On October 12, 2021 AUM Biosciences (AUM) reported the successful completion of $27 million series A funding round (Press release, AUM BioSciences, OCT 12, 2021, View Source [SID1234591122]). This will fuel AUM’s vision of developing a world class biotech pipeline focused on drugging what many consider as the undruggable targets, as well as addressing the need to delay and overcome resistance to targeted drugs in oncology . The funding will also accelerate pipeline expansion and business growth. This round was led by private equity funds including Singapore-based Everlife and globally focused health sciences investment firm SPRIM Global investments (SGI).

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Through its robust strategic collaborations with leading academic institutions, pharmaceutical and biotech companies globally, AUM is now leading an ecosystem of multi-modality line up of small molecule targeted therapies, including in-house research programs. AUM plans to use the proceeds to advance the clinical development of its portfolio with immediate initiation of two Phase II programs for MNK and TRK inhibitors.

Talking about the impetus Vishal Doshi, CEO and co-founder, AUM Biosciences said, "We are excited about the next phase of growth and value creation. Our blue-chip founders and leaders are proud to have the confidence of and support from Everlife and SPRIM Global Investments. These proven investors share our enthusiasm for developing new therapies for patients who have high unmet needs."

Harish Dave, CMO and co-founder, AUM Biosciences who is gearing up to lead the next phase of this growth journey, expressed, "We are thrilled to see our vision taking root, and the strong support from Everlife and SPRIM Global Investments will certainly accelerate our innovation plans, globally. The synergy in our vision to support the cancer patients with better targeted therapies, has laid the foundation of this association and investment."

Earlier this year, AUM had entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Handok Inc and CMG Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. Additionally, AUM Biosciences and Newsoara Biopharma also announced a 5-year transformational strategic partnership in 2020 to co-develop and co-discover next-generation cancer therapeutics (enterprise value of up to USD 135M).

Dr. Arjun Oberoi, Executive Chairman, Everlife said, "We are deeply impressed by AUM’s leadership team and believe that AUM’s unique portfolio holds great promise to address multiple unmet needs in the field of oncology. Everlife has a strong inclination in expanding its presence in the cancer diagnostic arena. This collaboration will help position us more strongly in the overall oncology ecosystem and grants us immediate access to AUM’s network of research laboratories and those of its partners in Southeast Asia".

On October 12, 2021 The Jackson Laboratory (JAX), a U.S.-based nonprofit biomedical research institution, reported that it has acquired Charles River Laboratories Japan’s Research Models & Services (RMS) business as a wholly owned subsidiary (Press release, Charles River Laboratories, OCT 12, 2021, View Source [SID1234591120]). The Japan-based organization, which will be called The Jackson Laboratory Japan, has approximately 250 employees and three production sites in Atsugi, Hino and Tsukuba, and an administrative office in Yokohama.

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"This important acquisition resulting in the establishment of The Jackson Laboratory Japan is a critical milestone in further empowering Japanese researchers to make significant scientific advances and improvements in drug discovery and basic research," said Auro Nair, executive vice president of The Jackson Laboratory and president, JAX Mice, Clinical and Research Services.

"We look forward to providing these researchers with direct access to the highest standard of leading-edge animal research models, services, and scientific support that JAX is renowned for. This includes specialty models such as humanized mice and advanced immunodeficient models based on the NSG-platform mouse, as well as services, technical support and scientific expertise. Additionally, this acquisition advances our mission to empower biomedical research worldwide and to play an even more direct role in Japan as well as Korea and Taiwan while advancing our international growth strategy," said Nair.

JAX has the world’s largest and best characterized repository of high-quality models including aged mice, the JAX NSG portfolio, humanized mice, along with important inbred strains like Black 6 and BALB/c and many others in its catalog of 12,000 precision research and therapeutic models. These models have the highest health and genetic quality and have the potential to better provide translatable research insights when precisely applied, benefiting scientists and ultimately, patients around the world. In addition to providing improved access to strains of JAX Mice, the entire JAX NSG portfolio will become available to researchers in Japan.

