NEW YORK, July 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ancilia Biosciences, Inc., (Ancilia Bio), a biotechnology company harnessing the natural power of CRISPR to create bacterial therapies and products with immunity against destructive viruses, today announced the closing of a $4.2 million financing. The financing was led by Safar Partners, with the participation of Metaplanet, Psymed Ventures, Zubi Capital, Spacecadet Ventures and other institutional and private investors. While best known for its gene editing applications, CRISPR-Cas evolved in bacteria as their native immune system against viruses. Ancilia's proprietary technologies leverage the natural function of CRISPR to produce a new class of bacterial therapies and products with immunity against these viruses that can limit their effectiveness. Ancilia's core technologies are based on the pioneering work of co-founder Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou, who established this natural function of CRISPR in bacteria and filed the first-ever CRISPR patent in 2004, and co-founder and chief technology officer David Paez-Espino, PhD, who has published more than 20 high impact papers in virology and bioinformatics and holds multiple patents in the field. Co-founder and chief executive officer Alexandra Sakatos, PhD, noted, "This financing underscores the novelty and potential utility of our technology. The interplay between viruses and bacteria is nature's oldest arms race, and we aim to give bacteria a leg up in this race by leveraging nature's first immune system – CRISPR-Cas. We are currently advancing our first therapeutic candidate towards clinical trials, and this funding will allow us to ...