Crown Bioscience and Turbine Partner to Connect AI-Driven Prediction with Organoid Validation in Translational Oncology

On April 21, 2026 Crown Bioscience, a global contract research organization (CRO) and a JSR Life Sciences company, reported a strategic partnership with Turbine, a leading virtual biology company, to advance translational oncology research by integrating Turbine’s in silico Virtual Assays with its Tumor Organoid Assays based on HUB Organoid Technology. This collaboration establishes a connected workflow that enables researchers to move more efficiently from hypothesis to validation.

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Turbine’s Virtual Assays simulate biological response across thousands of biological samples and hundreds of drugs, generating predictive insights to identify and prioritize targets, therapies, and combinations. The predictions will be enhanced through the incorporation of multimodal and drug response data from hundreds of tumor organoid models at Crown Bioscience. Together, the companies create a closed-loop approach linking prediction with validation, improving predictive accuracy, reducing experimental burden, whilst delivering greater biological relevance and translational confidence.

Guided by Turbine’s in silico predictions, select hypotheses can be experimentally validated using Crown Bioscience’s tumor organoid assays, streamlining experimental design, reducing costs, and shortening development timelines.

This approach enables researchers to generate insights earlier, focus resources on the most promising strategies, and make faster, more informed decisions with greater confidence in clinical translatability.

"Translational success depends on how well early insights reflect real patient biology," said John Gu, CEO of Crown Bioscience. "By integrating predictive modeling with our organoid models, we are creating a more robust foundation for decision-making, one that improves confidence, reduces risk, and accelerates the path to the clinic."

"Together with Crown Bioscience, we aim to address a key trade-off in drug discovery between scale and translatability," said Szabolcs Nagy, CEO of Turbine. "Using our Virtual Lab, researchers can already explore millions of hypotheses in silico. By integrating with Crown’s organoid platform, we enable virtual experimentation that better reflects patient biology, helping close the translatability gap."

(Press release, Crown Bioscience, APR 21, 2026, View Source [SID1234664606])

Verismo Therapeutics Presents Preclinical Data at AACR 2026 for SynKIR™-310 KIR-CAR Indicating Superior Preclinical Activity in B Cell Malignancies and Early Clinical Efficacy

On April 21, 2026 Verismo Therapeutics, a clinical-stage CAR T cell therapy company pioneering a novel multi-chain KIR-CAR platform technology, reported new preclinical in vivo data for SynKIR-310 KIR-CAR living medicine, highlighting KIR-CAR’s superior anti-tumor activity and improved cytokine profile compared to conventional single-chain CAR T in B cell malignancies. Early clinical data for SynKIR-310 KIR-CAR were also announced from a multi-site Phase 1 clinical trial, CELESTIAL-301 (NCT06544265) for patients with B cell lymphomas, highlighting a patient’s ongoing complete response after 6 months. These data were presented on April 21 at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2026 in San Diego, CA (Poster Number: 5193).

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"While single-chain CAR T therapies have revolutionized blood cancer treatment, nearly half of blood cancer patients who initially respond relapse as early as six months after treatment,[1]" said Laura A. Johnson, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Verismo Therapeutics. "This urgent patient need is precisely why we designed multi-chain SynKIR-310 KIR-CAR with a natural ‘on-off’ switch to potentially address chronic T cell exhaustion and increase durability.

"We are excited to report new preclinical data showing SynKIR-310 KIR-CAR improved anti-tumor activity with reduced cytokine production compared to a conventional single-chain CAR T approach. We’re also encouraged that early clinical observation of one patient in our CELESTIAL-301 trial achieved a complete tumor response that remains ongoing beyond six months. Together, these data support continued clinical evaluation of the KIR-CAR platform and SynKIR-310, specifically in patients with relapsed or refractory B cell malignancies, including follicular lymphoma."

These preclinical data were shared during poster session "Adoptive Cell Therapy 2" by Megan Blair, Ph.D., In Vivo Lead at Verismo Therapeutics, on April 21, showing multi-chain SynKIR-310 KIR-CAR had enhanced anti-tumor activity in vivo compared to tisagenlecleucel and axicabtagene ciloleucel analogs, in B-NHL xenograft mouse models, with reduced cytokine production, while maintaining comparable T cell persistence. These findings suggest a potential favorable benefit-risk profile of multi-chain KIR-CAR compared to traditional single-chain CAR T.

