Cartography Biosciences

Cartography Biosciences is an oncology company based in South San Francisco, California, advancing a pipeline of T-cell-engaging bispecific and multi-specific antibody therapeutics directed at novel, highly tumor-specific antigens. The company was founded in 2020 by Stanford scientists Kevin Parker, Ansu Satpathy and Howard Chang, who observed that most new cancer therapies were built around a small set of broadly expressed targets, limiting both efficacy and safety. Its central premise is that better immunotherapies depend on higher-resolution target identification — finding antigens, or combinations of antigens, present on malignant cells but largely absent from healthy tissue.

The company operates two connected platforms. ATLAS is a curated, integrated dataset of single-cell RNA sequencing data spanning hundreds of thousands of cell states across thousands of healthy human cell types, combined with large-scale profiling of individual cells from patient tumors. SUMMIT applies machine learning and multi-omic analysis to those petabyte-scale datasets to identify single-protein antigens and antigen pairs that distinguish tumors from normal tissue. Discovery work pairs single-cell sequencing, spatial transcriptomics and high-throughput proteomics with automated sample preparation, sequencing and bioinformatics pipelines that feed directly into computational modeling.

The lead candidate, CBI-1214 (also referenced as CB21), is a T cell engager targeting LY6G6D and CD3. Company data indicate LY6G6D is enriched in microsatellite stable (MSS) and microsatellity instability-low (MSI-L) colorectal cancer, subtypes that respond poorly to existing immunotherapies. Preclinical work reported at AACR 2025 described dose-dependent tumor growth inhibition in endogenous LY6G6D-expressing xenograft models and a non-human primate PK/tolerability study in which exposures well above predicted clinical levels produced no significant cytokine release; an accelerated Phase 1 plan was outlined. Additional earlier-stage programs cover solid tumors and non-small cell lung cancer.

Founding story

Cartography Biosciences was founded by Kevin Parker, Ansu Satpathy and Howard Chang, academics from Stanford, who identified a gap in drug discovery: despite advances in genomics and biology, most new therapies continued to be built around the same broadly expressed targets, producing limited efficacy and safety. They began constructing proprietary single-cell atlases from human tissues to map healthy and tumor biology at large scale, and that discovery effort became the ATLAS and SUMMIT platforms.

Business model

Cartography develops its own pipeline of antibody-based oncology therapeutics discovered in-house, and also monetizes its discovery platforms through partnerships with larger pharmaceutical companies. In its 2024 Gilead Sciences collaboration, Cartography performs target discovery and validation while the partner takes responsibility for downstream development and commercialization, with Cartography receiving an upfront payment and eligibility for milestone and royalty payments on optioned targets.

Revenue to date has come from partnership economics rather than product sales: the Gilead Sciences collaboration provided a $20 million upfront payment with eligibility for milestone and royalty payments tied to each optioned target. Internal programs are pre-commercial.

Traction

Cartography has disclosed a $20 million upfront payment from its 2024 Gilead Sciences collaboration, a $67 million Series B in October 2025, preclinical and non-human primate data on its lead CD3 x LY6G6D T cell engager presented at AACR 2025 with an accelerated Phase 1 plan, and additional discovery-stage programs in solid tumors and non-small cell lung cancer. Third-party data listed the company at 10-50 employees as of May 2025.

Latest developments

In October 2025, Cartography raised $67 million in Series B funding led by Pfizer Ventures, with new investors LG Corp, Amgen Ventures, Finchley H.V., Global BioAccess Fund and Lotte Holdings CVC, and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Bio + Health, 8VC, Wing Venture Capital, Catalio Capital Management, AME Cloud Ventures, ARTIS Ventures and Gaingels. Michael Baran of Pfizer Ventures joined the Board of Directors in connection with the financing. Proceeds are directed to moving CBI-1214 into the clinic, scaling data infrastructure and accelerating additional programs from the ATLAS and SUMMIT platforms.