Waypoint Bio, a biotechnology company innovating cell therapies for solid tumors through in vivo spatial pooled screening technology, has announced the successful acquisition of $14.5 million in seed funding. The round was led by Hummingbird Ventures with significant contributions from Recode Ventures and pre-seed lead Fifty Years.
The FDA’s recent approval of the first-ever cell therapy for solid tumors marks a milestone in cancer treatment. However, progress in this field has been hampered by the complexities of the solid tumor microenvironment and the challenges of large-scale therapeutic testing in relevant model systems. Waypoint Bio addresses these challenges with its unique platform that integrates spatial biology with pooled screening to enhance drug discovery. This platform can perform initial screens of cell therapy designs in vivo, measuring hundreds of phenotypes at the single-cell level. This innovative approach helps identify which cell therapy designs are effective and why, thereby advancing the development of treatments for difficult-to-treat diseases like pancreatic cancer.
“Pooled screening is a powerful drug discovery tool but has traditionally been limited to simple cell phenotypes like growth or drug resistance,” said Xinchen Wang, PhD, Co-founder and CEO. “Our platform enhances pooled screening by utilizing spatial biology to generate complex, multivariate, and spatial readouts for each perturbation. This helps us rapidly develop novel drug candidates with a higher probability of clinical success.”
David Phizicky, PhD, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, highlighted the advantages of Waypoint’s approach: “We designed our platform to start the discovery process directly in mouse models, bypassing the in vitro step while maintaining high-throughput and lower costs. This scale of in vivo testing allows us to screen numerous innovative cell therapy designs with higher clinical translatability. Spatial biology enables us to determine not just which assets are effective in vivo, but also the reasons behind their success or failure and how they match patient sample phenotypes. This detail represents a significant advancement in cell therapy design.”
With the new funding, Waypoint Bio plans to develop CAR T-cell therapies with enhanced efficacy against the tumor microenvironment and later, Treg therapies for autoimmune diseases.
“We’re excited to partner with Xinchen and Dave and lead Waypoint Bio’s seed funding,” said Pablo Lubroth, Investor at Hummingbird Ventures. “Their platform, which combines in vivo spatial pooled screening with spatial biology, holds immense potential to develop new therapies for underserved patients. The founders’ expertise in both wet and computational biology is evident in their innovative approach to drug discovery.”
Founded by MIT alumni Xinchen Wang and David Phizicky, Waypoint Bio brings together a team of 11 researchers, scientists, and engineers. Their Scientific Advisory Board includes:
- Melina Claussnitzer, PhD, Broad Institute of Harvard & MIT
- Robbie Majzner, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
- Yvonne Chen, PhD, UCLA
- Shantanu Singh, PhD, Broad Institute
- Ron Lennox, D.Phil., MBA, Biotech entrepreneur and investor
Waypoint Bio’s pioneering platform and strategic funding position it to make significant strides in the development of cell therapies for solid tumors, potentially transforming the landscape of cancer treatment.