Nair will serve as the chairman of the Board of Directors and Yukihiro Takemoto will report to Nair while retaining his current role as president and representative director for the new entity, The Jackson Laboratory Japan.

"For over 20 years, we have built a strong partnership with The Jackson Laboratory providing research animal models. We are very pleased to be able to take this new strategic step forward and further contribute to the development of drug discovery and bioscience research in Japan," said Takemoto. "Customers will continue to have full access to all products and services that they currently receive and we look forward to extending our portfolio of offerings to them."

On October 12, 2021 Deepcell, a life science company pioneering AI-powered cell classification and isolation for basic and translational research, reported a collaboration with the Levesque Lab at the University of Zurich (Press release, Deepcell, OCT 12, 2021, View Source [SID1234591119]). The goals of the collaboration are to use Deepcell’s technology to identify and sort rare melanoma cells, profile melanoma tissues to gain a deeper understanding about tumor microenvironment, and enable molecular analyses of the sorted cells.

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This collaboration brings together one of the leading scientific research institutions in Europe and one of the most innovative life science companies. Deepcell’s AI-powered platform analyzes, classifies and isolates viable cells in a label-free manner based on morphology alone. Through its deep learning-based algorithms and unique cell sorting approach, Deepcell supports a quantitative and mechanistic understanding of cell biology.

"Melanoma cells are difficult to isolate with conventional sorting methods because they lack reliable cell surface markers. By isolating and sorting cells using morphology, we may deepen our understanding of the biology of melanoma progression and, in particular, of cell phenotypes and molecular features of cancerous cells," said Dr Levesque, Associate Professor at the University of Zurich.

The Deepcell platform combines high-resolution imaging of cells in flow with real-time cell classification and sorting, using cell morphology as the only analyte. This label-free, target-agnostic approach overcomes some of the limitations of cell surface marker-based classification and enrichment, including the limited number of available markers and channels for detection, prior knowledge or guesswork required to select surface proteins, and availability of protein-specific antibodies. Importantly, the technology not only analyzes the cellular phenotype, but also enables the isolation of viable, unperturbed cells, allowing for the linkage of cell morphology with molecular data and functional assays.

"We continue to expand our collaborations with world-class researchers, such as teaming up with Dr Levesque and his team at the University of Zurich," said Maddison Masaeli, Co-founder and CEO of Deepcell. "Our unique AI-powered technology transforms cell morphology into a precise, reproducible and unbiased analyte that enables highly accurate cell classification while maintaining cell viability. With the researchers at the University of Zurich, we will be able to generate rich data to help elucidate the complex tumor microenvironment."

On October 12, 2021 Mayo Clinic reported an agreement on Tuesday, Oct. 12 that will allow it to offer clinical-grade comprehensive cancer genomic sequencing to cancer patients who choose to participate (Press release, Mayo Clinic, OCT 12, 2021, View Source [SID1234591118]). Test results will be available to patients and their treating health care providers to guide therapeutic decisions, advance cancer research, and support the development of new diagnostic tests and therapies for cancer treatment.

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Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, and Mayo Clinic’s Center for Individualized Medicine are collaborating with Personalis Inc. (Nasdaq: PSNL), a cancer genomics company whose clinical-grade, comprehensive cancer genomic test includes sequencing the entire coding genome through whole-exome and transcriptome sequencing. The test will provide a clinical report for each patient and comprehensive aggregated data that Mayo Clinic and Personalis will use to further develop this comprehensive diagnostic approach.

"Our goal for this relationship is to assure cancer patients from across the world get the most comprehensive genomic testing at Mayo Clinic," says William Morice II, M.D, Ph.D., chair of Mayo Clinic’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. "We’re committed to making this test available to diverse patient populations who haven’t yet had access to this type of testing."

