On November 18, 2020 Caribou Biosciences, Inc., a leading clinical-stage CRISPR genome editing biotechnology company, reported the execution of an exclusive license agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) under which Caribou has rights to fully human anti-CD371 scFvs and intellectual property related thereto in the field of allogeneic CD371-targeted cell therapies including CAR-T, CAR-NK, or iPSC-derived cell products. The anti-CD371 scFvs were developed in the laboratory of Renier Brentjens, M.D., Ph.D. at MSK in collaboration with the Tri-Institutional Therapeutic Discovery Institute (Tri-I TDI) (Press release, Caribou Biosciences, NOV 18, 2020, View Source [SID1234571359]). Tri-I TDI is a non-profit drug discovery company wholly owned by MSK, Weill Cornell Medicine, and The Rockefeller University (www.tritdi.org). MSK has the sole responsibility for licensing these scFvs and the related intellectual property for commercialization.

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

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

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

"CD371, also known as CLL-1, is an attractive target for both acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) due to its expression on these myeloid cancer cells, its enrichment in leukemic stem cells, and its absence on hematopoietic stem cells," said Steven Kanner, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Caribou. "Preclinical studies at MSK have demonstrated the antitumor efficacy of targeting CD371 for AML using these human scFvs in CAR-Ts."

In-licensing these anti-CD371 scFvs further expands Caribou’s pipeline of allogeneic cell therapies for hematological malignancies. CB-010, Caribou’s lead allogeneic CAR-T program, targets CD19 and has been cleared by the FDA for clinical evaluation. CB-011, Caribou’s second allogeneic CAR-T therapy, targets BCMA. Caribou’s next-generation genome editing technologies enable high efficiency and specificity multiplex engineering, which is critical for the manufacture of CB-010 and CB-011. Caribou implements multiple strategies to boost CAR-T cell persistence to overcome T cell exhaustion and prevent rapid immune-mediated clearance.

"The opportunity to exclusively access fully human CD371-specific antibody fragments is exciting and we look forward to utilizing them to develop allogeneic cell therapies to treat AML and/or MDS," said Rachel Haurwitz, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Caribou. "The combination of these scFvs and Caribou’s next-generation genome editing platform is a promising approach to addressing these difficult-to-treat myeloid malignancies with significant unmet medical need."

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

On November 18, 2020 Personalis, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSNL), a leader in advanced genomics for population sequencing and cancer, reported that the company will participate in the EACR Liquid Biopsies Virtual Event, November 18-19, including a poster presentation and satellite symposia (Press release, Personalis, NOV 18, 2020, View Source [SID1234571358]).

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

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

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

The company will showcase both their platforms, ImmunoID NeXT and NeXT Liquid Biopsy.

ImmunoID NeXT is the first platform to enable comprehensive analysis of both a tumor and its immune microenvironment from a single sample, thus maximizing the biological information that can be generated from a precious tumor specimen.

NeXT Liquid Biopsy, a first-of-its-kind, high-performance exome-wide liquid biopsy assay, provides a unique ability to evaluate the cancer ecosystem and advance the development of next-generation therapies. While solid tumor biopsies remain the standard for the interrogation of the cancer genome, the advent of liquid biopsies has demonstrated there can be more to a cancer’s genotypic profile than that found in a single tissue biopsy. Therefore, the combination of NeXT Liquid Biopsy and ImmunoID NeXT delivers the most comprehensive view of a cancer’s mutational landscape by evaluating both the tissue and blood. NeXT Liquid Biopsy enables investigation into key applications such as spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the tumor, clonal evolution and tumor dynamics in response to therapies, and mechanisms of acquired resistance. In this presentation, we’ll highlight data demonstrating the genomic profiling and assay performance enabled by NeXT Liquid Biopsy through the evaluation of reference standards and patient samples.

Following are details for the Personalis presentations.

Scientific Poster Presentation

Poster Number

Title & Presenter

Dates

40

Sensitive detection and monitoring of genetic alterations in circulating cfDNA with an enhanced whole-exome approach
Presenter: Simo V. Zhang, PhD

NOV 18-19 | Online

Following are details of an industry-sponsored symposium which will be presented at the meeting.

