Thursday, March 28, 2019
OSE Immunotherapeutics, announces a new research collaboration agreement with premier cancer research hospital, Léon Bérard Cancer Center in Lyon, France, to use artificial intelligence (AI)-based bioanalysis and bioinformatics to identify novel targets in immuno-oncology.
Léon Bérard Cancer Center (CLB) has both a cancer immunotherapy laboratory and translational research laboratory and is recognized as a scientific expert in oncology, particularly in tumor targeting and in the immune environment. Additional resources at CLB include its state-of-the-art bioinformatics platform and biological resource center. Their experience in analyzing and integrating data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) allows detailed analysis of clinically relevant targets in populations that could potentially benefit from an innovative therapeutic approach.
This new collaborative immuno-oncology research program will use different patient cohorts and tumor biopsies to identify novel molecular targets associated with the primary and secondary resistance to
PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors and to validate a strategy of combining drugs based on target expression profile.
The research is based on an artificial intelligence approach jointly developed which will be applied to analyze gene expression in the human tumor microenvironment and the composition of tumor infiltrates. The findings from this collaboration will be used for the selection and validation of innovative targets for early development of new drug candidates from the platform of bispecific fusion proteins targeting PD-1 and innovative targets (BiCKI®).
“We are very excited to begin a new collaboration with an expert team and the CLB, a premier cancer research center. The goal of this partnership is to identify and validate new targets that will help streamline the development of new treatment approaches for cancer, especially in difficult to treat tumors,” said Alexis Peyroles, chief executive officer of OSE Immunotherapeutics.
Professor Jean-Yves Blay, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Léon Bérard Cancer Center commented, "Our AI approach combined with our translational and immunological research platforms will enable us to analyse tumor immune parameters and to identify potential new pathways to address unmet needs for cancer patients. This partnership brings together top experts in oncology research and translational science with the hopes of rapidly advancing the discovery of first-class treatment options for cancer patients. We are very pleased to work in collaboration on this cutting-edge research with OSE Immunotherapeutics."
