Kanvas Biosciences, a microbiome therapeutics company that develops treatments to help cancer immunotherapy treatments, has moved its laboratory operations to The HELIX in downtown New Brunswick, the company announced Friday.
The company now occupies about 12,000 square feet on the 10th floor of H-1, alongside Aquestive Therapeutics. Kanvas lists New Brunswick as its headquarters.
Kanvas is developing treatments to help patients who don’t respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors, a type of cancer immunotherapy. Research suggests the bacteria in a patient’s gut play a role in whether those drugs work.
The company’s platform, based on imaging technology developed at Cornell University, maps how microbes in the gut interact with each other and with human cells. Kanvas uses that data to design live biotherapeutic products, communities of beneficial bacteria meant to help the immune system fight disease.
Its lead candidate, KAN-001, is being developed for non-small cell lung cancer patients on immunotherapy, and the company is preparing to begin recruiting patients this year. Another candidate, KAN-004, is recruiting for a Phase 1 trial in colitis caused by immunotherapy. None has been approved by the FDA.
In May, Kanvas closed a $48 million Series A round co-led by DCVC and Lions Capital, bringing its total funding to $78 million.
“This is a defining moment for Kanvas,” co-founder and CEO Matthew Cheng said. “We have new capital, a growing pipeline and a team ready to bring our science to patients.”
Kanvas joins a roster that includes Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Hackensack Meridian Health, RWJBarnabas Health, Middlesex County and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Rutgers University, Nokia Bell Labs, Aquestive Therapeutics, and dozens of life sciences startups in the New Jersey Innovation Hub Powered by Portal.
Chris Paladino, President of the DEVCO and the CEO of the HELIX, said Kanvas fits the model.
“Kanvas is the kind of company The HELIX was designed to support: a science-driven team turning a breakthrough platform into new treatments for patients,” he said.
JLL, which markets the lab suites at H-1, brokered the deal.
