On April 5, 2024 Inocras, a leading provider of precision healthcare solutions company advancing whole-genome technology, reported that it is making an impact at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2024 annual meeting from April 5 to 10, held in San Diego (Press release, Inocras, APR 5, 2024, View Source [SID1234641826]). This event premieres Inocras’s substantial research and pioneering innovation in cancer diagnostics, driven by cutting-edge machine learning technology.

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In their poster presentation, Inocras showcases the refined approach of machine learning in examining whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from tissues preserved in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples, a common preservation technique in clinical environments. The research focuses on addressing the challenges posed by the distorted genomic profiles in FFPE-derived tissues, which complicate precise cancer diagnosis. The study delves into the genomic changes induced by FFPE processing and devises computational strategies to eliminate these artifacts. This is achieved by analyzing 55 matched FFPE and fresh-frozen (FF) sample pairs across a variety of cancer types and different FFPE storage duration.

The study unveils a cutting-edge machine learning strategy to accurately identify genetic changes caused by FFPE processing. Concentrating on detecting single-nucleotide variants (SNVs), small insertions and deletions (indels), and copy-number variations (CNVs), the researchers crafted sophisticated algorithms to sift through these genomic distortions. These algorithms not only improve the precision and reliability of the genomic analysis but also tackle the inherent variability of clinical FFPE specimens. The developed classifiers show exceptional ability in differentiating actual genetic variants from FFPE-related errors. Moreover, this research sheds light on specific FFPE-induced genetic alteration patterns, such as cytosine deamination and unique mutational signatures, while proving its efficacy in assessing vital cancer and genomic metrics, including homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) and tumor mutational burden (TMB).

Young Seok Ju, Chief Genome Officer of Inocras, expresses excitement about the studies to be presented at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2024 and emphasizes the company’s commitment to transforming cancer care through machine learning technology. "We are thrilled to showcase the pioneering work we are doing at Inocras in leveraging machine learning to pull out the full potential of WGS analysis in cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. Our research findings presented at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2024 will underscore the potential of machine learning in revolutionizing personalized cancer treatment strategies."

Inocras’s participation in AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2024 showcases the company’s relentless dedication to leveraging technological innovation to revolutionize cancer research and clinical practice. The presentations underscore Inocras’s commitment to providing personalized and exhaustive insights for better patient outcomes, solidifying the company’s position as a leader in AI-powered solutions for cancer diagnostics and therapeutics.

For more information about Inocras and its groundbreaking research presented at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2024, please visit Inocras.

Presentations at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2024 featuring Inocras:
Enhancing genomic analysis in cancer diagnostics: A machine learning approach for removing artifacts in FFPE specimens (Section 37, April 7, 2024, 1:30 pm – 5:00 pm)

On April 5, 2024 Tempus, a leader in artificial intelligence and precision medicine, reported 18 abstracts were accepted for presentation at the 2024 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting, which convenes from April 5-10, in San Diego, California (Press release, Tempus, APR 5, 2024, View Source [SID1234641825]). Tempus researchers will demonstrate how the company’s AI-enabled precision medicine platform collects and analyzes high-quality, multimodal datasets to advance cancer research.

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"We look forward to presenting 18 abstracts at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) this year, demonstrating the breadth and depth of our research both at Tempus and with our biopharma collaborators," said Ezra Cohen, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Oncology at Tempus. "Our research showcases the power of combining our molecular profiling offerings with our multimodal database to better understand cancer biology, treatment response, and patient outcomes."

Research highlights include:

