On July 21, 2026 Pheast Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing next-generation macrophage-directed immunotherapies for cancer, reported a peer-reviewed publication in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper), detailing the preclinical foundation for its lead program, PHST001, a novel, high-affinity IgG4 anti-CD24 monoclonal antibody currently in Phase 1 clinical development for multiple solid tumor types.

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The published findings demonstrate that PHST001 binds CD24 with high affinity, blocks CD24-Siglec-10 signaling, and drives macrophage phagocytosis of tumor cells. PHST001 showed robust anti-tumor activity across six solid tumor models — ovarian, breast, endometrial, pancreatic, lung, and cholangiocarcinoma — and enhanced the effects of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and antibody-drug conjugates, including in treatment-resistant tumor models. The findings also reveal crucial crosstalk between the adaptive immune system and macrophages activated by PHST001.

"Cancer cells survive in part by expressing cell surface ‘don’t eat me’ signals that suppress critical immune surveillance functions of the immune system’s macrophages. CD24 is one of the most important of these signals expressed on several types of human cancer cells; this publication shows that blocking it with PHST001 can mobilize macrophages against a broad range of solid tumors," said Irving Weissman, M.D., co-founder of Pheast Therapeutics. "This is a significant advance for the field of innate immune therapy against cancer and is critical for the next stages to determine the potential of PHST001 to become an important new cancer treatment."

"The combination benefit outlined in this publication is exactly what we are now testing in patients, where PHST001 has already shown promising early signs of activity," said Roy Maute, Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pheast. "These peer-reviewed data underpin our conviction in CD24 as a critical target and Pheast’s leadership in macrophage checkpoint immunotherapy."

PHST001 is being evaluated in the ongoing Phase 1 PHST001-101 trial (NCT06840886) in patients with relapsed or refractory solid tumors. The monotherapy dose-escalation is nearly complete, and the chemotherapy combination cohorts are underway. Pheast expects to present initial clinical data at an upcoming medical meeting. PHST001 received FDA Fast Track Designation for the treatment of ovarian cancer in June 2025.

The Clinical Cancer Research publication is available here: View Source

About CD24

CD24 is a cell surface protein that plays a key role in tumor immune evasion by engaging Siglec-10, an inhibitory receptor on macrophages. This interaction suppresses macrophage-mediated clearance of cancer cells, allowing tumors to escape destruction by the innate immune system. CD24 was identified as a novel macrophage checkpoint through foundational work by Dr. Amira Barkal, principal founder of Pheast. Along with other co-founders, Drs. Irving Weissman, Ravi Majeti, and Roy Maute, Pheast’s research opened the door to therapeutic strategies targeting CD24 to drive innate immune responses against cancer.

About PHST001

PHST001 is an anti-CD24 macrophage checkpoint inhibitor designed to overcome immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment. CD24 is highly expressed across many cancers, where high expression is associated with poor prognosis. Pheast has engineered PHST001 to be a potential best-in-class antibody designed to induce macrophages to phagocytose cancer cells and initiate a powerful immune response. PHST001-101 is an open-label, multicenter Phase 1 study in patients with advanced solid tumors (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT06840886) evaluating safety, tolerability, and dose optimization, with secondary objectives assessing pharmacokinetics and preliminary anti-tumor activity. PHST001 received FDA Fast Track Designation for the treatment of ovarian cancer in June 2025.

(Press release, Pheast Therapeutics, JUL 21, 2026, View Source [SID1234669348])

On July 21, 2026 Tract Bio ("Tract"), a biotechnology company discovering and developing novel therapies for cancer and inflammatory disease, reported presentations at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Drug Discovery and Development (AACR D3) conference and the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Special Conference on Breaking Barriers in the Fight Against Rare Cancers.

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Tract is advancing complementary approaches aimed at the drug-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs) that survive treatment and drive disease progression. The stemECHO platform selectively clones CSCs while preserving genomic and epigenomic fidelity, enabling functional screening to identify the drugs that eliminate them in an individual patient; TP101 is a small molecule therapeutic candidate that has been tested against these cells directly.

"Cancer stem cells drive tumor progression and therapeutic resistance yet have been difficult to eliminate selectively. Our functional precision medicine approach has the potential to find these cells and the drugs that eliminate them in an individual patient with ovarian cancer, and TP101 demonstrates how we can develop therapeutics against them directly while preserving normal stem cells," said Dr. Frank McKeon, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Tract Bio. "We are encouraged by the TP101 data which we believe support its potential as a new treatment approach for Barrett’s esophagus, esophageal adenocarcinoma, and high-grade epithelial malignancies, and we are continuing to advance toward an IND submission."

