News
Neobe raises $6.8 million to break down the barriers that stop cancer treatments from working
November 10, 2026 · Oana Modorcea
Neobe has secured a seed round of US$6.8 million (£5 million) to accelerate the development of engineered bacteria that break down the physical barriers preventing cancer drugs entering into solid tumours and killing cancer cells.
The round is led by ARC Ventures with participation from Faber, Macmillan Ventures, the venture investment arm of Macmillan Cancer Support, Proven Connect, and Empirical Ventures, as well as follow-on investment from pre-seed investors 2048 Ventures. This brings the company's total funding to date to more than $10.5 million (£7.9 million).
Immunotherapy and other new drugs have transformed cancer treatment, but they don't work for all patients. The reason for these failures is often physical rather than biological: a dense, fibrous matrix around the tumour creating a wall that immune cells and cancer drugs simply cannot cross.
Neobe's solution is to engineer harmless strains of common bacteria into programmable living medicines. Once injected, they travel specifically to tumours and release enzymes that dissolve the surrounding matrix, effectively breaking through the wall and allowing immune cells or other drugs to enter and eliminate the cancer cells.
The idea of using pathogenic bacteria to treat cancer dates back to the early 20th century. But, until now, nobody has been able to engineer harmless bacteria to safely home in on tumours and break down these barriers to infiltration and help cancer treatments become more effective.
In a 2026 paper published in the journal in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics,* Neobe collaborated with researchers at the University of Cyprus and Barts Cancer Institute in London to test the effect of their engineered bacterial platform technology on a model of triple negative breast cancer that did not respond to a common cocktail of immunotherapy drugs.
The team found that a single dose of engineered bacteria produced complete tumour regression in response to the same treatment in one of the models tested. When tested with the same cancer months later no further tumours developed, suggesting that a lasting cancer-fighting immune memory had formed.
This funding will enable Neobe to take their lead programme NEO22 through preclinical studies to an IND filing in 2028, and enhance the leadership team as the company moves towards the clinic.
The company has recently appointed internationally recognised immuno-oncology leader Dr Laura Chow as Chief Medical Officer, to oversee clinical development towards a first in human trial, which will be funded by an additional tranche on the current seed round.
Dr Pedro Correa de Sampaio, co-founder and CEO, Neobe Therapeutics, said, "Several treatments that can cure cancer already exist, but in far too many patients they simply cannot get to where they are needed. I'm delighted to be working with investors that share our vision of making untreatable cancers curable, and excited to move our platform towards clinical trials."
