The Venture Leader Biotech developing bacteria-based therapy to treat cancer – Venturelab

This fall, the Venture Leaders Biotech will represent Swiss innovation in the United States. To select the 10 featured startups, a jury of professional investors and medtech experts reviewed 90 applications. These startups improve diagnostics, treatments, and well-being with innovative solutions that cover artificial intelligence, sensors, smart devices, and robotics. Allow us to introduce you to each of the Venture Leaders Biotech 2022 ahead of the September 2022 roadshow in Boston and Cambridge: Meet Ana Montalban-Arques, the CEO of Recolony.

Name: Ana Montalban-Arques

Location: Zurich

Nationality: Spanish

Graduated from: Medical University of Graz, Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine, 2016

Job title: CEO

Number of employees: 3

Money raised: CHF 8 million

First touchpoint with Venturelab: Venture Kick in 2022

Explain what your startup does and why: We are developing a bacteria-based therapy for the treatment of cancer, with a particular focus on colorectal cancer

 

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?

That happened during my postdoc at the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Hospital Zurich, which I started in July 2018. After approximately one and a half years of research and successful results using commensal gut bacterial strains to treat solid tumors in mouse models, we thought that we could translate those findings into a novel therapeutic option for cancer patients.

 

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?

Microbiome-based solutions for the treatment of different diseases are more advanced in the US market, which makes it a very important market for us. Moreover, the FDA has developed some guidelines for the regulatory pathway, which is still not well defined for live biotherapeutic products (LBPs). This facilitates the development of LBPs in the US in comparison with the EMA in Europe, which is more conservative with these novel approaches. Therefore, I think it is a great opportunity for Recolony to reach investors in the USA and KOLs in the field of oncology and LBPs.

 

Who does your product or solution help, and how? 

We have identified several gut bacterial strains drastically reduced in colorectal cancer patients compared to healthy individuals. Our idea is therefore to give those patients back what they are lacking in order to treat colorectal cancer. Using mouse cancer models, we saw a tremendous immune response against the tumors when those mice received a mix of two commensal bacterial strains orally. We found that the mechanism of action works through a bacterial metabolite that activates immune cells, which is the reason why we can treat tumors that are not in direct contact with the gut. In fact, we validated our results in other solid tumor models including melanoma, breast cancer, and lung cancer models.

 

What are you most excited about at work right now? 

What is most exciting for me at this moment is building up the team at Recolony. We have recently incorporated our company and now is time to start growing. It is very rewarding to see that many other people share our excitement and willingness to bring our bacteria-based cancer therapy forward, be it advisors, collaborators, investors, or applicants that want to join our team. I am convinced that we will build a highly motivated and strong team that shares the goal of developing a groundbreaking therapy to maximize the patients’ benefits in terms of efficacy and safety.

 

How did you build your team?

During my postdoctoral project, I was always performing experiments with the help of Egle and Philipp, with whom I also used to discuss the results in deep, the challenges of the project, and the opportunities of this therapeutic approach. We always enjoyed working together and understand each other very well. That is why, when they were about to finish their PhDs, I proposed they join the team and build up Recolony together. I knew that Egle is very excited about doing science and thinking in a scientific way; while Philipp enjoys the business side, thinking big, and has bold ideas for the development of the company. I saw a lot and unique talent in both of them and I wanted to keep that talent at Recolony.

 

Which market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup?

The main target market we are addressing is the colorectal cancer therapeutics market. We know that current therapies are either not effective enough or present severe side effects. For example, immunotherapy based on immune checkpoint inhibitors, are efficient only in 4-5% of colorectal cancer patients. Therefore, the standard of care is still chemotherapy, which has severe side effects and regularly fails in treating advanced colorectal cancer. We are convinced that we can improve the safety and efficacy of colorectal cancer therapy with our novel treatment. Furthermore, since we saw anti-tumor efficacy in preclinical in vivo models of melanoma, breast cancer, and lung cancer, we aim to expand our target market to other types of solid tumors.

 

What are your key achievements to date? 

Among our key achievements, we can highlight that we are the only ones that have shown anti-tumor efficacy in vivo with a treatment that exclusively consists of commensal bacteria. Moreover, these selected bacterial strains have shown efficacy in vivo, not only in several models of colorectal cancer but also in melanoma, breast cancer, and lung cancer models. Furthermore, we have identified the mechanism of action of our bacterial strains, in contrast to most of our competitors in the microbiome field. 

What is one thing not many people know about you?

I am a very organized person and I like keeping everything in boxes that have a specific place at home and I love the boxes themselves. The problem is that normally only I know what is stored in which box. 

What is your favorite book and why?

My favorite book is Missing Microbes by Martin Blaser. I read that book several years ago when I was already working in host-microbial relationships for about 5 years. That book made me even more aware of the importance that microbes have in our lives and how essential they are for our health. That book explains in an uncomplicated way how the overuse of antibiotics has led to severe modern medical conditions, including diabetes, obesity, food allergies, asthma, and even certain types of cancer.

How did you come up with the name of your startup? 

Recolony popped up as a wordplay. Our aim is to recolonize the colon with bacteria, which typically grow in colonies. So, we were able to include in one word the goal of our company.

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a founder is to being able to translate my research results into a reality for cancer patients and doing it from scratch. It is a long and challenging journey, but the learning and the experiences you get along the way are priceless.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?

The most important lesson I have learned as a founder is the importance to have a strong core team that is well aligned to fulfill the mission and set the strategy of the company.

The Venture Leaders Biotech program is co-organized by Venturelab and Swissnex Boston and supported by Debiopharm, EPFL Lausanne, ETH Zurich, EY – Ernst & Young, Swiss Biotech Association, VISCHER, Hansjörg Wyss, and Venture Leaders alum Ulf Grawunder.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer and the second leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. In advanced stages, 5-year-survival rates are below 15%. Based on human CRC patie… Read more