Cartography Biosciences is putting its name on the map, exiting stealth mode with $57 million for an antigen atlas designed to direct scientists to more precise and effective immunotherapies.
The series A financing round was led by 8VC, an investment firm with a portfolio that includes biotechs Dren Bio, Hexagon, Myeloid Therapeutics and Alloy Therapeutics, among others. Seed investors Andreessen Horowitz and Wing VC also participated in the funding round, plus new investors Catalio Capital Management, ARTIS Ventures, Alexandria Venture Investments, AME Cloud Ventures, the Cancer Research Institute and Gaingels.
Cartography will funnel the cash toward a range of discovery programs designed to identify new target antigens across multiple cancer indications. The biotech’s ultimate destination: an atlas that can pinpoint targets that only interact with cancerous cells and avoid toxic side effects.
Cartography’s modality-agnostic platform combines computational and experimental techniques to profile antigens on both normal and cancerous cells, classifying cancers by antigen expression instead of genetic mutations or tissue type.
The Foster City, California-based biotech has already profiled millions of cells from both cancerous and healthy tissue samples using its platform, which touts a six-month or less time frame from sample intake to new target discovery.
Kevin Parker, Ph.D., will lead the way, charting the biotech’s course as CEO. He is also one of Cartography’s founders, alongside Stanford University entrepreneurs Ansu Satpathy, M.D., Ph.D., and Howard Chang, M.D., Ph.D.