"Microbiome" has become a health and wellness buzzword, implicated as a contributing factor in conditions ranging from diabetes and obesity to gastrointestinal disease, autoimmune diseases and even autism. But the tools scientists use to cultivate bacteria have changed little over the past century, said Peter Christey, founder and CEO of San Carlos, Calif.-based startup General Automation Lab Technologies Inc. (GALT).

TORONTO – A total of $1.4 million in capital funding from 12 U.S., Canadian and European angel investors will help Toronto-based Cohesys Inc. complete preclinical animal studies, with an eye toward gaining approval for its nontoxic, adhesive tape for rebuilding facial bones.

HONG KONG – South Korean pharmaceutical company Chong Kun Dang Holdings recently invested KRW5 billion (US$4.1 million) in Biorchestra Co. Ltd., a Korean startup based in Daejeon that aims to develop Alzheimer’s dementia treatment based on microRNA.

DUBLIN – Abalos Therapeutics GmbH raised €12 million (US$13.2 million) in series A funding to advance a distinctive approach to harnessing viruses for immuno-oncology applications.

LONDON – Mogrify Ltd. raised $16 million in the first close of a series A that it expects to at least double before closing the round in the next 12 months.

LONDON – Mirobio Ltd. has spun out of Oxford University, raising £27 million (US$33.3 million) to develop antibody-based therapies designed to activate immune checkpoint receptors in the treatment of autoimmune disorders.

Zielbio Inc., of Charlottesville, Va., closed on a $25.1 million series A financing to further its lead candidate, ZB-131, a humanized monoclonal antibody against cell surface plectin, which is expressed on the plasma membrane of ovarian, pancreatic, lung and colorectal cancer cells.

LONDON – Tacalyx GmbH has raised €7 million (US$7.7 million) in seed funding to initiate research on a new generation of antibodies targeted at tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) expressed on a wide variety of tumor cells.

Versatope Therapeutics Inc., a company developing a universal influenza vaccine in Lowell, Mass., has been awarded a contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases worth up to $17.9 million over five years to support completion of a phase I study slated to wrap up in 2022.

PERTH, Australia – Stem cell therapy has failed to deliver on its promises, according to Exopharm Ltd. founder and CEO Ian Dixon, who said he believes that exosomes, or the extracellular vesicles released by stem cells, could be a disrupter in the regenerative medicine space.