Cancer immunotherapy & viral vectors · Glioblastoma
Kopra Bio
A UCSF spinout engineering a virus that turns brain tumor cells into local factories for an immune-stimulating protein. It has mouse data, a $9.1 million seed round, and a Phase I trial planned in China, but no FDA filing and no peer-reviewed publication.
A tumor that makes its own medicine
In a mouse model of glioblastoma called Tu2449, most treated mice saw their tumors disappear entirely, and long-term survival ran close to 90 percent. Untreated mice in the same experiment did not survive. When researchers later injected fresh tumor cells into the opposite side of treated mice's brains, the tumors did not take. Their immune systems had learned to recognize the cancer and rejected it.
That result, reported in a preprint posted to bioRxiv in October 2024 and updated in July 2025, is the foundation Kopra Bio is building on. The company's lead candidate, KB-516, is a replicating retrovirus engineered to infect only actively dividing cells, which in the brain means tumor cells rather than healthy tissue. Once inside, it does not burst the cell open the way a classic oncolytic virus does. It integrates into the cell's DNA and turns the cell into a small factory that secretes RLI, an engineered superagonist form of the immune-signaling protein interleukin-15. The company calls the platform InViTE, for In Vivo Tumor Editing.
Why glioblastoma resists everything
Glioblastoma is the most common and most lethal cancer that starts in the brain, with roughly 14,000 to 15,000 new US diagnoses a year. Median survival with the standard of care, surgery followed by radiation and the chemotherapy drug temozolomide, is 10 to 15 months, unchanged since a landmark 2005 trial. Fewer than one in ten patients live five years.
Checkpoint inhibitors, the immunotherapy class that transformed melanoma and lung cancer treatment, have not worked in glioblastoma across multiple Phase III trials. The tumor suppresses the immune system locally: it keeps T cells out, presents few of the markers T cells need to recognize it, and surrounds itself with cells that calm immune activity rather than provoke it. Kopra Bio's bet is that making the tumor manufacture an immune-activating signal from the inside brings that wall down without the toxicity of dosing a patient's whole body with a cytokine like interleukin-15, which at brain-penetrant doses can cause dangerous systemic effects, including cytokine storm.
Two founders, a shared lab
Andrew Bartynski holds a PhD and is a repeat Y Combinator founder. He was COO of YourChoice Therapeutics, developer of a non-hormonal male contraceptive pill, and before that COO of ANA Therapeutics, a COVID-19 antiviral company he says moved from founding to a Phase II/III trial in under six months and was acquired within a year. NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals announced that acquisition in January 2021. He also worked at the Alexander Shulgin Research Institute on next-generation psychedelics.
Dr. Alexander Haddad is the scientific cofounder, a UCSF neurosurgery resident with more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and the Krevans Award for clinical excellence at San Francisco General Hospital. He helped develop the platform in the UCSF labs of neurosurgeon Dr. Manish Aghi and virologist Dr. Noriyuki Kasahara, both listed as scientific cofounders on the company's Y Combinator page. Kasahara is also chief scientific officer at 4D Molecular Therapeutics, where fellow cofounder Dr. Sara Collins directs gene therapy vector work. The bioRxiv preprint's competing interest statement lists Aghi, Kasahara, Haddad and Collins as cofounders of or consultants to Kopra Bio.
In January 2025, the company won a $100,000 proof-of-concept award from QB3, the University of California's biotech mentor network, after pitching its early-stage mentor group in December 2024. QB3 paired the founders with mentor Melissa Kotterman, an entrepreneur who has held leadership roles at Ignite Immunotherapy and 4D Molecular Therapeutics. “Melissa has been instrumental in helping us plan our next steps, from viral manufacturing to preparing for clinical trials,” Haddad said in QB3's announcement.
From a lab bench to a clinical plan
Kopra Bio went through Y Combinator's Summer 2024 batch, then spent 2025 stacking institutional relationships rather than announcing large checks. In October 2025 it signed a memorandum of understanding with King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Riyadh to explore a Phase 1/2a trial of KB-516 in recurrent glioblastoma in Saudi Arabia, structured around in-kind contributions for equity. In December 2025, Charles River Laboratories named Kopra Bio to the second cohort of its Cell and Gene Therapy Incubator Program, giving it access to the contract research giant's manufacturing and regulatory expertise.