Poster Presentation: A circulating tumor fraction DNA biomarker response stratified by ESR1 mutation status correlates with overall survival in patients with HR+ HER2- metastatic breast cancer
Session Date & Time: Monday, April 8, 2024; 1:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. PT
Location: Poster Section 41
Overview: Tempus xM used for treatment response monitoring (TRM) is an algorithm that quantifies changes in circulating DNA tumor fraction (TF) and can be simultaneously used to detect the emergence of ESR1 mutation (ESR1m) variants. In a heterogeneous real-world cohort of ER+ HER2- metastatic breast cancer patients, we showed that the combined effect of molecular response and ESR1 mutation status, a mutation associated with resistance to aromatase inhibitors (AIs), was associated with real-world overall survival outcomes. These preliminary findings suggest that xM used for TRM can identify patients with ESR1m and poor response on AI who may benefit from switching therapy.
Abstract: Leveraging a comprehensive genomic data library for detecting clonal hematopoiesis in liquid biopsy
Session Date & Time: Monday, April 8, 2024; 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. PT
Location: Poster Section 37
Overview: To more efficiently filter out clonal hematopoiesis (CH) variants from tumor-derived variants, the team trained a random forest classifier on advanced, pan-solid tumor cancer samples sequenced using liquid biopsy and solid-tumor NGS with matched buffy coat assays (n=660). On a held-out validation set of samples (n=661), the classifier could reliably distinguish between CH and other tumor-derived variants with high accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity using only liquid biopsy data for predictions, providing an operationally simpler alternative to combined liquid and solid-based methodologies.
Poster Presentation: Association of a ctDNA biomarker of treatment response with clinical outcomes in a real-world pan-cancer cohort treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors
Session Date & Time: Tuesday, April 9, 2024; 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. PT
Location: Poster Section 44
Overview: By analyzing changes in circulating DNA tumor fraction (ctDNA TF) in a real-world pan-cancer cohort of patients treated with Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), the research team found that patients classified as molecular responders (defined as ≥ 50% in ctDNA tumor fraction) had significantly improved real-world overall survival and progression-free survival compared to molecular non-responders. Based on these findings, xM used for TRM may be used to optimize treatment decision making for patients treated with TKIs, sparing patients who do not respond to TKIs from ineffective therapy.
To learn more, visit www.tempus.com/events/aacr-annual-meeting-2024.

On April 5, 2024 I-Mab (NASDAQ: IMAB), a U.S.-based, global biotech company, exclusively focused on the development and potential commercialization of highly differentiated immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, reported that management will present at the 23rd Annual Needham Virtual Healthcare Conference on April 11, 2024 (Press release, I-Mab Biopharma, APR 5, 2024, View Source [SID1234641824]).

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23rd Annual Needham Virtual Healthcare Conference

Presentation Time

Thursday, April 11 at 10:15 a.m. EST

Presenters

Raj Kannan, CEO; John Hayslip CMO

Webcast link

Here

Meetings

One-on-one and small group meetings: April 11, 2024

Management
Participants

Raj Kannan, CEO

Joe Skelton, CFO

John Hayslip, CMO
Tyler Ehler, Senior Director, Investor Relations

The webcast will also be available under "Event Calendar" on I-Mab’s IR website
at View Source

For more information, please contact your Needham representative.

On April 5, 2024 Shasqi, Inc. ("Shasqi"), a biotech company whose mission is to make cancer drugs more effective with click chemistry, reported it will present five posters on the company’s novel tumor-targeted drug activation approach at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting in San Diego, April 5-10, 2024 (Press release, Shasqi, APR 5, 2024, View Source [SID1234641823]).

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Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

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The posters will describe data generated with Shasqi’s CAPAC (Click Activated Protodrugs Against Cancer) approach. CAPAC uses 2022 Nobel Prize winning technology, click chemistry, to selectively activate high doses of cancer drugs directly at the tumor, minimizing toxicity to healthy cells and potentially improving the therapeutic index by dramatically altering the exposure. This approach overcomes many limitations of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

"We are looking forward to sharing new data from the Shasqi pipeline at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper)," said Shasqi Vice President of Research, Travis Biechele, Ph.D. "It is exciting to see data showing that we can effectively activate cancer drugs at the tumor using antigen-bound activators, resulting in sustained tumor regression."

Shasqi is advancing a pipeline of assets based on validated targets and payloads. The posters presented at the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) meeting will show preclinical efficacy and safety data for assets targeting HER2, TROP2, and NECTIN-4, each paired with either an MMAE or exatecan payload.

Presentations
Abstracts are available and can be viewed on the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) website.

