More well thought out work can be found at — https://axial.substack.com/
Who leads Novome?
Novome is led by Blake Wise (CEO) with the founders being Liz Shepherd, Will DeLoache, Weston Whitaker, and Zachary Russ. Blake is the former CEO of Achaogen (a great case study on the current status of antibiotic businesses), and the founders were graduate students from Stanford and UC Berkeley. The idea originated out of research in the Sonnenburg Lab at Stanford developing new tools to engineer Bacteroides in the microbiome.
What does Novome do?
Novome develops engineered microbial therapeutics what they call genetically engineered microbial medicines (GEMMs). The premise is to produce microbes that can colonize the human gut through oral delivery and be precisely controlled. With this platform, Novome focuses on one of the most abundant strains in the microbiome, Bacteroides, and programs them to perform key functions to treat diseases with mapped out mechanisms-of-action.
The first indication they are pursuing is secondary hyperoxaluria (excessive secretion of oxalate; Allena is a competitor here), which ultimately leads to kidney stones. This disease is well-understood, without an approved medicine, and has a strong connection to the microbiome — something many of microbial therapeutics lack. Novomes GEMM colonizes the gut then breaks down oxalate to reduce the symptoms of hyperoxaluria. The company is completing IND-enabling studies…
