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Neobe Therapeutics raises €6.1M to engineer anti-tumour bacteria

London-based Neobe Therapeutics has closed a €6.1 million Seed round led by ARC Ventures to advance engineered bacteria that break through the walls shielding solid tumours.

Illustration of engineered bacteria dissolving the dense fibrous matrix surrounding a solid cancer tumour.
Image: EU-Startups
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Neobe Therapeutics, a London-based bio-engineering company, has raised €6.1 million ($6.8 million/£5 million) in a Seed round to speed up development of engineered bacteria that dismantle the physical barriers keeping cancer drugs away from solid tumours. ARC Ventures led the round, joined by Faber, Macmillan Ventures, Proven Connect and Empirical Ventures, with follow-on money from pre-Seed backer 2048 Ventures. Total funding now exceeds €9.4 million.

Targeting the wall around the tumour

According to the company, immunotherapy and other new drugs have changed cancer care but still fail in many patients, often for physical rather than biological reasons. A dense, fibrous matrix surrounding the tumour forms a wall that immune cells and drugs cannot cross.

Neobe's approach is to turn harmless strains of common bacteria into programmable living medicines. Once injected, they travel to tumours and release enzymes that dissolve the matrix, letting immune cells or other drugs get in and attack the cancer cells.

Early data

In a 2026 paper in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, Neobe worked with researchers at the University of Cyprus and Barts Cancer Institute to test the platform in a model of triple-negative breast cancer that did not respond to a common combination of immunotherapy drugs. The company says a single dose of engineered bacteria produced complete tumour regression in one of the models tested. When the same cancer was introduced months later, no new tumours developed, which suggests a lasting immune memory.

What comes next

The funding will carry lead programme NEO22 through preclinical studies to an IND filing in 2028 and help strengthen the leadership team. Neobe has recently appointed immuno-oncology expert Dr. Laura Chow as Chief Medical Officer to oversee clinical development towards a first-in-human trial, which will be funded by an additional tranche of the Seed round.

"Several treatments that can cure cancer already exist, but in far too many patients they simply cannot get to where they are needed," said co-founder and CEO Dr. Pedro Correa de Sampaio. Founded in 2021 by him and Dr. Annelise Soulier, Neobe is based at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst.

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Tags:neobe therapeuticsseed roundcancersynthetic biologyarc ventureslondon

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