NC-XILIS
8.7.2021 14:02:05 CEST | Business Wire | Press release
Xilis, Inc., a pioneering company using its MicroOrganoSphere (MOS) technology to guide precision therapy for cancer patients and accelerate drug discovery and development, today announced the close of a $70 million Series A financing. The round was led by Mubadala Capital, joined by new investors including GV (formerly Google Ventures), LSP (one of Europe’s largest healthcare investment firms), Catalio Capital Management, and Duke Angel Network. Current investors Felicis Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Pear VC, KdT Ventures, and Alix Ventures also participated.
Founded in 2019 by Dr. Xiling Shen, Dr. David Hsu, and Dr. Hans Clevers, Xilis is based on decades of biomedical, oncology, and stem cell research by its three co-founders. Dr. Clevers, a Breakthrough Prize winner, is the inventor and pioneer of the organoid technology. Dr. Shen and Dr. Hsu are accomplished engineering and medical professors at Duke University and experts in precision medicine. They have developed the scalable MOS technology to analyze patients’ own tumors in their native microenvironment – a breakthrough achievement.
“Our vision is to transform cancer care in diagnostics and reshape drug development by providing a technology for rapid therapeutic profiling,” said Xiling Shen, PhD, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xilis. “The support provided by these world-class investors is an important milestone for our journey to transform cancer care and dramatically improve patient survival by enabling personalized precision oncology and bringing transformative medicines to patients faster and with higher success rates,” added Dr. Shen.
Hans Clevers, MD, PhD, Scientific Co-Founder, venture partner at LSP and Principal Investigator at the Hubrecht Institute, Netherlands, stated, “Since my lab invented organoids a dozen years ago, we provided proof-of-concept for many applications, yet the technology remained slow, complex, and expensive. Together with LSP, I have been looking for enabling technology to unlock the full potential, and Dr. Shen and Dr. Hsu’s invention of the MOS technology has torn down those hurdles and will accelerate its use both in the clinic and for drug discovery and development.”
Xilis’ MOS has been proven to have broad applications:
- Leveraging MOS and AI-driven algorithms, Xilis is developing its Precision Oncology Platform to accurately predict therapeutic responses to help clinicians prioritize cancer treatment strategies for each patient. The entire process from patient biopsy to results takes less than two weeks, enabling extensive clinical application.
- The MOS technology enables high-fidelity pharmaceutical drug discovery and development. Drug developers can use this versatile platform at multiple stages of R&D, including early discovery, preclinical toxicity and efficacy, bioanalytical testing, and clinical trials.
- MOS is a revolutionary technology for immunotherapy development, which requires the patient’s immune microenvironment.
Proceeds from the Series A funding will further advance Xilis’ proprietary MOS technology, expand its AI-driven capabilities, fund clinical studies for diagnostic development, and validate the use of MOS technology with biopharma partners.
“There is a critical need for technologies that can help clinicians determine the most optimal therapy for their individual patients,” Mubadala Capital’s Ayman AlAbdallah added. “Patients will benefit greatly from Xilis’ precision medicine assays by avoiding time spent on treatment cycles that are ineffective, and instead, receive therapies with the greatest potential of success quickly and efficiently. The Xilis Precision Oncology Platform is a cost-effective, outcomes-driven advancement that will help reduce the global burden of oncology costs.”
“Genetic approaches to cancer diagnostics continue to be impactful, and Xilis is creating meaningful pathways for its Precision Oncology Platform to improve cancer care for a broader set of patients,” said GV Managing Partner Krishna Yeshwant, MD, MBA. “Xilis brings together experts in the fields of organoid development and precision medicine, and I’m excited to work with this impressive team as they continue to develop a breakthrough approach.”
About Xilis
Based in Durham, North Carolina, Xilis, Inc. is a biotechnology company developing a precision oncology platform that guides treatment decisions for oncologists to improve cancer care outcomes for patients and supports drug discovery and development for pharmaceutical companies. Xilis’ proprietary MicroOrganoSphere™ (MOS) technology consists of miniature patient tumors that capture the full microenvironment and heterogeneity and provides an automated and scalable solution. Using MOS and AI-driven algorithms, Xilis is developing a Xilis Response Score™ for the clinic, enabling oncologists to make informed and timely treatment decisions. Additionally, the MOS technology is speeding up development and clinical trials of cancer drugs by enabling analysis of authentic tumor microenvironments, high-throughput preclinical modeling, and clinical patient selection capabilities.
About Mubadala Capital
Mubadala Capital is the asset management arm of Mubadala Investment Company, a leading global sovereign investor headquartered in Abu Dhabi. In addition to managing its own balance sheet investments, Mubadala Capital manages third-party capital on behalf of institutional investors in four of its businesses, including three private equity funds, two early stage venture funds, a public fund and a fund in Brazil focused on special situations. The various businesses invest across the capital structure in both public and private securities.
