On April 6, 2023 Affini-T Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company unlocking the power of T cells against oncogenic driver mutations, reported that its Chief Scientific Officer, Loïc Vincent, Ph.D., reported that it will present data from the Company’s oncogenic driver program targeting KRAS G12D, at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2023 in Orlando, Florida, taking place April 14th – 19th (Press release, Affini-T Therapeutics, APR 6, 2023, View Source [SID1234629873]).

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Oral presentation details are as follows:

Session MS.CL07.01 – Immunotherapy: Sunday, April 16th from 3:52 pm – 4:07 pm ET: Preclinical development of safe and effective T cell receptors specific for mutant KRAS G12D peptide

On April 6, 2023 Lunaphore, a Swiss life sciences company developing technology to enable spatial biology in every laboratory, and abcam (NASDAQ: ABCM), a global life science company working together with researchers to advance science and enable faster breakthroughs, reported an agreement to co-market abcam primary antibodies specifically validated for use on Lunaphore’s COMET platform (Press release, Abcam, APR 6, 2023, View Source [SID1234629872]).

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The agreement will enable researchers to use abcam’s antibodies without conjugation directly on the COMET platform, with unparalleled scalability and reproducibility. By using validated primary antibodies together with the capabilities of COMET, researchers can accelerate assay development processes and achieve reliable results. The partnership also aims to address the reproducibility crisis in life sciences by providing trusted tools for multiplex immunofluorescence analysis.

Lunaphore recently expanded its offerings to become the first universal, end-to-end solution for spatial biology research. Lunaphore’s COMET is the only high-throughput, hyperplex platform ensuring scalability and reproducibility without the need to conjugate primary antibodies. It has a wide range of research applications across multiple disciplines and drug development stages, provides walk-away automation, and allows for the generation of highly robust and reproducible hyperplex data with full tissue preservation that answers the growing needs of translational research.

"This collaboration underscores the importance we place on using antibodies from trusted and proven vendors like abcam. We understand how important it is to the research community to use antibodies that they already know and rely on and be able to directly transfer and use them for multiplexing," said Déborah Heintze, Chief Marketing Officer at Lunaphore. "We are very proud to see how customers can already optimize and run new panels in days. Proposing validated abcam antibodies on COMET will help streamline and scale the researchers’ multiplexing capabilities even more."

"We’re excited to be partnering with Lunaphore to offer the life science community a library of primary antibodies validated for use with Lunaphore’s automated platform for hyperplex immunofluorescence analysis," said Courtney Nicholson, Vice President Business Development at abcam. "Spatial biology is truly revolutionizing our understanding of human health and disease, and we are pleased to be working together with Lunaphore to support researchers with the tools they need to further advance this promising new field."

Lunaphore and abcam will present novel data together in a poster at the upcoming American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2023, taking place April 14-19, highlighting shared research:

Automated multiplex immunofluorescence enables single cell analysis of tumor stroma
Poster #: 4616, Section 4
Date and time: April 18, 1:30 pm – 5:00 pm EST
Speaker: Dr. François Rivest, Application Development Team Leader, Lunaphore

About COMET

COMET is the only fully automated, high-throughput, hyperplex platform ensuring scalability and reproducibility without the need to conjugate primary antibodies. COMET provides walk-away automation, integrating staining, imaging, and image preprocessing steps to obtain standard hyperplex images. COMET generates highly robust and reproducible data with full tissue preservation, allowing researchers to perform downstream modalities such as H&E or transcriptomics using the same slide. Its superior tissue profiling capabilities facilitate the analysis of 40 different spatial markers in each automated run on a tissue slide. In contrast to other spatial biology solutions, COMET works with off-the-shelf, label-free primary antibodies, making panel design much more flexible and faster than any other hyperplex solution. COMET works with regular glass slides from standard histology workflows; it is validated for human and mouse samples and is compatible with any other animal sample. The platform can be used for a wide range of research applications, allowing for a dramatic improvement in the understanding of disease pathology. Orders of the new COMET version can be placed and will be available for shipment in the upcoming months. To learn more about the COMET platform, please visit: View Source

On April 6, 2023 Alpha Cancer Technologies Inc. (ACT), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing targeted immuno-oncology and immunomodulation therapies based on its proprietary recombinant human Alpha Fetoprotein (AFP) platform, reported the publication of pre-clinical study results in Cancer Cell International highlighting the company’s recombinant human AFP (ACT-101) conjugate with maytansine in mouse xenograft models of colorectal cancer (Press release, Alpha Cancer Technologies, APR 6, 2023, View Source [SID1234629871]). Results from the study demonstrate the exceptional safety profile and potent anti-tumor activity of multiple ACT-101 conjugates through the successful targeting of the alpha fetoprotein receptor uniquely located on cancerous cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs).

