Neobe

The challenge: The microenvironment of solid tumours creates barriers that prevent our immune responses from getting to the tumour. This is a key reason why 80% of solid tumours still don’t respond to immunotherapies. Finding a way to break down these barriers would enable new treatment options for patients with immune-excluded tumours.

The breakthrough: Neobe has built a synthetic biology platform to engineer microbial strains that disrupt the microenvironment of solid tumours, without affecting healthy tissues. These programmable microscopic Trojan horses break down local barriers to let immune cells in. The company recently raised nearly £2m in financing to accelerate the development of its platform, combining extensive preclinical safety and efficacy studies with initial regulatory validation.

Our role: Neobe was founded from a venture creation alliance between Deep Science Ventures and Cancer Research Horizons. We invested pre-seed capital at inception and then participated in its £2m financing round in early 2024.