Eligo Bioscience Raises $ 20M, To Develop CRISPR Antimicrobials
In recent years, a growing body of research has linked the complex microbial ecologies that inhabit our bodies to diseases ranging from obesity to cancer. However, the ability to directly test hypotheses and to treat microbiome imbalances is hindered by the limited tools we have to manipulate these systems. Now, a French startup spun out of MIT and Rockefeller last year, is aiming to develop highly precise antimicrobials equipped to easily target the bug of choice.
Eligo Bioscience’s technology is based on CRISPR/Cas9, the trendy and invaluable molecular tool for making sequence-specific cuts in DNA. Cas9 is a nuclease that binds a small guide RNA (sgRNA). The nuclease will cleave DNA if, and only if, it encounters DNA with a sequence complementary to its guide RNA. Rewriting the guide RNA readily repurposes Cas9 to target new DNA sequences.
Now, the biosciences company has has announced today its Series A round, which, led by Khosla Ventures and joined by seed investor Seventure Partners, has reached a total of $20M (€18.5M). This sum also includes $2M of non-dilutive funding granted by the French government through the Worldwide Innovation Challenge.
The firm intends to use the fund to hire new scientists and expand
the applications of its platform of microbiome-targeting nanobots. The goal is to bring a first therapy into Phase I clinical trials in early 2020.Eligo’s method employs the CRISPR/Cas9 technology that makes it very easy to identify and modify strands of DNA. It inserts a pair of “genomic scissors” into a bacteriophage capsid which acts as a transport vehicle. Inside the bacteria, the Eligobiotics (as they have been nicknamed) search out unique gene sequences and cut them up, effectively destroying the microbes. Thus, Eligobiotics can be highly specific. For example, they can find and destroy just the virulent or resistant strains, leaving the microbiome largely intact. A huge difference to customary antibiotics, which target bacteria indiscriminately and thus do long-time damage to the beneficial and harmful alike. “We are like snipers. If we kill the bad strains, the good strains can flourish.”
These prospects seem to have wooed the investors. In the case of Koshla, Eligo Bioscience will actually be its first investment in France. Sebastien Groyer, a partner at Seventure and new board member for Eligo, expressed his confidence in the young company ”Its products have the potential to dramatically change the way in which we treat multiple infectious diseases while contributing to the understanding of others.”Angel investors will join the seed round this summer, before Eligo moves out of an incubator at Paris’ Institut Pasteur and into its own lab space.
