On April 17, 2026 Salubris Biotherapeutics, Inc. (SalubrisBio), a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to discovering and developing novel complex biologic therapeutics, reported expansion cohort data from the Phase 1/2 study of JK06, a 5T4-targeted antibody drug conjugate (ADC), in patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic cancer, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and breast cancer, which is being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2026 on April 17-22, 2026 in San Diego, California.

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"JK06 continues to demonstrate encouraging and durable efficacy among heavily pre-treated metastatic solid tumors. Partial responses have now been observed across four different cancers, including NSCLC and breast cancer, at multiple dose levels. These data are complemented by a consistently favorable safety profile, underscoring our belief that JK06 has the potential to be an important new first-in-class ADC that can address the unmet needs of patients with 5T4-expressing cancers," said Sam Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of Salubris Biotherapeutics. "These results provide a robust foundation for further exploration of JK06 in NSCLC and breast cancer and will propel our efforts to interrogate the pan-tumor opportunity. We look forward to progressing this study into the next stages of expansion cohorts, including additional monotherapy cohorts and evaluation of JK06 in multiple combination therapy regimens."

Expansion cohort data presented at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) include 112 patients enrolled in Europe with advanced relapsed/refractory solid tumors who were treated with JK06 once every three weeks, including two randomized dose cohorts (3.7 mg/kg, 4.5 mg/kg) in NSCLC and breast cancer and a basket cohort consisting of multiple tumor types known to express 5T4. The data cutoff was March 29, 2026.

Key efficacy findings include:

Among 38 response-evaluable NSCLC patients, 10 attained confirmed PRs (ORR 26%), including three out of seven response-evaluable squamous cell NSCLC patients (ORR 43%), and two of three response-evaluable Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) mutant patients.
Five out of 19 response-evaluable breast cancer patients attained PRs (ORR 26%), including four out of nine hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer patients (ORR 44%).
Among other tumor types, the first and only response-evaluable gastric cancer patient enrolled attained a partial response (PR, -55%), and one of four response-evaluable cervical cancer patients attained a partial response (PR, -49%).
Among 112 safety-evaluable patients enrolled in expansion cohorts, key safety findings include:

Treatment with JK06 at doses ≤ 5.2 mg/kg was generally well-tolerated with predominantly low grade (Grades 1 and 2) treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) and manageable toxicities.
All JK06-related AEs of any grade are below 10% frequency overall except for asthenia (11% overall).
Only three total Grade 3 events have been observed to date among the 112 patients (fatigue, gait disturbance, keratitis), and no Grade 4 or 5 events have been observed.
Of the total 153 patients enrolled across all dose levels in dose escalation and expansion, only seven patients have dose-reduced due to a TRAE resulting from JK06.

The Phase 1/2 open-label, dose-escalation and expansion study (NCT06667960) to assess the safety, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary efficacy of JK06 is ongoing.

Details of the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) presentation are as follows:

Title: A Phase 1/2 Study of JK06, a 5T4-Targeted Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC), In Patients with Unresectable Locally Advanced or Metastatic Cancer
Presenter: Omar Saavedra, M.D., Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona, Spain
Abstract #: CT250
Session: Phase II Clinical Trials
Date/Time: April 21, 2026 | 2:00 – 5:00 PM PT

About JK06

JK06 is a first-in-class quadrivalent, biparatopic ADC that selectively targets 5T4 with a monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) payload. 5T4 is an oncofetal protein that is overexpressed in a wide range of solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), breast, gastric and genitourinary cancers, and is associated with more aggressive tumor progression and reduced survival. JK06 has demonstrated picomolar affinity for 5T4 and enhanced internalization resulting from the biparatopic design. Together with stable, site-specific payload conjugation, JK06 has demonstrated the potential for robust efficacy and a favorable safety profile.

(Press release, Salubris Biotherapeutics, APR 17, 2026, View Source [SID1234664500])

On April 17, 2026 Evaxion A/S (NASDAQ: EVAX) ("Evaxion"), a clinical-stage TechBio company developing novel vaccines with its pioneering AI-Immunology platform, reported new data demonstrating that AI-Immunology identifies and selects the most therapeutically relevant vaccine targets. The data will be presented at the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, on April 22, 2026.

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86% of the vaccine targets included in Evaxion’s personalized cancer vaccine EVX-01 trigger a tumor-specific immune response. This is a success rate much higher than what has been reported for other methods. The high number reflects a broad yet specific immune response, increasing the likelihood of strong anti-tumor effect and positive clinical outcomes.

"We are delighted with the data demonstrating again the unique capabilities of AI-Immunology in identifying and selecting relevant vaccine targets. This is a further validation of the platform as an effective tool for developing potentially transformational treatments of cancer and other diseases," says Bigitte Rønø, CSO of Evaxion.

