Microbiome firms in new partnerships

Evelo Biosciences and Epiva Biosciences, two-year-old microbiome companies launched by Flagship Ventures, have merged. Keeping the Evelo name, the new 42-person company is targeting cancer, autoimmune, and inflammatory disease therapies. To date, Flagship has invested $40 million in the business. Separately, Seres Therapeutics, a Flagship-backed microbiome therapeutics firm that went public in 2015, will collaborate with Emulate, a developer of organs-on-a-chip technology. They will advance an intestine-chip system that Seres plans to use.