CELL AND GENE THERAPY
EXUMA Biotech Corp. | December 22, 2021
EXUMA Biotech, Corp., a clinical-stage biotechnology company discovering and developing cell and gene therapies and delivery solutions for liquid and solid tumors, announced the completion of a $41 million Series B2 financing. The Series B2 brings the total capital raised since its inception to approximately $130 million.
Proceeds will be used to support further development of EXUMA's autologous subcutaneous rPOC CAR-TaNK platform for hematologic and solid tumors and continued clinical investigation of its Tumor Metabolism Regulated CAR technology targeting solid tumors. New investors in the Series B2 financing included Americo Life, Inc., in addition to existing investors.
"We are pleased to expand our investor base with support from this strategic group of investors who recognize the potential of our technologies to translate into life-changing therapies for cancer patients,"
Gregory Frost, Ph.D., EXUMA Biotech Chairman and Chief Executive Offer
"Dr. Holmes is a renowned cancer specialist who will make an outstanding addition to our board of directors. He has dedicated his life to researching advanced cellular and immunotherapy treatments for hematologic malignancies and to the education of the oncology community about these new modalities," said Frost.
Houston Holmes, M.D., received a BS in medical microbiology from Stanford University School of Medicine, an MD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Baylor University Medical Center, and fellowship in medical oncology/hematology at the National Cancer Institute/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Dr. Holmes has been in practice for over 20 years.
"It's an exciting time for cell and gene therapies. I'm thrilled to be a part of EXUMA and to join the company in its mission to advance innovative therapies towards the clinic and for cancer patients in urgent need of new treatments," said Houston Holmes, M.D.
About EXUMA Biotech
EXUMA Biotech is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the discovery and development of novel cellular therapies and gene delivery solutions for patients with cancer. The company leverages its global R&D footprint to discover, manufacture and develop gene delivery platforms and gene programs that may overcome the safety, efficacy, and scalability challenges of cellular therapies in solid tumor and hematologic malignancies. The company is headquartered in West Palm Beach.
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MEDTECH
Oracle | September 16, 2021
Advances in DNA/RNA sequencing promise to revolutionize how medical communities identify, detect, and treat diseases and manage public health threats. To make this technology more accessible and increase its impact, Oracle has teamed up with Oxford Nanopore Technologies, the company behind a new generation of high-performance, rapid, scalable, and accessible sequencing technology.
Oracle and Oxford Nanopore have recently begun a collaboration to jointly explore several potential new solutions that would use genomic sequencing running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to help speed medical breakthroughs and improve patient care.
Scientific researchers in more than 100 countries are already using nanopore sequencing to further their understanding of biology in a range of areas including human and cancer genetics as well as plant, animal, and environmental analyses. In addition, nanopore sequencing has been used for pathogen analysis, including the outbreak surveillance of tuberculosis, food-borne pathogens, Ebola, Zika, Lassa fever, dengue fever, influenza, and most recently COVID-19.
As part of the collaboration, Oxford Nanopore will be using OCI in applied and clinical markets. Leveraging the high performance, security, and extensive reach of Oracle Cloud, Oracle and Oxford Nanopore will have the ability to extend population-scale genetic sequencing across the globe.
The organizations will also take on several ambitious projects spanning epidemiology, whole-genome sequencing, and healthcare and drug discovery. This includes integrating Oxford Nanopore's DNA/RNA sequencing capabilities and data into Oracle's broad portfolio of healthcare and life sciences applications to strengthen the links between genomics, medical treatment, and drug development.
Oxford Nanopore's innovative sequencing technology is unparalleled in the market for its ability to generate rich, accurate genomic data at any scale, from handheld devices to ultra-high output installations, By integrating genomic data into our existing applications and cloud infrastructure solutions, we can get these powerful tools into the hands of more people to solve critical health issues faster and improve patient outcomes to usher in a new era of genomic breakthrough.
- Mike Sicilia, executive vice president of Oracle Vertical Industries.
In parallel, Oracle has committed to investing £150 million in Oxford Nanopore, subject to customary conditions.