Encouraging data
In addition to the 86% success rate, the new data set includes two-year analysis showing durable vaccine-specific immune responses following EVX-01 administration. Notably, high de novo responses (86%) were observed, meaning the vaccine gives rise to a high number of novel tumor specific T cells. This potentially increases the vaccine’s tumor killing ability.

Further, a positive correlation between vaccine target AI-prediction scores and the magnitude of the immune responses was demonstrated, underlining the predictive power of AI-Immunology.

The new data stems from the phase 2 trial investigating EVX-01 in combination with MSD’s (Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA) anti-PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) in patients with advanced melanoma. Each patient enrolled in the trial received a unique vaccine designed and manufactured based on their individual biology. KEYTRUDA is a registered trademark of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA.

The trial has already yielded encouraging two-year clinical data, including a 75% Objective Response Rate. Its one-year extension was successfully completed earlier this month with three-year clinical data expected to be presented in the second half of 2026.

AACR presentation details
Abstract title: AI-designed personalized neoantigen vaccine, EVX-01, induces durable de novo T-cell responses in advanced melanoma patients
Poster#: 7741
Session category: Clinical research
Session title: Immune response to therapies
Location: Poster section 42
Date/Time: April 22, 2026, at 9am-12pm CST/16-19 CET
Presenter: Mads Lausen Nielsen, PhD, Project Manager at Evaxion

About EVX-01
EVX-01 is a personalized peptide-based cancer vaccine intended for first-line treatment of multiple advanced solid cancers. It is Evaxion’s lead clinical asset.

Designed with our AI-Immunology platform, EVX-01 and is tailored to target the unique tumor profile and immune characteristics of each patient. It engages the patient’s immune system to fight off cancer by mounting a targeted response against tumors.

(Press release, Evaxion, APR 17, 2026, View Source [SID1234664516])

On April 17, 2026 CREATE Medicines, Inc. ("CREATE"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering in vivo immune cell programming, reported it will present two posters at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2026, taking place April 17–22, 2026 in San Diego.

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The presentations at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) highlight the CREATE platform in action, showcasing new data across CREATE’s multi-immune in vivo CAR portfolio and introducing the first in vivo data for RetroT, the company’s all-RNA genome integration platform designed to enable stable, durable cell engineering without viral components.

The data demonstrates simultaneous engineering of myeloid cells, NK cells, and T cells with tailored CAR mRNAs driving tumor regression and remodeling of the tumor microenvironment in a colorectal cancer model. First-in-vivo evidence for RetroT demonstrates that CAR T cells engineered without double-strand breaks or viral vectors significantly reduced tumor burden in a leukemia model, validating the platform’s potential as a path to stable, durable CAR expression.

"CREATE was built to rapidly iterate directly from our clinical data and unlock the clear advantages of in vivo cell therapy," said Robert Hofmeister, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of CREATE. "The work we are presenting at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) underscores this unique capability of our platform, leveraging our experience in over 50 patients to develop the next generation multi-immune CARs or stably integrated mRNA in vivo therapies. These advances position the platform for near-term development of novel scalable therapies across autoimmune and oncology."

CREATE is advancing the broadest portfolio of in vivo CAR therapies, supporting the largest human clinical dataset in the field, built through the application of its integrated mRNA, lipid nanoparticle, and CAR engineering platform. This dataset enables rapid translation from clinical insight to pipeline innovation, informing both current programs and the design of next-generation in vivo CAR therapies.

AACR Poster Presentation Details:

Title: In Vivo CAR mRNA Engineering of T Cells and Myeloid Cells Enables Potent Anti-Tumor Control of Solid Cancers
Date & Time: Sunday, April 19, 2026, 2–5 PM PT
Location: Poster Section 7
Session Category: Immunology
Session Title: Alternative Cell Type and In Situ Cell Therapies
Poster Board #: 18
Abstract #: 144

Title: Stepwise In Vivo CAR T Cell Engineering via Transient RNA Programming and RetroT All-RNA Genome Integration
Date & Time: Monday, April 20, 2026, 9 AM–12 PM PT
Location: Poster Section 53
Session Title: Late-Breaking Research: Immunology 2
Poster Board #: 20
Abstract #: LB155

More information is available on the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting website.

(Press release, Create Medicines, APR 17, 2026, View Source [SID1234664485])

On April 17, 2026 Bruker Corporation (Nasdaq: BRKR) reported new updates from Bruker Spatial Biology to be showcased at the 2026 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting. At AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper), Bruker Spatial Biology will highlight how its high-fidelity spatial platforms—designed to work together—deliver deeper insights into oncology biology and accelerate translational research.