Monday, April 8 between 9 AM – 12:30 PM PST

Click chemistry enabled selective activation of highly cytotoxic MMAE payload at tumors using TROP2 targeting agent

Lead Author: George Coricor, Ph.D.
Poster Section 28, Poster Board: 13
Wednesday, April 10 between 9 AM – 12:30 PM PST

Tumor targeted activation of an attenuated exatecan protodrug through Click Chemistry demonstrates efficacy in murine tumor studies

Lead Author: Sangeetha Srinivasan, Ph.D.
Poster Section 26, Poster Board: 1
A click chemistry-based HER2 targeting agent activates a decoupled MMAE payload making it highly differentiated in efficacy and safety than ADCs

Lead Author: Sangeetha Srinivasan, Ph.D.
Poster Section 26, Poster Board: 2
Nectin-4 targeted therapy with MMAE protodrug results in anti-tumor efficacy mediated by click chemistry

Lead Author: George Coricor, Ph.D.
Poster Section 26, Poster Board: 3
Improving anti-tumor efficacy by modulating a separate HER2 activator and an MMAE payload and reuniting both through click chemistry

Lead Author: Stefanie Wagner
Poster Section 26, Poster Board: 4

On April 5, 2024 Precision Biologics, Inc. reported its lead monoclonal antibody, NEO-201, targets circulating human naïve regulatory T cells (Tregs) in both healthy donors and cancer patients (Press release, Precision Biologics, APR 5, 2024, View Source [SID1234641822]). A poster presentation discussing this data will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2024, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA on April 8th, 2024.

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Poster title: The O-glycan epitope targeting anti-human carcinoma monoclonal antibody (mAb) NEO-201 can also target human regulatory T cells (Tregs)

This study was performed by Drs. Atsushi Tanaka and Shimon Sakaguchi from Osaka University, Japan. Dr. Sakaguchi’s group independently analyzed by flow cytometry the ability of NEO-201 to recognize naïve Tregs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors, confirming findings from Precision Biologics in PBMCs from cancer patients.

Previous studies performed by Precision Biologics have shown that approximately 4.6% of CD4+ T cells express NEO-201 target antigen and that those CD4+ T cells have Tregs phenotype. In addition, in a recently published phase 1 clinical study it has been observed that NEO-201 binds to CD4+/ CD25+/, CD127-/, Foxp3+/, CD15s+ cells from PBMCs from cancer patients with solid tumors. The purpose of this study performed in Dr. Sakaguchi’s laboratory was to corroborate and further characterize the phenotype of the specific subset of CD4+ T cells expressing the NEO-201 target antigen.

In this study, human PBMCs were collected from 7 healthy donors (HD) at Osaka University and 6 cancer patients from Precision Biologics ongoing phase II clinical trial (Clinical Trial NCT03476681) evaluating the efficacy of the combination of NEO-201 with pembrolizumab in adults with solid tumors resistant to checkpoint inhibitors. Phenotypic analysis was conducted by flow cytometry to evaluate which fraction of CD4+ T cells is recognized by NEO-201.

Flow cytometry analysis revealed that NEO-201 recognizes fraction I of CD4 T cells in both healthy donors and cancer patients. Fraction I includes naïve Tregs (nTregs) with the following phenotype: CD3+/CD4+/CD45RA+/Foxp3low cells. The percentage of nTregs in cancer patients was higher than the percentage detected in healthy donors. On the other hand, this study revealed that NEO-201 does not bind to fraction II of CD4 T cells in both healthy donors and cancer patients. Fraction II includes effector Tregs (eTregs) with the following phenotype: CD3+/CD4+/CD45RA-/Foxp3high cells.

When subjected to t-cell receptor (TCR) stimulation, nTregs undergo proliferation and differentiate into eTregs, which can then infiltrate into tumor microenvironment (TME) and induce suppression of anticancer immunity.

Depletion of circulating NEO-201 positive nTregs in cancer patients after NEO-201 treatment may prevent the differentiation of nTregs into eTregs, thus reducing their accumulation in the TME. This study suggests therapy with NEO-201 may reduce Treg-mediated suppression of anticancer immunity.

The poster will be presented in person at the San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA, on Monday April 8th, 2024. Please stop by poster # 2716 at Poster Section 6, Poster Board number 7 (1.30 p.m.–5.00 p.m.).