Early clinical data from CELESTIAL-301 were also shared, highlighting treatment of a 70-year-old male patient with follicular lymphoma who received SynKIR-310 KIR-CAR at the lowest dose level (DL1) and achieved complete tumor response 28 days later, which remains ongoing as of their most recent 6-month follow-up appointment.

The CELESTIAL-301 trial is supported in part by the Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation (IFLI), a global non-profit private foundation dedicated to accelerating the development of innovative treatment options for patients with follicular lymphoma, which has committed up to $4.05 million to advance SynKIR-310 KIR-CAR development in follicular lymphoma (FL) and expand patient enrollment in the trial.

"IFLI invested in SynKIR-310 because we believe its novel KIR-CAR architecture has the potential to meaningfully change the treatment trajectory for patients with follicular lymphoma who have exhausted standard options, including prior CAR T therapy," said David McCullagh, IFLI Managing Director. "Today’s data provide an important early signal supporting the potential of this platform. We look forward to continuing to support Verismo as they advance SynKIR-310 KIR-CAR toward broader clinical development in FL, along with other B cell malignancies."

About SynKIR-310 KIR-CAR and the CELESTIAL-301 Clinical Trial

SynKIR-310 is an investigational autologous engineered cell therapy developed using Verismo’s KIR-CAR platform. This approach utilizes a multi-chain, split-signaling architecture derived from natural killer cells, designed to drive long-term anti-tumor T cell function without T cell exhaustion. By keeping antigen recognition separate from T cell activation, the multi-chain architecture is intended to sustain T cell activity to provide a more durable response compared to single-chain CAR T approaches.

CELESTIAL-301 is a Phase 1 first-in-human, multi-center, open-label, basket clinical trial, evaluating SynKIR-310 KIR-CAR in patients with relapsed/refractory B-NHL, such as FL, and including those who have or have not previously received CD19 CAR T therapies. See clinicaltrials.gov (NCT06544265) for more information.

(Press release, Verismo Therapeutics, APR 21, 2026, View Source [SID1234664638])

BBOT Presents Preclinical Data Showing RAS:PI3Kα Breaker BBO-10203 Inhibits PI3Kα/AKT Signaling in HER2AMP Models at the AACR Annual Meeting 2026

On April 21, 2026 BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics, Inc. ("BBOT") (Nasdaq: BBOT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on RAS-pathway malignancies, reported new preclinical data in an oral presentation for BBO-10203, a first-in-class covalent small molecule RAS:PI3Kα breaker that selectively blocks the physical interaction between RAS and PI3Kα resulting in the inhibition of RAS-driven PI3Kα-AKT signaling in tumors with no observed hyperglycemia. The data were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2026.

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"The interaction between RAS and PI3Kα plays a critical role in malignant cells," said Pedro J. Beltran, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of BBOT. "BBO-10203 physically disrupts the interaction between RAS and PI3Kα, leading to signaling inhibition and tumor regressions. Importantly, unlike competing approaches, no hyperglycemia has been observed to date. In addition, BBO-10203’s ability to block RAS-mediated activation of PI3Kα is independent of the mutational status of either RAS or PI3Kα, which may enable treatment of a broader patient population. These data suggest that non-canonical RAS proteins play a key role in PI3Kα activation in HER2AMP cell lines. Furthermore, BBO-10203 demonstrates strong in vivo combination activity with HER2-targeted therapies, including tucatinib and trastuzumab, in HER2 AMP models."

Highlights from the oral presentation include:

BBO-10203 physically and allosterically disrupts the interaction between RAS and PI3Kα, leading to signaling inhibition without inhibiting the kinase activity of PI3Kα
BBO-10203 induces tumor regressions at 30 mg/kg QD and no hyperglycemia observed at 100 mg/kg QD
BBO-10203 shows that PI3Kα activity in HER2AMP cells is RAS-dependent
RAS RBD mutations recapitulate the pAKT and viability effects of breaker activity in HER2AMP cell lines
Non-canonical RAS signaling appears to be the dominant driver of pAKT in HER2AMP cell lines
BBO-10203 displays strong in vivo combination effects with HER2 inhibitors tucatinib or trastuzumab in HER2AMP models

The oral presentation is titled "The RAS:PI3Kα breaker BBO-10203 inhibits PI3Kα/AKT activity in HER2AMP models through non-canonical RAS signaling blockade." A copy of the presentation will be available on the "Publications" page of the BBOT website following the conference.

