Volastra Therapeutics, a NYC-based biotechnology company developing novel therapies for the treatment of metastatic cancers, raised $12m in funding.
The round was led by Polaris Partners with participation from DROIA Oncology Ventures, the Global Health Sciences (GHS) Fund (Quark Venture LP and GF Securities), and ARCH Venture Partners.
The company intends to use the funds to develop therapies for metastatic cancers by targeting key pathways related to chromosomal instability, a hallmark of cancer metastasis.
Founded by Drs. Lewis Cantley, Samuel Bakhoum, and Olivier Elemento, Volastra is a biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapies for patients with metastatic cancers by exploiting unique insights into chromosomal instability. The company also will utilize an extensive library of organoids derived from metastatic cancer samples to elucidate how tumors spread and devise therapeutic strategies that target chromosomal instability during the process of cancer metastasis. The platform enables Volastra to perform rigorous target validation, to advance first-in-class clinical candidates, and to identify biomarkers to stratify patients for clinical trials.
Volastra Therapeutics’ operations are located at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS at New York City (JLABS @ NYC).
Following the deal, Executive Chair Sandra Peterson, a Partner at Clayton, Dubilier, and Rice, a Board Member of Microsoft, and the former Group Worldwide Chairman of Johnson & Johnson, will lead the Volastra Board of Directors. Polaris Managing Partner Amy Schulman will serve alongside Ms. Peterson on the company’s Board of Directors with DROIA Partner Luc Dochez and GHS Fund CSO and Partner Zafi Avnur. Dr. Bakhoum will represent the scientific founders on the company’s Board.
FinSMEs
11/02/2020