to advance cancer diagnostic and drug discovery and development platform leveraging proprietary MicroOrganoSphere technology

• Xilis’ MicroOrganoSphere™ (MOS) technology generates thousands of miniature patient- derived tumors that capture the original heterogeneity and microenvironment for therapeutic profiling
• The company’s platform can deliver personalized precision treatment strategies for patients and accelerate drug discovery and development for pharmaceutical companies

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 8 July 2020 – LSP today announced that Xilis, Inc., a pioneering company using its MicroOrganoSphere™ (MOS) technology to guide precision therapy for cancer patients and accelerate drug discovery and development, closed a $70 million Series A financing, with new investors LSP (investing from its LSP 6 fund), Mubadala Capital, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Catalio Capital Management, and Duke Angel Network joining. 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 (Durham, US) 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, 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.

Dr. Hans Clevers, Scientific Co-Founder, venture partner at LSP and Principal Investigator at the Hubrecht Institute (Utrecht, The 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 Al-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 pharmaceutlical 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.