About BBO-10203
BBO-10203 is an orally bioavailable small molecule with a novel mechanism of action designed to inhibit the physical interaction between RAS and PI3Kα, inhibiting RAS-driven PI3Kα-AKT signaling in tumors. BBO-10203 binds directly and covalently to the RAS-binding domain of PI3Kα, preventing its activation by KRAS, HRAS and NRAS, reducing downstream signaling and tumor growth. It is a protein-protein inhibitor and not a kinase inhibitor, enabling inhibition of RAS-driven PI3Kα-AKT signaling in tumors without the risk of hyperglycemia. Importantly, BBO-10203’s ability to block RAS activation of PI3Kα is agnostic to the mutational status of either RAS or PI3Kα. In addition to a potentially differentiated safety profile, BBO-10203 could be combined with direct KRAS inhibitors, such as BBO-8520 and BBO-11818, or drugs that target HER2 or ER receptors. BBO-10203 is being evaluated in the Phase 1 BREAKER-101 trial (NCT06625775) for patients with locally advanced or metastatic HER2+ breast cancer, HR+/HER2- breast cancer, KRAS-mutant colorectal cancer, and KRAS-mutant non-small cell lung cancer. Updated Phase 1 clinical data are expected in the second half of 2026.

(Press release, BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics, APR 21, 2026, View Source [SID1234664654])

Allarity Therapeutics Presents Two AACR 2026 Posters Highlighting Stenoparib’s Potential in Colorectal Cancer as well as New Predictive Data Linking DRP® and Overall Survival in Ovarian Cancer

On April 21, 2026 Allarity Therapeutics, Inc. ("Allarity" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: ALLR), a Phase 2 clinical-stage pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing stenoparib (2X-121)—a differentiated, dual PARP and WNT pathway inhibitor— reported that it has published two scientific posters being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2026, held April 17–22 in San Diego, California. Both are now available in the Scientific Publications section of the Company’s website.

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The two posters highlight new data supporting stenoparib’s differentiated mechanism of action as well as the Company’s proprietary Drug Response Predictor (DRP) for stenoparib as a companion diagnostic platform.

Poster presentations

Poster 1

Title: A Drug Response Predictor (DRP) is associated with enhanced overall survival in the phase 2 trial in advanced, recurrent ovarian cancer patients treated twice daily with 2X-121/stenoparib (NCT03878849)

Session Title: Biomarkers Predictive of Therapeutic Benefit 3
Session Time: April 20, 2026, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

This poster highlights clinical data demonstrating that the highest stenoparib DRP scores are associated with enhanced overall survival in patients treated with stenoparib, reinforcing the value of DRP-based patient selection in ring-fencing those patients most likely to benefit from stenoparib.

Poster 2

Title: 2X-121/stenoparib – a novel, dual inhibitor of PARP and tankyrase in phase 2 clinical trials in advanced ovarian cancer – blocks the WNT signaling pathway and inhibits growth of human colorectal cancer cell lines at clinically relevant drug concentrations

Session Title: Novel Antitumor Agents 2
Session Time: April 21, 2026, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

This poster presents new findings demonstrating stenoparib’s unique mechanism of action to modulate the WNT/β-catenin signaling pathway and to inhibit the growth of colorectal cancer cell lines at clinically relevant concentrations. Colon and rectal cancers remain among the most prevalent and deadly cancers in the United States, with a high number of both new cases and cancer-related deaths each year, according to the National Cancer Institute, underscoring the significant unmet medical need in this indication.

Chief Executive Officer of Allarity Therapeutics, Thomas Jensen, commented:

"These new data highlight the potential for stenoparib in one of the largest areas of unmet need in oncology—colorectal cancer—where we believe stenoparib’s unique mechanism of action could make it a highly relevant therapy for this patient population. Moreover, based on insights from our ongoing stenoparib clinical development, we believe our DRP platform may play an important role in identifying those patients most likely to achieve the outcomes we ultimately seek in cancer therapy: enhanced and extended survival with a favorable tolerability profile. It is difficult to overstate the importance of this, as extended survival- especially from an easy-to-take oral therapy without the typical toxicities of chemotherapy- addresses the most critical considerations for both patients and oncologists when selecting a particular therapy."

Both posters are available on the Company’s website under the Scientific Publications section.