To learn more about Xilis, visit our website at www.Xilis.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn .
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210708005283/en/
Link:
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Worldwide First: Biedermann Motech Further Expands its MOSS!MODULARITY Platform with the Addition of MOSS EOS for Early Onset Scoliosis Surgery5.10.2026 11:00:00 CEST | Press release
Biedermann Motech, the prominent innovator in next generation spinal and extremity implant systems and procedural solutions, today announced the selective market introduction of the MOSS EOS® System for the treatment of children with severe early onset scoliosis.1 This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261005092768/en/ Early Onset Scoliosis is a rare pediatric disease where in certain cases surgical intervention can be indicated.2 Breaking new ground, Biedermann Motech will now introduce the world’s first MOSS EOS System featuring MOSS!MODULARITY™ to selective markets outside the U.S. The MOSS EOS System encompasses a modular platform of products and technologies for growth friendly pediatric spinal deformity surgery. Prof. Dr. Heiko Koller from Germany, one of the innovators behind the MOSS EOS System, carried out the first surgeries. His feedback was that the versatility of the system offers surgeons a broad range
LTM Launches BlueVerse™ AgenTraceIQ5.10.2026 10:30:00 CEST | Press release
Offering stems from Rubrik’s Project Hourglass, an alliance helping organizations scale agentic AI securely LTM, the Business Creativity partner to the world's largest enterprises, today announced the launch of BlueVerse™ AgenTraceIQ, an offering designed to help organizations securely adopt and scale agentic AI. Combining Rubrik Agent Cloud with LTM's AI governance and managed services expertise, the offering enables organizations to monitor AI agents, establish guardrails, and rewind unintended agent actions across business-critical environments. Aspart of Rubrik’s Project Hourglass, LTM and other elite Global Systems Integrators partner with Rubrik, the Security and AI Operations Company, to deliver Rubrik Agent Cloud for Anthropic's Claude Code to their enterprise clients. The collaboration strengthens the ability for organizations to adopt agentic systems with the necessary security, governance, and resilience at scale. "As AI agents increasingly act autonomously, the stakes for e
Logistics Reply Introduces the LEA AI Agent Authority Model - Bringing Governed Agentic AI Into Warehouse Execution With LEA Dynamic Intelligence5.10.2026 10:00:00 CEST | Press release
Logistics Reply, the Reply group company specializing in innovative solutions for supply chain execution and warehouse management, today unveiled the LEA AI Agent Authority Model, a new practical framework delivered alongside LEA Reply Dynamic Intelligence, enabling organizations to deploy AI agents with the right authority for each task—not maximum autonomy. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261005360127/en/ Logistics Reply introduces the LEA AI Agent Authority Model, a new practical framework delivered alongside LEA Reply Dynamic Intelligence, enabling organizations to deploy AI agents with the right authority for each task—not maximum autonomy. As AI moves from assistance into live warehouse execution, organizations need a governed way to decide how much authority agents should have in each operational context. Without clear criteria, adoption can stall or place additional risk on operational teams. The aim i
Technology Innovation Institute Completes Asteroid-Landing Probe for Landmark Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt5.10.2026 09:42:00 CEST | Press release
In a first-of-its-kind mission, TII’s probe aboard the MBR Explorer will journey past six asteroids in the main belt before landing on 269 Justitia, making it only the seventh asteroid in history to be reached on its surface by a probeDesigned, built and tested in Abu Dhabi, TII’s probe is the mission’s only deployable payload, operating fully autonomously around and on JustitiaThought to have formed in the distant Kuiper Belt in the outer Solar System, 269 Justitia may preserve clues to how water and organic material were distributed during the formation of the planetsWatch the EMA hero film here The Technology Innovation Institute (TII) has revealed the UAE-built probe it has developed for the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA). The probe will soon travel to Colorado, USA, for final integration with the MBR Explorer spacecraft ahead of its planned 2028 launch. In a historic first, TII’s probe will image two planets and seven asteroids — flying past six asteroids in the main
JEOL: Sales launch of HAXIS: The New Low-angle Ion Milling Scanning Electron Microscope5.10.2026 09:30:00 CEST | Press release
JEOL Ltd. (President & CEO Izumi Oi) announces the development of its new low‑angle ion‑milling scanning electron microscope, HAXIS, and will commence sales on October 5, 2026. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260928207899/en/ HAXIS Low-angle Ion Milling Scanning Electron Microscope HAXIS Low-angle Ion Milling Scanning Electron Microscope Background of development As advanced semiconductor device structures continue to shrink and grow more complex, it has become difficult to contact and measure microscale circuits using nano-manipulators. In addition, contact caused by probing may affect the analysis target, necessitating new failure analysis methods. JEOL has conducted long-term research on the passive voltage contrast (PVC) detection technology and established a method for stable, highly reproducible PVC observation technology through the advancement of detectors and sample preparation techniques. HAXIS is JE
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom