Artizan Biosciences Inc. has kept a low profile since its creation in 2016, quietly raising money and forging a path to finding a cure for certain diseases involving human intestinal microbiota. It stepped out Monday when it announced completion of a series A funding round totaling $12 million.

The funding allows the company to be in the clinic in about two years, to relocate its lab from Yale University in New Haven, Conn., to the city's Science Park, and to more than slightly double its staff size. The company has nine scientists on its payroll. Artizan's platform, IgA-SEQ, is used to identify the putative disease-driving bacteria in inflammatory bowel disease from the intestinal microbiota in humans with the goal of developing new and potentially curative treatments.

"We've achieved our early corporate goals. We've demonstrated there are disease-driving bacteria in the human gut and that we can identify those targets," Artizan's president and CEO, James Rosen, told BioWorld. "We have the data in preclinical models but we have not published any of it. It's still proprietary."

The data suggest, Rosen continued, that specific bacteria in the human gut cause disease and if certain strains from humans are put into Artizan's preclinical model, it can then produce spontaneous disease in animals. Those diseases include not only inflammatory bowel disease but also ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. It also targets microbiota-driven diseases such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, autoimmune disease and a variety of skin, lung, liver and central nervous system diseases.

"These bugs we've identified are bugs that are taken from human beings with that target disease. We have a cohort of 300 identified patients who have provided samples to us that we've analyzed and compared to healthy cohabitants, people who live with the person with the disease," Rosen said. "We also have 100 people in a sample database who are healthy and not related to anyone we've identified. We compare the microbiota of the healthy and compare it with those infected. Then we take the human bug and put it in the animal model to spontaneously produce that disease. When the animal gets sick, we can apply the therapy either to neutralize or eliminate the disease. Our target is a cure."

Paul Miller, a 30-year biopharma veteran, was also appointed chief scientific officer (CSO). Most recently Miller was CSO of Synlogic Inc. Previously, he was vice president of infection biology at Astrazeneca plc and led discovery teams at Pfizer Inc. that produced eight drug development candidates and provided research support for several successfully marketed antibiotics, including Zithromax (azithromycin) and Zyvox (linezolid). A trained microbial geneticist, Miller received his PhD in microbiology and immunology from the Albany Medical College and conducted post-doctoral studies at the NIH. He has also served as a member of the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Microbial Threats.

Artizan is a product of a research agreement with Yale University, where its founders, Richard Flavell, Noah Pal and Marcel R. de Zoete, worked to address diseases involving intestinal microbiota. The company has an exclusive license from Yale to apply the platform to drug development, Rosen said.

Investors in Artizan include Hatteras Venture Partners, Malin Investments, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC Inc., Osage University Partners and Elm Street Ventures. Artizan also entered a collaboration agreement with Brii Biosciences to commercialize in China up to three programs in the Artizan portfolio upon achievement of clinical proof of concept.

Rosen is after that proof of concept for a series B fundraising that is planned for later this year. As it stands, even with this series A money, it's not enough to sufficiently get the company into the clinic.

"It'll be plus or minus $30 million, allowing us to go through preclinical development," Rosen said.

Artizan isn't the only company in the gut game. Seres Therapeutics Inc.'s top-line results from its SER-287 phase Ib placebo-controlled induction study in 58 patients with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis showed the microbiome therapy containing a consortium of live bacterial spores resulted in a benefit in clinical remission rates. There was also an improvement in mucosal appearance by endoscopy. The SER-287 safety and tolerability profile, a co-primary study endpoint, demonstrated no clinically significant safety findings.

Second Genome Inc. is also studying the link between gut microbiome and irritable bowel disease as well as other metabolic disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.