About Stenoparib/2X-121
Stenoparib is an orally available, small-molecule dual-targeted inhibitor of PARP1/2 and tankyrase 1/2. At present, tankyrases are attracting significant attention as emerging therapeutic targets for cancer, principally due to their role in regulating the WNT signaling pathway. Aberrant WNT/β-catenin signaling has been implicated in the development and progression of numerous cancers. By inhibiting PARP and blocking WNT pathway activation, stenoparib’s unique therapeutic action shows potential as a promising therapeutic for many cancer types, including ovarian cancer, Small Cell Lung Cancer and colorectal cancer. Allarity has secured exclusive global rights for the development and commercialization of stenoparib, which was originally developed by Eisai Co. Ltd. and was formerly known under the names E7449 and 2X-121. Allarity has two ongoing Phase 2 trial protocols for stenoparib in Ovarian Cancer patients. In the first, patients who had had 2+ lines of therapy were enrolled on stenoparib and given drug twice daily. This protocol has been closed to further enrollment but continues for the enrolled patients who are still receiving benefit from stenoparib administration. The updated data from this study were presented at the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) special conference on advances in Ovarian Cancer in September 2025. Note that, as these data are from an ongoing trial, analyses may change as the study fully matures. An amended protocol designed expressly to capitalize on the emerging clinical experience with stenoparib in platinum resistant patients began enrolling patients in the summer of 2025. This amended protocol enrolls only platinum resistant or platinum-ineligible patients and is designed to accelerate the clinical development of stenoparib toward FDA approval. In parallel, a separate Phase 2 trial evaluating stenoparib in combination with temozolomide for relapsed small cell lung cancer (SCLC) began enrolling patients in early 2026 and is currently enrolling patients across multiple U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) sites.

About the Drug Response Predictor – DRP Companion Diagnostic
Allarity uses its drug-specific DRP to select those patients who, by the gene expression signature of their cancer, may have a high likelihood of benefiting from a specific drug. By screening patients before treatment, and only treating those patients with a sufficiently high, drug-specific DRP score, the therapeutic benefit rate may be enhanced. The DRP method builds on the comparison of sensitive vs. resistant human cancer cell lines, including transcriptomic information from cell lines, combined with clinical tumor biology filters and prior clinical trial outcomes. DRP is based on messenger RNA expression profiles from patient biopsies. The DRP platform has shown an ability to provide a statistically significant prediction of the clinical outcome from drug treatment in cancer patients across dozens of clinical studies (both retrospective and prospective). The DRP platform, which may be useful in all cancer types and is patented for dozens of anti-cancer drugs, has been extensively published in the peer-reviewed literature.

(Press release, Allarity Therapeutics, APR 21, 2026, View Source [SID1234664670])

Disc Medicine Announces Oral Presentation of Data from RALLY-MF Phase 2 Trial of DISC-0974 in Patients with Myelofibrosis and Anemia at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting

On April 21, 2026 Disc Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRON), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel treatments for patients suffering from serious hematologic diseases, reported that it will present data from the RALLY-MF Phase 2 trial of DISC-0974 in anemia of myelofibrosis (MF) in an oral abstract session at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting, which will be held in Chicago, IL on May 29-June 2, 2026.

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"Initial data from the RALLY-MF trial showed anemia response rates that are unprecedented in the hard-to-treat myelofibrosis population," said John Quisel, J.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Disc Medicine. "We look forward to bringing a more complete dataset, with additional data from patients receiving transfusions, to the ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) stage."

The abstract will be published online on the ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) conference website on May 21, 2026. Pursuant to Disc Medicine practice, the abstract published will contain previously presented data, and new data and analyses are reserved for presentation at the conference.

DISC-0974 is an investigational agent and is not approved for use as a therapy in any jurisdiction worldwide.

Details of Oral Presentation:

Abstract Number: 6501
Abstract Title: RALLY-MF: Initial efficacy of a phase 2 study of DISC-0974, an anti-hemojuvelin antibody, to treat anemia in myelofibrosis.
Session Type/Title: Oral Abstract Session – Hematologic Malignancies—Leukemia, Myelodysplastic Syndromes, and Allotransplant
Session Date and Time: June 2, 2026, 9:45 AM-12:45 PM CDT
Presenting Author: Naseema Gangat, M.B.B.S.

(Press release, Disc Medicine, APR 21, 2026, View Source [SID1234664607])