Health through Diversity
Our Mission
Our bodies play host to a spectacular constellation of microorganisms that impact virtually every aspect of human health. An emerging scientific understanding of the human microbiome is transforming our relationship with microbes – elevating them from menace to medicine as our understanding of their profound role in human physiology has come into focus.
No microbe is an island – the interconnected network of bacteria living in and on us interact with our bodies as part of dynamic microbial communities that collectively influence broad biological functions from metabolism to immunity to neurological health.
At Federation Bio, we design, discover, and develop robust communities of microbes that improve the human condition.
Our Platform
Better Together
Our medicines are built to last. Whereas single-strain probiotics and therapeutics seldom persist in the body, our therapeutic consortia are instead designed for stable engraftment to durably counteract chronic diseases with lasting benefit. Our communities are composed of rationally-selected bacterial strains whose collective diversity rivals that of natural gut microbiomes. These curated “all-star” gut microbiotas form stable ecosystems and collectively function to combat dysbiosis and disease.
Microbial Immunotherapy
T cell therapies have revolutionized medicine and yet are limited by their reliance on patient-specific cell retrieval and the potential for immune rejection. Unique strains of human-associated bacteria have the ability to potently and precisely modulate their host’s T cell repertoire and, in contrast to mammalian immune cells, are able to live persistently in a very broad range of individuals. We are genetically modifying these unique bacteria to modulate endogenous T cell responses to target diverse conditions including cancer and autoimmune disease.
Our Approach
The Federation Bio approach combines a broad array of beneficial microbes into highly diverse consortia optimized for indication-specific potency. These metabolically comprehensive communities are designed to stably engraft in patients to sustain a durable therapeutic effect. In some instances, we augment our consortia with specialized human microbiome strains that have been trained through genetic engineering to harness the power of the human immune system to reverse disease.
Pipeline
Living Therapeutics
Our pipeline focuses on diseases in which the human microbiome can play a curative role. Our proprietary commensal strain library comprises a legion of beneficial microbes from the healthy human microbiome that have been selected – and in some cases, engineered – to maximize therapeutic potential. These communities are designed, optimized, and assembled in a highly scalable way.
Our lead program is focused on enteric hyperoxaluria, a condition affecting over 200,000 patients in the United States. Individuals with enteric hyperoxaluria absorb an excess of oxalate, which is naturally found in the food we eat. Once absorbed, this oxalate must be filtered by the kidneys where it complexes with calcium to form kidney stones and leads to impaired renal function and, ultimately, accelerated end-stage renal disease. Federation Bio’s therapeutic approach leverages proprietary oxalate-degrading gut microbes along with a diverse community of prevalent commensal bacteria that support stable engraftment and enable durable elimination of oxalate.
We are actively exploring our approach in a range of other diseases, including metabolic disorders, immune diseases, and cancer.
Press
Careers
At Federation Bio, we believe that high-performing teams include people from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences who can challenge assumptions with fresh perspectives and bring creative ideas to the table. From the diversity of our microbes to the diversity of our people, we are committed to building an open, diverse, and inclusive environment for all employees.
Contact Us
Our Team
Lee Swem, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Andreas Grauer, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Jessie Richardson, J.D., Ph.D.
Chief Legal Officer
Joumana Zeid, MS, MBA
Vice President, Project Team Leadership and Portfolio Strategy
Kyle Jacoby, Ph.D.
Vice President, Research
Marguerite Prior, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Regulatory AffairsBoard of Directors
Racquel Bracken
Co-founder, Federation BioPartner, Venrock
Emily Drabant Conley, Ph.D.
CEO, Federation Bio
Michael Fischbach, Ph.D.
Co-founder, Federation BioAssociate Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford
Bryan Roberts, Ph.D.
Partner, Venrock
John Stuelpnagel, D.V.M., MBA
Co-founder and former CEO of IlluminaChairman of 10X Genomics, Ariosa & Inscripta
Patrick Zhang
Investor, Horizons VenturesInvestors
