Mi­cro­bio­me up­start Vedan­ta teams up with NYU Lan­gone sci­en­tist on check­point drugs

Aca­d­e­m­ic col­lab­o­ra­tions have been cen­tral to the de­vel­op­ment of new im­muno-on­col­o­gy drugs. And now the mi­cro­bio­me start­up Vedan­ta Bio­sciences is fol­low­ing the same sci­en­tif­ic trail in ad­vanc­ing a new set of ther­a­pies that could one day play a role in the hot check­point in­hibitor field.

Build­ing on the work of Vedan­ta sci­en­tif­ic co­founder Kenya Hon­da at Keio Uni­ver­si­ty, the biotech will work with a team of in­ves­ti­ga­tors head­ed by Jef­frey S. We­ber, M.D., Ph.D., deputy di­rec­tor of the Lau­ra and Isaac Perl­mut­ter Can­cer Cen­ter at NYU Lan­gone Med­ical Cen­ter. They’ll fo­cus on bac­te­r­i­al strains that have shown signs of ac­ti­vat­ing im­mune cells in the gut to amp up the ef­fi­ca­cy of check­points like Op­di­vo and Keytru­da, which have roiled the on­col­o­gy drug mar­ket.

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