- Arizona State University biotechnology spinoff company Calviri announced it has raised $2.25 million
Calviri — a biotechnology company that spun out of the Arizona State University Biodesign Institute focused on ending deaths from cancer — announced that it has raised $2.25 will in a seed round of funding. The funding round was provided by five private investors including Dr. Jacque Sokolov (a Calviri Board member) and Dr. Mitzi Krockover.
Calviri’s technology is based on the discovery that tumors make frequent and recurrent errors in RNA transcription along with processing that create highly immunogenic frameshift peptides (FSPs). And Calviri has developed a manufacturing process that displays over 400,000 FSPs on microchips. This enables patients’ blood to be screened for anti-FSP antibodies.
And 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 the exclusive rights — licensed from Skysong — to the diagnostic technology developed by the Biodesign Center at ASU.
Skysong Innovations works with ASU researchers to protect and commercialize the intellectual property they create thus promoting the ASU research enterprise and enhancing the community ASU serves.
Key Quotes
“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.”
-Calviri VP of Research and Product Development Kathryn Sykes
“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.”
-Calviri CEO and founder Stephen Albert Johnston
