On April 6, 2021, Volastra Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing novel therapies for the prevention and treatment of metastatic cancer, announced the extension of its original $12 million seed round to a total of $44 million. The funding supports the further build-out of Volastra’s technology platform, which exploits unique insights into chromosomal instability to rapidly identify and validate novel targets to block metastasis. In the U.S. alone, more than 350,000 people a year are diagnosed with metastatic cancer. Less than a third respond to targeted or immuno-therapies, making metastasis one of the most pressing unsolved challenges in cancer.

The WilmerHale team advising Volastra was led by Cynthia Mazareas and included Sam Rothberg and Jenna Weissman.