Larkspur Biosciences, a Watertown, MA-based biotechnology company building immunotherapies for cancer, raised $35.5M in funding.
The round was led by Polaris Innovation Fund, 3E Bioventures Capital, and Takeda Ventures. Other investors included Creacion Ventures, Med-Fine Capital and Cornell University.
The company intends to use the funds to focus on IND-enabling studies for its lead program, an approach to lipid remodeling to uncloak tumors as well as furthering the ongoing preclinical studies for its program targeting Pin1, a key mechanism of fibroblast differentiation to activate immune cells.
Founded by Drs. Lewis Cantley, Nathanael Gray, and Vijay K. Kuchroo and led by CEO Catherine Sabatos-Peyton, Larkspur provides LarkX, a proprietary platform that leverages patient genetics and immune phenotypes, applying bioinformatics and complex in vitro models, to discover critical immune barriers. Armed with insights into evasion signatures that can be shared by different cancer indications, it offers the opportunity to address multiple types of cancer.
Larkspur’s initial strategy addresses a genetically- and immunologically-characterized subtype of colorectal cancer (CRC). These patients have T cells at the tumor and can be identified via biopsy, making them a prime population for proof-of-concept for the company’s precision immunotherapy strategies.
The company’s Board of Directors includes Chair Amy Schulman (Polaris Innovation Fund), Sabatos-Peyton, Frank Yan (3E Bioventures Capital), Sacha Mann (Takeda Ventures, Inc.), and Larkspur founder Nathanael Gray, along with observers Alexandra Cantley (Polaris), Wei Li (Creacion Ventures), and Daniel Hu (Med-Fine Capital).