Seres, MD Anderson, Parker in microbiome immunotherapy deal

Seres Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRB) partnered with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy to evaluate the potential of Seres' microbiome candidate therapy SER-401 to improve melanoma patients' response to checkpoint inhibitors.

Interest in the microbiome’s influence on cancer immunotherapy has been growing following the publication of animal studies in 2015 that showed specific bacteria could enhance the activity of checkpoint inhibitors (see BioCentury Innovations, Dec. 3, 2015)...