"We believe the use of aggregated and de-identified genomic sequencing data will improve both patient care and patient access to care," says Konstantinos Lazaridis, M.D., medical director of Mayo Clinic’s Center for Individualized Medicine. Dr. Lazaridis says the consortium will make it possible to offer individual patients a clinical benefit in their treatment and the ability to contribute data in the aggregate that may lead to the development of new and improved treatments and systems that will benefit all patients.

"Developing individualized treatment plans for each patient based on their unique spectrum of cancer-promoting mutations is critical to our mission to provide the most advanced cancer care," says Cheryl Willman, M.D., executive director of Mayo Clinic Cancer Programs and director of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. "As we advance the Human Cancer Genome Project to more diverse and understudied populations, it is particularly important to use comprehensive sequencing methods to uncover all possible mutations."

Dr. Willman says that collaborations with groups such as Personalis provide health care providers with access to molecular data that may offer new insights into the causes of particular cancers and also may help researchers develop more effective, personalized treatments. "Our goal is to develop our capacity for ‘precision prevention’ that will help us detect and treat cancers earlier in all populations," says Dr. Willman.

"We are honored to work with Mayo Clinic to increase access to advanced cancer testing," says Richard Chen, M.D., chief medical officer of Personalis. "Rapid advances in our understanding of cancer and the development of new cancer therapies are driving the need for more comprehensive testing platforms."

On October 12, 2021 BostonGene Corporation, a biomedical software company committed to defining optimal precision medicine-based therapies for cancer patients, reported two research collaborations with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the largest hospital-based research program in the U.S. that delivers care grounded in leading-edge research, advanced treatment offerings and the latest clinical trials (Press release, BostonGene, OCT 12, 2021, View Source [SID1234591117]). The collaborations are designed to explore the role of tumor genetics and the tumor microenvironment of patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) and to understand their impact on disease transformation and response to treatment.

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An indolent B-cell lymphoma, FL can transform into an aggressive lymphoma; however, the underlying causes of transformation remain unknown. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms and the role of the microenvironment in this process, Abner Louissaint MD, PhD, of the Department of Pathology at the MGH, developed a unique PDX mouse model of FL transformation. In support of this work, BostonGene performs large-scale analytics utilizing next generation sequencing (NGS data) and multiplex immunofluorescence (MxIF) imaging to provide insight into the cellular composition and spatial architecture of the reconstructed patient tumor and microenvironment in these PDX mouse models. BostonGene computational modeling of the molecular profiles of the primary patient FL tumors and the PDX tumors uncovers which patients may undergo transformation. This collaborative project drives the utilization of FL PDX mouse models in the personalization of therapy, the discovery of potential therapies for transformed FL, and the identification of biomarkers of transformation.

A second study focuses on the elucidation of the role of tumor microenvironment on FL patients’ response to treatments. Jacob Soumerai, MD, a clinical lymphoma investigator at the MGH Cancer Center, in collaboration with Dr. Louissaint are evaluating the influence of tumor genetics and tumor microenvironment composition on FL patient response and the development of resistance to the combinatorial therapy of rituximab and umbralisib, a PI3Kδ inhibitor. As part of this study, BostonGene provides integrated transcriptomic and genomic analysis of FL patients treated with this combination therapy such as the identification of somatic alterations, evaluation of gene expression, estimation of tumor heterogeneity, microenvironment classification and neoantigen prediction. This work will determine biomarkers of FL patient response to PI3Kδ inhibition, ultimately improving the clinical outcomes of this patient population.

"By using an analytical approach to further understand the cellular composition of patients with follicular lymphoma and identify biomarker response to therapy, we are hopeful that we can be better informed when making individual treatment decisions," said Dr. Louissaint, who is also an assistant professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School.

"We’re proud to collaborate with MGH by providing next-generation multi-platform analytics to evaluate the molecular and immunologic profiles of follicular lymphoma patients," said Nathan Fowler, MD, Chief Medical Officer at BostonGene. "Our analysis will define genomic and transcriptional alterations that serve as predictive biomarkers of response and resistance to therapy, enabling doctors to personalize treatment plans."