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Microbiome Startup BiomX Raises $24 Million in Series A Round

CHICAGO (GenomeWeb) – BiomX, a startup focused on microbiome therapeutics via a proprietary microbiome modulation technology platform, said today that it has raised $24 million in Series A venture capital.

OrbiMed, Johnson & Johnson Innovation–JJDC, and Takeda Ventures led the round. Seventure Partners, MiraeAsset, the Japan-Israel Development Fund, and other unspecified European investors also participated, according to Ness Ziona, Israel-based BiomX.

BiomX said it would apply the proceeds of this fundraising round to move its therapeutic pipeline — consisting of potential acne, inflammatory-bowel disease and immuno-oncology treatments — toward clinical stages and to build out its microbiome modulation technology platform.

"Our discovery process has the unique capability to rapidly measure the real-time dynamic response of the whole microbiome to a given molecule or stimulus (e.g. a drug or clinical condition)," BiomX described on its website.

"The approach simultaneously measures the RNA expression of hundreds of microbiome species in a single experiment. The transcriptome of each microbiome bacteria is reconstructed to the single-base resolution using a combination of proprietary experimental protocols and a proprietary computational platform, allowing accurate identification of the specific genes and pathways that drive the microbiome reaction to the given trigger," the company said.

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