AACR Drug Discovery and Development (AACR D3): July 21-24, 2026; Boston, MA

The poster presentation highlights TP101, a first-in-class small molecule therapeutic that combines a proprietary bivalent IAP antagonist and the tyroskine kinase inhibitor ponatinib to selectively eliminate CSCs across epithelial solid tumors while sparing healthy epithelial stem cells. The dual small molecule combination killed CSCs in vitro with low nanomolar potency, robust caspase 3 activation, and marked sparing of normal esophageal stem cells in Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). In mouse xenografts, TP101 drove near-complete tumor regression of EAC and depletion of tumor-associated fibroblasts. Together, these data support TP101 as a therapeutic strategy to potently and selectively eliminate malignant stem cells while targeting tumor supportive stroma and broadening the therapeutic window.

Presentation details are as follows:

Title: TP101: First-in-class cancer stem cell–targeted small molecule combination therapy for epithelial malignancies
Presenters: Cody C. McHale, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer of Tract Bio; Souneek Chakraborty, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Biology of Tract Bio
Session Date and Time: Poster #A078, Session A – Wednesday, July 22, 2026, 6:15-8:45 p.m. ET
Venue: Sheraton Boston Hotel, Back Bay Ballroom
AACR Special Conference on Breaking Barriers in the Fight Against Rare Cancers: July 18-20, 2026; Vancouver, British Columbia

The second poster highlights a functional precision medicine approach in high-grade serous ovarian cancer, leveraging the Company’s stemECHO platform to clone cancer stem cells from individual patient specimens. Tract researchers identified a polyresistant population in every case examined, then screened those cells against hundreds of approved and investigational drugs to find combinations that eliminated them at low nanomolar concentrations in vitro and showed activity in xenograft models derived from the polyresistant clones. This approach has the potential to deliver patient-specific drug sensitivity profiles to a multidisciplinary Functional Precision Medicine Tumor Board within 14 to 28 days of biopsy receipt.

Title: Functional precision medicine targeting polyresistant cancer stem cells in high-grade serous ovarian cancer
Presenters: Wa Xian, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Tract Bio; Yen-hsiang "Johnson" Huang, Senior Bioinformatics Scientist of Tract Bio
Session Date and Time: Poster #A030, Session A – Saturday, July 18, 2026, 7:30-9:30 p.m. PDT
Venue: JW Marriott Parq Vancouver Hotel, Vancouver, BC, Canada

(Press release, Tract Bio, JUL 21, 2026, View Source [SID1234669347])

On July 21, 2026 Phanes Therapeutics, Inc. (Phanes), a clinical stage biotech company focused on innovative drug discovery and development in oncology, reported it has expanded their clinical trial collaboration with Merck (known as MSD outside of the US and Canada) to study spevatamig in combination with Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), and chemotherapy in 1L BTC.

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"We are very pleased to expand the clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement to include BTC, a devastating cancer with high unmet medical needs," said Ming Wang, PhD, MBA, CEO of Phanes. "This reflects our vision of leveraging the combination of innate immunity enhancers (I2Es) with other therapies to target hard-to-treat cancers."

Spevatamig is an I2E, an emerging class of IO agents. I2Es are expected to activate macrophages and dendritic cells to recognize and destroy cancer cells, providing a potential complementary mechanism to leverage the immune system to attack tumors, especially the so-called "cold tumors" that are less likely to respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).

KEYTRUDA is a registered trademark of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA.

ABOUT SPEVATAMIG

Spevatamig is a first-in-class native IgG-like bispecific antibody (bsAb) targeting claudin 18.2 and CD47. It was granted orphan drug designation (ODD) for the treatment of pancreatic cancer by the FDA in 2022 and was granted Fast Track designation for the treatment of patients with metastatic claudin 18.2-positive pancreatic adenocarcinoma in 2024. In 2023, Phanes entered into a clinical collaboration agreement with Merck (known as MSD outside of the US and Canada) to study spevatamig in combination with pembrolizumab.