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At AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2026, Bruker Spatial Biology will launch new cross‑platform workflows linking GeoMx DSP to CellScape XR and CellScape XR to CosMx SMI, enabling researchers integrate insights across its spatial biology portfolio—revealing biological relationships that cannot be captured with a single modality alone. Bruker Spatial Biology will also debut new 208‑plex datasets from CellScape XR, highlighting flexible subcellular proteomics for rapid, quantitative spatial phenotyping in oncology applications.

These announcements build upon the major spatial biology milestones Bruker introduced earlier this year at the AGBT General Meeting, where the company demonstrated a portfolio engineered for high-fidelity performance within each omic layer. Together, these advances reflect Bruker Spatial Biology’s long‑standing approach: advancing each platform to be best‑in‑class individually, while consistently being first to demonstrate what is possible when spatial data is captured with unmatched depth, resolution, and fidelity—and connected across biological layers.

PaintScape Now Open for Pre‑Orders with Shipments Expected This Quarter

With the PaintScape platform, Bruker is the only company enabling high‑precision, multiplexed, direct visualization of the 3D genome in situ in single cells. PaintScape enables researchers to study chromosomal architecture, spatial genome organization, and structural variation directly within intact biological context, opening new avenues for understanding how genome structure influences gene regulation and disease.

Bruker will launch two new panels for the PaintScape platform, including the ChromoPaint HuCL PanChromo MPX panel, a 419-plex panel designed for genome wide in situ visualization of chromosomal organization in human cell lines. In addition, Bruker will announce the OncoPaint Oncogenic Pathways Panels that will be available later this year, a 1000+-plex modular panel designed to combine genome wide chromosome painting with painting of select cancer pathway associated gene regions in increased genomic resolution.

Commercial shipments of the PaintScape platform are expected to begin later this quarter.

Introducing CellScape XR, the Highest Performing Spatial Proteomics Ecosystem Delivering Best-in-Class Data Fidelity, Robustness and Flexibility

The CellScape XR launch at AGBT represents Bruker’s next-generation advancement in spatial proteomics and introduces what is now the highest fidelity spatial proteomics platform, designed to deliver best‑in‑class data quality, robustness, and assay flexibility.

At AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper), Bruker Spatial Biology will showcase new 208‑plex spatial proteomics datasets, in collaboration with Niclas Blessin at University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH). This assay was pathology reviewed across 12 distinct neoplastic and non-neoplastic human FFPE tissue samples demonstrating the robustness of the CellScape XR protocol. These capabilities enable deeper interrogation of tumor biology, immune contexture, and signaling heterogeneity, and form a critical bridge between discovery‑scale profiling and translational research, at a scale and rigor required for clinical applications.

Bruker is accepting pre-orders for the CellScape XR, with commercial shipments expected this summer.

CosMx SMI Showcases and Extends Complete Spatial Biology Approach

Bruker has consistently been first to define what is possible with the CosMx SMI platform setting multiple best-in-class benchmarks—including both AI multimodal and 3D segmentation, subcellular spatial imaging of the human whole transcriptome (WTX), and same-cell multiomics (WTX and 64+ proteins). At AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper), Bruker Spatial Biology will showcase how these high fidelity, high sensitivity capabilities are expanding further—extending subcellular spatial imaging of the mouse whole transcriptome and highlighting emerging applications for studying human disease, such as T‑cell receptor (TCR) and miRNA imaging.

The AtoMx SIP builds on the unparalleled data richness of CosMx SMI to accelerate study‑level insight generation and biological interpretation. At AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper), Bruker Spatial Biology will reinforce a new spatial discovery workflow with AtoMx SIP, enabling rapid, image‑based exploration of single‑cell and subcellular whole transcriptome datasets through pre‑calculated spatial insights and streamlined data exports designed for conversational large language model (LLM) workflows. Applying LLMs to the comprehensive, high fidelity spatial data generated by CosMx SMI enables richer, higher quality outputs than are possible with lower resolution or lower content approaches, delivering a more interactive and intuitive experience for biological discovery. In addition, Bruker Spatial Biology will showcase new 3D AI‑based cell segmentation models that extend its best‑in‑class definition of single‑cell boundaries, improving RNA transcript assignment in tissue and addressing long standing limitations of segmentation approaches that fail to account for overlapping cells.

Bruker is accepting pre-orders for the Mouse CosMx WTX.

GeoMx Discovery Multiomics Platform Showcases Unmatched Spatial Biomarker Discovery at Scale with Whole Transcriptome and 1200+ Protein Targets

With GeoMx DSP, Bruker was the first to establish spatial biology at discovery scale and has continued to lead by demonstrating what is possible from discovery through translational research and clinically oriented applications. GeoMx DSP was first to enable high‑plex, same‑slide whole transcriptome and protein multiomics, and later to demonstrate spatial proteomic profiling of more than 1,200 antibodies on tissue with the Discovery Proteome Atlas. At AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper), Bruker Spatial Biology will showcase how GeoMx DSP is the only spatial platform to now simultaneously connect RNA pathway, protein, and post-translational modification (PTMs) across different layers of biology. The breadth of this spatial multiomics data is now informing researchers of biological pathways that are both transcriptionally active and driving functional response. GeoMx DSP further anchors large cohort biomarker and signature discovery and now connects seamlessly to downstream validation and spatial phenotyping workflows with CellScape XR on the same tissue section.

