On April 2, 2020 Calviri, Inc., a biotech startup spun out of Arizona State University Biodesign Institute, focused on ending deaths from cancer, reported the closing of $2.25 million in seed round funding (Press release, Calviri, APR 2, 2020, View Source [SID1234556111]). The funding is from five private investors including Dr. Jacque Sokolov, a Calviri Board member, and Dr. Mitzi Krockover.
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Calviri was founded based on the discovery that tumors make frequent and recurrent errors in RNA transcription and processing that create highly immunogenic frameshift peptides (FSPs). Calviri has developed a manufacturing process that displays >400,000 FSPs on microchips; this enables patients’ blood to be simply screened for anti-FSP antibodies. This process is the basis for the design of off-the-shelf vaccines for any cancer, as well as diagnostics for the early detection of any cancer. Calviri holds exclusive rights, licensed from Skysong, to the diagnostic technology developed by the Biodesign Center at ASU.
Kathryn Sykes, VP of Research and Product Development, stated, "We will use the funding to demonstrate the strengths of this unique technology. We anticipate demonstrating an accurate predictive diagnostic for response to checkpoint inhibitors and a high sensitivity test for the early detection of breast and colon cancers."
Stephen Albert Johnston, CEO and founder, announced, "This funding is a vote of confidence for our ambitious goals. It comes at a time that will allow Calviri to meet some important valuation inflection milestones for both the diagnostics and vaccines."