Pulmobiotics announced raising €2,000,000 of seed financing from Barcelona-based Invivo Ventures

Pulmobiotics S.L., a Barcelona, Spain-based pre-clinical life sciences company using synthetic biology to develop new treatments and vaccines for various types of lung diseases, announced the completion of a €2,000,000 ($2.2M) of seed financing round.

The money was provided by Invivo Ventures, one of Spain’s leading biomedical venture capital firms.

Pulmobiotics, founded by Luis Serrano and Maria Lluch of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), develops novel treatments for lung infections like VAP, by engineering attenuated bacteria to deliver specific therapeutic agents, one of the most promising applications of the nascent field of synthetic biology. Engineered bacteria can ‘smartly’ deliver a precise amount of therapeutic molecules to the affected tissue, overcoming many of the limitations of current treatments. The company’s aim is to develop a product that reduces the use of antibiotics required to treat VAP and is ready to be tested in patients from 2023 onwards. 

Pulmobiotics is initially expected to use laboratory space at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) and collaborate with a network of Spanish and international partners and providers to develop its products.  

Founder and former CRG researcher Maria Lluch will be the Chief Scientific Officer, with CRG Director Luis Serrano being placed as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board. Claudio Santos, PhD, will step in as Chief Executive Officer while Lluís Pareras and Albert Ferrer, General Partners at Invivo Ventures, managed by Invivo Capital Partners, will join Pulmobiotics’ Board of Directors alongside Maria Lluch and Claudio Santos.