In addition to its spatial biology portfolio, Bruker will present complementary solutions including the nCounter Analysis System for bulk multiomics and the Beacon Platform, including Beacon Discovery, supporting downstream translational workflows and functional live single‑cell biology.

(Press release, Bruker, APR 17, 2026, View Source [SID1234664501])

On April 17, 2026 MiNK Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: INKT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering allogeneic invariant natural killer T (allo-iNKT) cell therapies to restore immune balance and treat immune-mediated diseases and cancer, reported data from an investigator-initiated Phase II trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, evaluating agenT-797, MiNK’s allo-iNKT cell therapy, in combination with botensilimab (BOT) and balstilimab (BAL), ramucirumab and paclitaxel in patients with advanced PD-1 refractory gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma. The data are being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting, taking place April 17-22, 2026, in San Diego, CA.

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This Phase II trial—the first to evaluate agenT-797 in combination with BOT and BAL in patients with gastroesophageal cancer progressing after frontline therapy, was designed to assess the impact of immune priming and sequencing, with patients receiving induction (agenT-797 alone or with BOT/BAL) followed by combination therapy, or the combination without induction, alongside longitudinal biomarker analyses; in this study (n=17), treatment achieved a 77% disease control rate (DCR) with long-term survival beyond 20 months in a subset, with emerging signals in patients who received the induction strategy had meaningful improvements in PFS (6.9 vs. 3.5 months; HR 0.19; p=0.015) and OS (9.5 vs. 5.2 months), with 43% of patients alive at 12 and 18 months—highlighting durability and survival, rather than response rate, as the most relevant measures of clinical benefit in this PD-1 refractory setting.

"This study reinforces the potential of agenT-797 as an immune orchestrator capable of re-engaging anti-tumor immunity in highly resistant cancers," said Jennifer Buell, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of MiNK Therapeutics. "These findings suggest that sequencing of treatment may be as important as the treatment itself, as we observed longer survival without disease progression in patients who received an early immune-priming step before the full regimen, together with evidence of immune activation and tumor microenvironment remodeling. The durability of survival observed in induction-treated subset, together with evidence of immune activation, is central to how we, our potential partners, and the FDA evaluate meaningful outcomes and will shape our next phase of development in this hard to treat population."

Efficacy findings from the Phase II (n=17) study included:

DCR was observed in 77% of all treated patients, and long-term survival beyond 20 months was seen in a subset of patients.
Patients treated with an induction cycle had longer progression-free survival (PFS) than those treated without induction, with median PFS of 6.9 months versus 3.5 months (HR 0.19; p=0.015), supporting the potential importance of immune priming and treatment sequencing.
Median overall survival (OS) was 9.5 months in the induction cohort versus 5.2 months without induction, with 43% of induction-treated patients alive at both 12 and 18 months, compared with 20% and 0%, respectively, in the non-induction cohort.
The study did not meet its primary endpoint of ORR; however, disease control and longer-term survival observed in a subset of patients support further study of this approach.
Correlative analyses showed that treatment with BOT, BAL, and agenT-797 was associated with significant intratumoral T cell and dendritic cell infiltration, the formation of organized tertiary lymphoid structures in on-treatment biopsies from a patient with prolonged benefit, and activation of peripheral CD4 and CD8 T cells.

The safety profile was consistent with the component agents. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events among all patients included fatigue, fever, diarrhea, anorexia, nausea and mucositis.Immune-related adverse events included dermatitis, colitis, gastritis, enteritis, hepatitis and hypothyroidism.

Additional analysis of the full biospecimen dataset is ongoing and is expected to provide further insight into immune mechanisms, optimal sequencing, and potential biomarkers that could help identify patients most likely to benefit.

Presentation Details:

Abstract Title: A phase II study of agenT-797, botensilimab (BOT) and balstilimab (BAL) in PD-1 refractory gastroesophageal cancer (GEC)
Presenter: Samuel L. Cytryn M.D.; Gastrointestinal Medical Oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Session Name: Phase II and Phase III Clinical Trials
Date/Time: April 20, 2026 | 2:00–5:00 PM PT; 5:00-8:00 PM EDT
Poster Section: 52
Abstract No.: CT166

(Press release, MiNK Therapeutics, APR 17, 2026, View Source [SID1234664517])