OncoHost, RayBiotech Win $1M From BIRD Foundation

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Israeli proteomics firm OncoHost said today that it and its partner RayBiotech have received a $1 million grant from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation.

The fund will support the companies’ development and clinical validation of a test to predict patient response to immunotherapy treatment in non-small cell lung cancer and to develop an automated slide assistance platform to enable large-scale protein processing for host response enrichment work for pharmaceutical companies.

“The grant and support from the BIRD Foundation represents an important milestone for OncoHost,” OncoHost CEO Ofer Sharon said in a statement. “We are committed to develop a system for the early identification of resistance to cancer therapy in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), as well as a discovery tool for new drug targets. Our unique approach of host response analysis represents a significant step forward for precision oncology and personalized cancer treatment.”

“The BIRD Foundation Board of Governors selected to support the project between OncoHost and RayBiotech on their mission to counteract therapy resistance in order to improve cancer treatment response,” said Dr. Eitan Yudilevich, Executive Director of the BIRD Foundation. “This joint project contains a high level of innovation and knowledge that could benefit the treatment of lung cancer patients.”

The BIRD Foundation supports cooperation between US and Israeli companies for developing joint products or technologies that are of mutual benefit to the two countries.