Satellite Symposia

Title

Title & Presenter

Dates

Sponsored Symposia

NeXT Liquid Biopsy, A High Performance, Exome-Wide Liquid Biopsy Assay to Study Tumor Dynamics
Presenters: Erin N. Newburn, PhD and Dan Norton, MBA

NOV 18-19 | On Demand

On November 18, 2020 Foundation Medicine reported it has entered into a non-exclusive agreement to license two foundational patent families from TwinStrand Biosciences, a next-generation DNA sequencing technology company based in Seattle (Press release, Foundation Medicine, NOV 18, 2020, View Source [SID1234571357]).

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

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

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

The patented TwinStrand Duplex Sequencing technology is a biochemistry- and software-based platform that enables researchers and clinicians to detect faint signals of ultra-low frequency DNA mutations often obscured by technical noise.

"Advancing and improving patient care is our highest priority and we’re pleased to work with partners like TwinStrand who share this same goal," said Cindy Perettie, Foundation Medicine’s chief executive officer. "We look forward to expanding this agreement with TwinStrand to explore additional areas for future collaboration."

"We are delighted to partner with Foundation Medicine, a company that shares our patient-centric mission of applying innovative science to advance cancer care globally," said Jesse Salk, MD, PhD, TwinStrand’s chief executive officer. "We are excited to help power Foundation Medicine’s commitment to delivering the highest quality data and genomic insights to physicians and their patients."

On November 18, 2020 Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) reported that its executives will be speaking at the following investor conference and invited investors to participate via webcast (Press release, Illumina, NOV 18, 2020, View Source [SID1234571356]).

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

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

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

Piper Sandler Annual Healthcare Conference
Thursday, December 3, 2020 at 1:30pm Eastern Time

The live webcast can be accessed in the Investor Info section of Illumina’s web site under the "company" tab at www.illumina.com. A replay of the presentation will be posted on Illumina’s website as soon as possible after the event and will be available for at least 30 days following.

On November 18, 2020 Agendia, Inc., a world leader in precision oncology for breast cancer, and Paige, a global leader in AI-based digital diagnostics, reported a first of its kind strategic partnership that will redefine precision oncology (Press release, Agendia, NOV 18, 2020, View Source [SID1234571355]). The partnership will enable co-development of treatment planning tools that integrate the cloud-based Paige Platform with genomic information from Agendia’s proprietary MammaPrint and BluePrint diagnostic tests for patients with breast cancer. These new products will enable faster access to predictive and prognostic information along the entire continuum of care, from diagnosis and early intervention to metastatic treatment planning.

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

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

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

"Paige’s digital pathology platform is truly transformational for oncology and will catapult diagnostics forward as a whole. This partnership defines the democratization of treatment planning tools by accelerating access to these tests and the essential insights they provide for more patients globally," said Mark Straley, Chief Executive Officer of Agendia. "Our goal is to provide same-day turnaround in most cases, enable earlier intervention, preserve limited biopsy or surgical tissue specimens, and extend key benefits to physicians and their patients with access to testing in countries where tissue ‘send out’ is not allowed. Whether a patient is in Manhattan or Mumbai, the ability to get real-time and accurate results from Agendia’s MammaPrint and BluePrint tests will improve how we are treating breast cancer today."

The initial focus of the collaboration will be the development of digital tests for early treatment planning where genomic testing has played an essential role in determining recurrence risk and tumor biology as doctors and their patients make decisions about the path ahead. This can be especially important for patients with operable breast cancer. Beyond early intervention, AI-derived biomarkers will be used to augment genomic testing in the metastatic setting where a multitude of therapeutic options can add to the complexity of treatment planning.

"As the first company to receive FDA clearance, FDA breakthrough designation and two CE marks for digital and computational pathology products, Paige is delivering next-generation digital diagnostics that redefine how we approach cancer care," said Leo Grady, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Paige. "By combining our unique capabilities with Agendia’s leadership in breast cancer, we believe this innovative partnership can achieve our shared goal of transforming clear and actionable information into precision treatment for better patient outcomes. It will be the first of many AI-based diagnostic tests to come."