Federation Bio

About Federation Bio

Federation Bio was a microbial therapeutics company established in 2019 by co-founders Michael Fischbach, Ph.D., and Dylan Dodd, M.D., Ph.D., based on their research at Stanford University. The company officially launched in October 2020 with a significant $50 million Series A financing round led by Horizons Ventures, with participation from Venrock, Altitude, and Seventure Partners/Health for Life Capital. This followed an initial seed round in 2018. The company appointed Emily Drabant Conley, Ph.D., previously a vice president at 23andMe, as its Chief Executive Officer upon its public launch.

The firm's core business was the development of live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) to address serious diseases where the human microbiome is believed to play a therapeutic role. Federation Bio operated on two main scientific platforms. The first was a community platform that assembled large, diverse, and rationally selected consortia of naturally occurring gut bacteria to create stable microbial communities capable of treating chronic diseases. The second platform involved genetically engineering bacteria to modulate immune system responses. This dual approach was designed to create more effective and durable treatments by using microbial communities with orders of magnitude more strains than many competing therapies.

The company's lead program, FB-001, was an investigational oral therapy consisting of 148 bacterial strains designed to treat secondary hyperoxaluria, a condition leading to recurrent kidney stones. Federation Bio had advanced this program to a Phase 1 clinical trial. In February 2023, the company announced a strategic collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to design and manufacture a synthetic microbial consortium aimed at improving immunotherapy responses in cancer patients. Despite these developments, Federation Bio ceased operations in 2023. In October 2023, Kanvas Biosciences acquired Federation Bio's two active therapeutic programs, its microbial library, manufacturing technology, and key intellectual property.