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The AFP receptor has been found on the surface of cancer cells and MDSCs exclusively, making it an attractive target for the delivery of toxins selectively to tumor cells and MDSCs. Human AFP acts as a shuttle protein, transporting a variety of molecules including targeted anti-cancer agents inside the cell via the AFP receptor. ACT-101 is a recombinantly produced non-glycosylated form of human AFP, which will carry and deliver maytansine and other chemotherapy payloads to tumor cells via the AFP receptor. The selection of maytansine was based on its prior efficacy in clinical studies when incorporated into ADCs.

The AFP receptor has emerged as a novel target for cancer therapeutics given the expression of AFP on most cancers and MDSCs, and lack of presence on normal tissues. Studies were performed to investigate the use of ACT-101 conjugated with maytansine for targeted toxin delivery to cancer. Four structurally different ACT-101-maytansinoid conjugates containing cleavable glutathione sensitive linkers were initially investigated in a mouse xenograft model of colorectal cancer (COLO-205). Reduction in tumor volume was seen for all four conjugates compared to control (p < 0.05). The anti-tumor effects of the conjugate selected for further development, ACT-903, persisted after treatment discontinuation, with tumors becoming undetectable in 9 of 10 mice, and all 10 mice surviving through Day 60 with no obvious signs of toxicity. A follow-up study performed in the same model compared the effects of single intravenous doses of ACT-903 (10–50 mg/kg) to control groups receiving vehicle or ACT-101. A significant reduction of tumor burden compared to control was achieved in the 40 and 50 mg/kg dose groups. Survival was also significantly prolonged in the 40 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg cohorts. Free maytansine blood levels at 4 hours were 0.008% of the dose, indicating stability in circulation as was expected based on in vitro plasma stability studies. No obvious signs of toxicity were seen in any of the treated groups. The observed efficacy and excellent tolerability of ACT-903 in these xenograft models support advancing the development of ACT-903 into clinical studies.

"Based on the evidence we continue to observe in our pre-clinical studies, we believe ACT-903 has the potential to address the limitations of current-generation antibody drug conjugates through a targeted delivery exclusively to cancer and immune suppressor cells, allowing for greater efficacy with minimal toxicity," said Dr. Igor Sherman, CEO of ACT. "Given the broad range of cancer cells expressing the AFP receptor, we believe our technology offers a potential pan-cancer opportunity and we look forward to continuing the development of this program to bring it to cancer patients in the shortest possible time."

The manuscript, titled "High anti-tumor activity of a novel alpha-fetoprotein-maytansinoid conjugate targeting alpha-fetoprotein receptors in colorectal cancer xenograft model," was published in Cancer Cell International on April 5, 2023 and the full manuscript can be accessed here.

On April 6, 2023 Verastem Oncology (Nasdaq:VSTM), a biopharmaceutical company committed to advancing new medicines for patients with cancer, reported the grant of stock options to purchase 17,000 shares of its common stock to one new employee (Press release, Verastem, APR 6, 2023, View Source [SID1234629870]). The awards were granted pursuant to the Nasdaq inducement grant exception as an inducement material to the employee’s acceptance of employment with Verastem Oncology in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4). The stock options have an exercise price equal to $0.39 per share, the closing price of Verastem Oncology’s common stock as reported by Nasdaq on April 3, 2023. The stock options that were granted to the one new employee will vest at a rate of twenty-five percent (25%) on the one-year anniversary of the employee’s date of hire, with the remaining shares vesting quarterly over the next three (3) years in equal quarterly amounts, provided the employee continues to serve as an employee of or other service provider to Verastem Oncology on each such vesting date.

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On April 6, 2023 Carisma Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: CARM), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative immunotherapies, reported that the Company will participate at several conferences in April 2023 (Press release, Carisma Therapeutics, APR 6, 2023, View Source [SID1234629869]).

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Upcoming healthcare industry conferences include:

2023 Cell & Gene Meeting on the Med

Tom Wilton, Chief Business Officer, will give a corporate presentation.
Thursday, April 13, 2023 at 10:45 am CET
Barcelona, Spain
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2023

Carisma will present three data abstracts during the meeting:
Macrophages engineered with cytokine switch receptors: Development of a modular platform for rebalancing inflammation in microenvironments;
A mesothelin targeting chimeric antigen receptor macrophage (CAR-M) for solid tumor immunotherapy: pre-clinical development of CT-1119; and
A Phase 1, First-in-Human study of autologous anti-HER2 CAR-M in participants with HER2 overexpressing solid tumors.
Friday, April 14 to Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Orlando, Florida
Upcoming investor conferences include:

Needham 22nd Annual Virtual Healthcare Conference

Steven Kelly, President and Chief Executive Officer, will participate in a fireside chat and will give a corporate presentation.
Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 12:45 pm EDT
Virtual
Register to view webcast here.
Chardan’s 7th Annual Genetic Medicines & Cell Therapy Manufacturing Summit

Steven Kelly, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Michael Klichinsky, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, will participate in a fireside chat.
Monday, April 24, 2023 at 11:00 am EDT
Virtual
Register to view webcast here.
A replay of webcasts, when available, will be posted and archived at the Company’s Investor Events webpage for a limited time following the event.