NextVivo, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based biotech company developing an immune organoid technology platform, emerged from stealth with $7.9M in financing.
The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Alexandria Venture Investments, Wilson Sonsini, and individual investors.
Co-founded by Drs. Mark Davis, Calvin Kuo, and Adam Margolin, NextVivo plans to develop the first organoid platform able to generate and test therapies in immune-competent human-derived models.
NextVivo organoids are miniature 3D tissue models that can retain all key cell types of human organs, including immune cells. The consequent recapitulation of functional interactions between organs and immune cells across a variety of healthy and disease tissue types enables generation of candidate therapies by leveraging the immune system’s natural defenses. Further, effectiveness of immune-based therapies can be tested in these human disease replicas without placing patients at risk.
The company’s platform, based on technology licensed from Stanford University, has potential applications to generate cell and antibody therapies by leveraging the immune system’s natural defense mechanisms and to pre-clinical and clinical testing of drug candidates across a range of diseases, including cancer, infection and autoimmune disorders.
FinSMEs
10/12/2021