The capital came in June 2026: a $9.1 million seed round co-led by Boutique Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, reported first by Endpoints News and covered by Tech Times and Dealroom. The company says the money will fund a first-in-human Phase I trial for KB-516 through China's National Medical Products Administration rather than the FDA. China's regulator introduced a 30-day review pathway for eligible drugs in October 2025, and its treatment-naive patient population can enroll faster than US sites, a useful trade for a company with seed-stage capital rather than the tens of millions a US Phase I program typically needs.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Preclinical efficacy | bioRxiv preprint (Haddad, Saha et al, first posted Oct 14, 2024, version 4 Jul 13, 2025). In the Tu2449 mouse glioblastoma model, most treated mice achieved long-term remission and rejected a repeat tumor injection. In the more resistant SB28 model, median survival rose from about 19 days to 55 days, with 12 percent long-term survivors. | Public record |
| Peer review status | Independent reporting states the preprint has not completed peer review in a journal as of mid-2026. | Not found |
| "Oncolytic virus" label | Much coverage, including the company's own Y Combinator listing and aggregator descriptions, calls KB-516 an oncolytic virus. Independent technical reporting states it is a non-lytic replicating retrovirus that does not destroy the cells it infects, the opposite mechanism of a classic oncolytic virus. | Differs from the record |
| Regulatory status | No FDA filing for KB-516 located. The company plans its first human trial through China's NMPA rather than an FDA investigational new drug application. | Not found |
| Clinical trial in China | Described by independent press as planned as of June 2026; no registry entry for a Kopra Bio or KB-516 trial was found. | Company-stated |
| Saudi Arabia collaboration | Memorandum of understanding with King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, signed Oct 30, 2025, to explore a Phase 1/2a trial in recurrent glioblastoma. An MOU is a statement of intent, not a signed trial agreement or a funding commitment. | Independent |
| "Next Keytruda" framing | The company compares its ambition to Keytruda, a $25 billion a year cancer drug, on its Y Combinator listing. A stated aspiration, not a clinically supported claim. | Company-stated |
Read plainly: the mouse data is real, published as a preprint, and includes a striking immune memory result. It has not cleared peer review, has not been tested in another species, and the planned first human study will happen outside FDA oversight. How KB-516 performs in a person, starting with basic safety, is still ahead of the company.
What to watch
- Whether the China Phase I trial actually opens and what dosing data it produces.
- Whether the King Faisal MOU converts into a funded, signed Saudi trial agreement.
- Peer-reviewed publication of the bioRxiv preprint.
- A US FDA investigational new drug filing, which the company has said the China data is meant to support.
In their words
“Melissa has been instrumental in helping us plan our next steps, from viral manufacturing to preparing for clinical trials.”
Alexander Haddad, MD, scientific cofounder, QB3 announcement, Jan 2025 · Independent
“It’s a pleasure working with Alex and Andrew.”
Melissa Kotterman, QB3 mentor, Jan 2025 · Independent
“There's no doubt cancer patients are waiting urgently for new therapies.”
Kaspar Mossman, managing director, QB3, Jan 2025 · Independent
“Kopra Bio’s in vivo tumor editing platform has already generated our first development candidate which we are advancing in an area of high unmet need, glioblastoma.”
Andrew Bartynski, PhD, founder and CEO, Charles River incubator announcement, Dec 2025 · Independent
“Charles River is the gold standard in the industry, and we look forward to partnering with them to accelerate our path to the clinic.”
Andrew Bartynski, PhD, founder and CEO, Charles River incubator announcement, Dec 2025 · Independent
“Cancer immunotherapy that turns cancer cells into biofactories minting their own destruction.”
Company tagline, kopra.bio · Company
“Using stealthy viruses, Kopra Bio infects cancer cells, spreads throughout tumors, and hijacks them to produce immune signals. The immune signals recruit T cells which then kill the cancer.”
Y Combinator launch post, 2024 · Company
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordNon-lytic replicating viral delivery of an IL15 superagonist enhances antitumor immunity and extends survival in glioblastoma, bioRxiv preprint 10.1101/2024.10.14.618095
- Public recordKopra Bio, Inc. business entity filing, document number 6345654
- IndependentGlioblastoma Treatment: UCSF Startup Turns Brain Tumors Into Immune Cell Factories
- IndependentExclusive: UCSF spinout nets $9.1M to test virus therapy for brain cancer in China
- IndependentKopra Bio raises $9.1M seed to test virus therapy in brain cancer
- IndependentKopra Bio Wins $100K Award from QB3 for Proof-of-Concept Development of Breakthrough Viral Therapy for Cancer
- IndependentCharles River Extends Commitment to Advanced Therapy Developers with Second Incubator Program Cohort
- IndependentKFSHRC and Kopra Bio Sign MoU to Accelerate Viral-Vector Oncology and Launch Glioblastoma Program in Saudi Arabia
- IndependentNeuroBo Pharmaceuticals Acquires ANA Therapeutics for Late-Stage Oral Antiviral Development Program
- IndependentKopra Bio company profile
- IndependentKopra Bio company profile
- IndependentKopra Bio, Inc. filing information
- CompanyKopra Bio company page
- CompanyLaunch YC: Kopra Bio, Making cancer cures using viral immunotherapy
- CompanyKopra Bio homepage
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
