Engineered Virus Company with Harvard Origins Raises $55 Million in Series A Round
Posted on 01/23/2022
Viral vectors are engineered viruses that deliver a genetic payload to cells and are a critical component of most cell and gene therapies. This process can be performed inside a living organism or in cell culture. The biotech industry has poured billions of dollars into the expansion of vector manufacturing facilities in recent years. However, one of the biggest inefficiencies is that many cell lines used for vector production are not optimized for the task, resulting in poor manufacturing yield and quality. Engineering purpose-built cell lines is essential to solving the manufacturing bottleneck.
64x Bio is a San Francisco-based genome engineering platform developer. The company emerged from stealth mode and has its proprietary VectorSelect platform and vision for the company. Viruses are a product of cellular gene expression. Using novel high throughput genome engineering and screening technologies in a design loop with computational tools, 64x Bio is developing new ways of generating highly optimized and otherwise unattainable cell lines for the manufacturing of viral vectors, with a specific focus on those used for cell and gene therapies. The novel approach developed by founders at Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University promises to bring more cell and gene therapies to patients.
Spun out of Harvard’s Wyss Institute by Alexis “Lex” Rovner, a former postdoctoral fellow in George Church’s lab, 64x was accepted into Y Combinator, and featured a top 10 startup on Demo Day. 64x Bio ultimately closed a US$ 4.5 million seed round led by First Round Capital, Fifty Years, and Refactor Capital.
In January 2022, 64x Bio raised US$ 55 million in Series A funding led by Lifeforce Capital and was joined by investors including Northpond Ventures, former Aldevron CEO Michael Chambers, Future Ventures, and First Round Capital.
