Pangea Biomed Partners with Hadassah and Ultima Genomics for Solid Tumor Cancer Treatment Research at Sharett Cancer Institute

Pangea Biomed, the startup behind the world’s most advanced cancer response predictor, ENLIGHT, is announcing a strategic collaboration with the Sharett Institute of Oncology and Hadassah Cancer Research Institute (HCRI) at the Hadassah University Hospital Ein-Kerem and Ultima Genomics, the developer of a revolutionary architecture for high-throughput genomic sequencing. This partnership aims to enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of solid tumor cancer treatment predictions through advanced genetic and transcriptomic profiling.

Solid tumors, which include cancers such as breast, lung, prostate and kidney cancer, represent approximately 90% of adult human cancers. These tumors can be challenging to treat due to their genetic heterogeneity and potential to metastasize. Effective treatment often requires a combination of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy tailored to the tumor’s specific genetic profile.

Hadassah is leading a significant initiative where nearly all solid tumor patients at the Sharett Institute of Oncology undergoing biopsies will receive comprehensive genetic profiling with FoundationOne, a tissue-based broad companion diagnostic DNA test to inform therapy choice.

Pangea will use RNA data obtained by Ultima Genomics and whole-slide histopathology scans as inputs to its AI-driven ENLIGHT platform. The resulting ENLIGHT reports, together with Hadassah clinical output and its analysis, provided by Hadassah experts, are expected to improve treatment choices for these patients.

“This partnership marks a significant step forward in the fight against solid tumors,” said Tuvik Beker, CEO of Pangea Biomed. “By integrating comprehensive DNA, RNA and imaging data, we are creating an unparalleled dataset that will not only benefit patients directly but also fuel numerous future research endeavors and clinical trials.”

As part of this clinical collaboration, Hadassah will provide essential biological samples, conduct comprehensive patient follow-ups, and utilize their medical expertise to perform a profound analysis of the data set, including DNA test results and clinical and patient data.

“This collaboration allows us to combine our clinical expertise and patient data with Pangea Biomed’s advanced technological capabilities, enabling us to make more precise and personalized treatment decisions,” said Prof. Aron Popovtzer, Head of the Oncology Department at the Sharett Institute of Oncology. “Our ongoing partnership with Pangea will continue to pave the way for new research breakthroughs and set a new standard in precision oncology.”

Hadasit, the Technology Transfer Company and innovation arm of Hadassah Hospitals is facilitating this collaboration and signing the agreement with Pangea in the name of Hadassah. “The partnership between Pangea Biomed and Hadassah Hospitals utilizes two unique assets of Hadassah – outstanding clinical expertise and extremely diverse patient population of the Jerusalem area, offering a rich and representative dataset that is crucial for pioneering advancements in precision oncology,” said Dr. Tamar Raz, CEO of Hadasit.

This partnership builds upon Pangea Biomeds’ existing collaboration with researchers at Hadassah to analyze data from patients treated with immunotherapy at the Sharett Institute of Oncology. The results of these efforts, which showed that ENLIGHT Matching Scores outperform standard biomarkers, were recently presented at the ASCO 2024 Annual Meeting.

The collaboration is designed as a long-term, multi-year project to produce ENLIGHT reports for more than 2,000 patients annually.

To learn more about Pangea Biomed’s technology, please visit PangeaBiomed.com.

About Pangea Biomed:

Founded in 2018, Pangea Biomed developed ENLIGHT – the world’s most advanced multi-cancer, multi-therapy response predictor. By combining machine learning and deep RNA analysis, the company is mapping tumor molecular signatures to dynamically and adaptively personalize cancer care for a healthier world. Pangea aims to bring effective precision oncology to cancer patients, improve oncology drug development and empower oncologists to treat patients with success. Pangea is backed by NFX, and its technology has been published in leading journals, including Cell, Med, Science Advances, Cancer Cell, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer and Nature Communications.

About the Hadassah Medical Organization and Hadassah Cancer Research Institute (HCRI):

For more than a century, Hadassah has set the standard of excellence for medical care and research in Israel. Every year, Hadassah provides more than one million people with hospital services, and in keeping with worldwide trends, the Hadassah University Medical Center in Israel is moving toward day care and day hospitalization to reduce costs and risk of infections. In addition to that, Hadassah is developing some of the most advanced diagnostic and treatment capabilities available in the world, including the use of smart systems, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Our doctors and scientists are on the front lines, uniquely positioned to pinpoint ever-evolving medical needs. Their experience and ingenuity have yielded new ideas with huge potential in all areas of medicine, including therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and digital health.

The Hadassah Cancer Research Institute (HCRI) is the translational research institute of Hadassah Medical Organization in Oncology, based in Jerusalem, Israel. Discoveries made in HCRI labs are driving clinical progress in the quest to diagnose and cure cancer.

About Hadasit Medical Research Services and Development:

Hadasit is the technology transfer company of Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem. Hadasit turns groundbreaking ideas into viable products and services that can change the world and improve humanity’s healthcare. With more than 260 active patent families, which have yielded numerous medical and commercial breakthroughs, Hadasit establishes companies, licenses technologies, and collaborates with leading international companies and research facilities around the world. To date, Hadasit had spun off over 65 companies, including the publicly traded Hadasit Bio-Holdings (TASE: HDST) in which Hadasit is a major shareholder.

About Ultima Genomics:

Ultima Genomics is unleashing the power of genomics at scale. The Company’s mission is to continuously drive the scale of genomic information to enable unprecedented advances in biology and improvements in human health. With humanity on the cusp of a biological revolution, there is a virtually endless need for more genomic information to address biology’s complexity and dynamic change—and a further need to challenge conventional next-generation sequencing technologies. Ultima’s revolutionary new sequencing architecture drives down the costs of sequencing to help overcome the tradeoffs that scientists and clinicians are forced to make between the breadth, depth and frequency with which they use genomic information. The new sequencing architecture was designed to scale far beyond conventional sequencing technologies, lower the cost of genomic information and catalyze the next phase of genomics in the 21st century. To learn more, visit www.ultimagenomics.com.

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