Phanes is conducting clinical trials with spevatamig in multiple cancer indications, including a Phase 2 study evaluating the efficacy of spevatamig in combination with chemotherapy in first-line PDAC patients. Spevatamig is a novel immunotherapy which has the potential to become the first I2E for a solid tumor indication and is combinable with various anti-cancer therapies.

(Press release, Phanes Therapeutics, JUL 21, 2026, View Source [SID1234669346])

On July 21, 2026 Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN) (TASE: CGEN) a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a pioneer in computational target discovery powered by AI/ML, reported that management will present and hold 1×1 meetings at the BTIG Biotechnology Conference 2026 taking place virtually from July 28-29, 2026.

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Please reach out to your BTIG representative to request a meeting.

A replay for this event will not be available.

(Press release, Compugen, JUL 21, 2026, View Source [SID1234669345])

On July 21, 2026 Verismo Therapeutics, a clinical-stage multi-chain CAR T cell therapy company pioneering a novel KIR-CAR platform technology, reported a new preclinical KIR-CAR program targeting the clinically validated Claudin 6 (CLDN6) antigen to treat CLDN6-expressing solid tumors via a novel binder developed at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine (Penn) through a Verismo-sponsored research agreement. The program is designed to complement Verismo’s lead solid tumor asset SynKIR-110, which targets mesothelin antigen and is currently being evaluated at multiple sites in the U.S. in the STAR-101 Phase 1 clinical trial (NCT05568680). The new CLDN6 novel binder is the second binder discovered in collaboration with Penn. The first binder, DS191, is used in SynKIR-310, which is being evaluated in the CELESTIAL-301 Phase 1 trial for treating patients with relapsed or refractory B cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NCT06544265).

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"Penn has been a foundational scientific partner for Verismo, particularly in the development of novel binders to advance our multi-chain KIR-CAR platform," said Laura Johnson, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Verismo Therapeutics. "We are excited to expand our preclinical assets with CLDN6 for targeting solid tumors in cancers with high unmet needs, especially as a complement to our lead candidate SynKIR-110, which recently reported positive early clinical data at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) meeting, for advanced mesothelin-expressing solid tumors, including ovarian cancer, mesothelioma, and cholangiocarcinoma. Our goal is simple: to make life better for patients with cancer who have run out of options."

Recent clinical advancements have established CLDN6 as a validated solid tumor target for CAR T cells, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and bispecific immune therapies demonstrating anti-tumor activity across multiple CLDN6-positive cancers.¹ CLDN6 has emerged as a promising target for next-generation immunotherapies due to its expression in a variety of cancers and its limited or absent expression in healthy adult tissues. Improving the persistence and durability of response — a leading cause of CAR T failure in solid tumors — has been identified as the next major hurdle in the field, a challenge that the design of Verismo’s multi-chain KIR-CAR platform is built to address.

About the CLDN6 Binder Discovery and Verismo-Penn Collaboration

Our new preclinical program is built around a novel CLDN6-directed binder discovered at Penn through a Verismo-sponsored research agreement. The binder was identified by Prof. Donald Siegel, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Founder and Co-Chair of Verismo’s Scientific Advisory Board and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Founding Director of the Division of Transfusion Medicine & Therapeutic Pathology at Penn. Dr. Siegel previously led the discovery of Verismo’s DS191 binder.

"CLDN6 is one of the most compelling tumor-specific antigens to emerge in solid tumor immunotherapy, with highly restricted expression in healthy adult tissues and clinically validated activity across multiple solid tumor cancers," said Dr. Siegel. "We identified this CLDN6 binder through the same rigorous in-house discovery approach that produced the DS191 binder now being used to treat patients in the CELESTIAL-301 Phase 1 SynKIR-310 trial. We look forward to continuing our work with Verismo to expand the potential impacts of the multi-chain KIR-CAR platform across different cancers with unmet need."

Bryan Kim, CEO and Co-Founder of Verismo Therapeutics, said, "Pairing the CLDN6 antigen with Verismo’s multi-chain KIR-CAR architecture is a deliberate strategy designed to address challenges that have limited prior CLDN6-directed (and other solid-tumor) approaches. We are fortunate to be working with Dr. Siegel and the outstanding research team at Penn to assess the potential for our multi-chain KIR-CAR platform to overcome the limitations of current CAR T therapies in the treatment of solid tumors."

(Press release, Verismo Therapeutics, JUL 21, 2026, View Source [SID1234669344])