Microbiome startup sells assets, goes dark: Federation Bio sold some of its assets and erased its website three years since emerging with $50 million. Kanvas Biosciences, another microbiome startup, said Wednesday that it bought two of Federation’s investigational therapeutics, a microbial library and other IP. It also gained access to a cell banking operation in South San Francisco and poached Federation’s science chief Lee Swem, naming him chief development officer. Venrock, Horizons Ventures and other firms had bankrolled Federation’s plans to take gut bacteria and poop to make therapies for inflammatory bowel disease, a rare metabolic disorder known as enteric hyperoxaluria and cancer patients who don’t benefit from certain immunotherapies. — Kyle LaHucik
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