#4.

Kaleido Biosciences lands $65M.  Kaleido is developing novel chemistries to unlock the power of the human microbiome, and has just emerged from stealth with an additional capital raise, for a total of $65 million in funds raised to date. The company also tapped biopharmaceutical expert Mike Bonney (exCEO of Cubist until acquired by Merck for $9.5B) as chairman and CEO.

As Kaleido observed, there is a growing body of evidence that the microbiome – trillions of microbes that live on and in our bodies – serves many functions that are essential to health. In many ways the microbiome operates as another human organ, metabolizing nutrients and interacting with other parts of the body through biochemical signals. While many chemistries in medicine today do harm to the microbiome, Kaleido aims to develop interventions that can enhance and protect these functions, targeting specific disease processes and improving general health.

Since its founding in 2015, Kaleido has generated more than 3,000 days of human data; advanced three lead products into FIM studies; demonstrated preclinical efficacy in an additional five indication areas and is on track to surpass 20 clinical studies in the next 18 months.