Pangea Biomed Begins Pilot Collaboration with the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute to Improve Cancer Therapy Precision

Pangea Biomed, the startup behind the advanced cancer response prediction platform ENLIGHT, today announced the beginning of a pilot collaboration with the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University(OHSU). This collaboration will explore the ability to predict personalized cancer treatment response using data processed through the Serial Measurements of Molecular and Architectural Responses to Therapy (SMMART) Clinical Trials Program.

“Through our pilot collaboration with Pangea, our goal is to identify therapies that can overcome cancer drug resistance, paving the way for more effective treatments tailored to each individual patient,” said Gordon Mills, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Precision Oncology program at the Knight Cancer Institute.

OHSU is Oregon’s only academic health center and one of the largest employers in Portland, Oregon. Renowned for its cutting-edge research, OHSU secured approximately $596.88 million in research grant awards and generated more than 80 new technology disclosures in 2023.

Pangea Biomed, using its proprietary ENLIGHT-DP platform developed in collaboration with the Australian National University and the National Cancer Institute, will analyze RNA sequencing data and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) slides from longitudinal biopsies of OHSU patients.

The ENLIGHT-DP platform operates through a two-step process: first, DeepPT, a novel deep-learning framework, predicts genome-wide tumor mRNA expression from H&E-stained slides. Then, ENLIGHT uses these inferred expression values to predict treatment responses, offering a comprehensive analysis of the patient’s cancer and guiding personalized treatment decisions.

This pilot will use data from the following studies:

• “Molecular Mechanisms of Tumor Evolution and Resistance to Therapy” (MMTERT), led by Mills, aims to identify methods and tests that can improve the delivery of better cancer treatment for patients with localized, advanced, or metastatic cancer.

• The “Adaptive Multidrug Treatment of Evolving Cancers” (AMTEC) Trial, led by OHSU’s Dr. Alexandra Zimmer, aims to determine if combining olaparib with durvalumab, selumetinib, capivasertib, or ceralasertib provides more benefit to patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) compared to standard therapy.

Pangea’s analysis of the data will also investigate dynamic changes in the transcriptome, which includes all RNA transcripts, both coding and non-coding, throughout consecutive lines of treatment. The pilot study will run for approximately five months and the results will be used to create a joint manuscript.

“Teaming up with the Knight Cancer Institute enables us to delve deeper into understanding cancer treatment responses,” said Tuvik Beker, CEO of Pangea Biomed. “We are excited about the potential breakthroughs that will emerge from this collaboration, leveraging our ENLIGHT platform to help us move beyond ‘one-size-fits-all’ therapeutics.”

This announcement follows Pangea’s recent Nature Cancer paper presenting the ENLIGHT-DP pipeline, and the introduction of their new scientific advisory board member, Dr. Kenneth Aldape.

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 expression 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 Nature Cancer, Cell, Med, Science Advances, Cancer Cell, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer and Nature Communications.

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