of the 2024 annual assembly of the American Affiliation for Most cancers Analysis. Roche was within the hunt with its personal T-cell engager concentrating on LY6G6D however eliminated the candidate from its pipeline final yr.
Cartography’s science has led to 1 partnership so far. Final yr, Gilead Sciences paid $20 million up entrance to kick off an alliance targeted on discovering and growing therapies for triple-negative breast most cancers and adenocarcinoma, which is the most typical type of non-small cell lung most cancers. If Gilead opts in to the targets recognized from the collaboration, will probably be answerable for advancing them by way of additional growth. Cartography’s pipeline reveals each packages are within the discovery stage. Two extra Cartography packages are in preclinical growth 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., International BioAccess Fund, and Lotte Holdings CVC. They had 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 newest financing, Michael Baran, a accomplice at Pfizer Ventures, has joined Cartography’s board of administrators.
Illustration: Sebastian Kaulitzki/Science Picture Library, through Getty Pictures