About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud.
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AI
Valence Discovery, Charles River | April 08, 2021
Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. and Valence Discovery today reported the arrangement of an essential association to give customers admittance to Valence's computerized reasoning stage for sub-atomic property expectation, generative science, and multiparameter improvement.
Expanding on research done by Valence's establishing group at Mila, the world's biggest profound learning research organization, the Valence stage empowers the plan of little atom drug up-and-comers in novel districts of compound space, trailed by quick streamlining against project-explicit strength, selectivity, security, and pharmacology rules. Valence has spearheaded the utilization of few-shot learning in drug configuration, permitting the organization to open forecast errands for which just modest quantities of preparing information are accessible, defeating a basic constraint of existing AI advances in drug revelation.
Banding together to Accelerate Discoveries
By consolidating top tier AI advances with Charles River's start to finish abilities, the coalition can possibly essentially speed up revelation endeavors from hit plan through lead improvement.
Through the cooperation, Charles River customers will have the alternative to get to Valence's foundation to help their medication revelation endeavors. When exploiting this alternative, customers can expect expanded variety in substance matter being examined, in mix with more fast improvement against complex, project-explicit plan measures, at last diminishing courses of events and improving achievement rates for drug revelation projects.
Affirmed Quotes
"This coordinated effort reflects Charles River's continuous obligation to improving our arrangement of creative innovation arrangements. We anticipate utilizing Valence's exceptional stage to improve results for our customers." – Birgit Girshick, Corporate Executive Vice President, Discovery and Safety Assessment, Biologics Testing Solutions, and Avian Vaccine Services, Charles River
"The Valence stage offers a stage change improvement over existing again plan advancements. We've been reliably intrigued by Valence Discovery's capacity to create top notch synthetic matter that is promptly synthesizable, in novel areas of compound space, from datasets not in any case open to AI strategies." – Grant Wishart, PhD, Director of Computer Aided Drug Design, Charles River
"We are excited to collaborate with Charles River, a worldwide pioneer trusted by numerous individuals of the world's top drug and biotech organizations. This cooperation is a significant advance in facilitating our central goal of engaging each medication disclosure researcher with the most recent developments in AI-empowered medication plan."– Daniel Cohen, CEO of Valence Discovery
About Valence's AI-Enabled Drug Design Platform
The Valence stage develops the scholarly community driving exploration done by the organization's establishing group at Mila, the world's biggest profound learning research foundation. Specifically, Valence has spearheaded the use of not many shot learning in drug configuration, permitting the organization to open forecast assignments for which just limited quantities of preparing information are accessible, including novel targets and complex ADME models, while additionally guaranteeing that AI-produced particles are of high therapeutic science quality and promptly synthesizable. Also, Valence utilizes dynamic learning and iterative improvement procedures to guarantee that lone the most data rich mixtures are chosen for amalgamation, empowering the plan of mixtures meeting the objective strength, selectivity, and ADME models in less emphasess, and with undeniably less information, than in any case conceivable.
About Valence Discovery
Valence is focused on opening the genuine capability of profound learning in drug plan by binding together top tier profound learning innovations with instinctive foundation to make these advances all the more extensively open to R&D associations, everything being equal. Valence's AI-empowered medication plan stage has been widely approved and is right now being utilized to distinguish and configuration drug applicants as a team with industry-driving accomplices. The organization is spearheading the utilization of few-shot learning in drug plan and is creating and conveying novel AI strategies for sub-atomic property expectation, generative science, and multiparameter advancement. Valence (once in the past InVivo AI) was established in 2018, is exhorted by profound learning pioneer, Dr. Yoshua Bengio, and is gladly settled in Montreal at Mila, the world's biggest profound learning research foundation, with an office in Cambridge, Mass.
About Charles River
Charles River gives fundamental items and administrations to help drug and biotechnology organizations, government offices and driving scholastic foundations all throughout the planet speed up their exploration and medication improvement endeavors. Our devoted workers are centered around giving customers precisely what they need to improve and assist the disclosure, beginning phase advancement and safe production of new treatments for the patients who need them.
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