Microbiotica was spun out of genomics research institute Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute yesterday with £8m ($10m) in funding provided by Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), an investment fund backed by Cambridge University, and commercialisation firm IP Group.
Each party supplied £4m to the spinout, which will commercialise research into the role of the bacteria living in the human intestine in diseases such as cancer and infection as well as neurological, autoimmune and metabolic disorders. The research was led by Trevor Lawley.
The money will be used to set up laboratories at the Wellcome Genomic Campus in Cambridge and to advance several programs into clinical development.
CIC and IP Group will each appoint a member to Microbiotica’s board, though they have not named representatives.
Mike Romanos, chief executive of Microbiotica, said: “It has been a privilege to work with my co-founders to create the concept of Microbiotica as a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics.
“We are very excited to be working with IP Group and CIC to now turn the vision into reality as we start to build the company, based at the Wellcome Genome Campus, leveraging the strengths of the Sanger Institute to create new medicines.”
