OncoHost and RayBiotech Awarded $1 Million Grant From the BIRD Foundation to Advance Precision Oncology for Patients Receiving Immunotherapy

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Partnership Leverages Host Response Analysis to Predict Response to Cancer Therapy and Aid in Discovery of New Drug Combination Strategies

BINYAMINA, Israel and ATLANTA, Jan. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OncoHost, global leader in host response profiling for improved personalized cancer therapy, together with its partner RayBiotech, a leading life sciences company developing high-throughput protein detection technologies for biomarker discovery initiatives, announced today the companies have been awarded a $1 million grant from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. The BIRD Foundation supports cooperation between U.S. and Israeli companies for developing joint products or technologies in a wide range of technology sectors that are of mutual benefit to the U.S. and Israel.

The grant will support OncoHost and RayBiotech's combined development and clinical validation of host response testing for the early prediction of treatment responsiveness in non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) patients undergoing immunotherapy. It will also be used to further develop and implement an automated slide assistance platform (ASAP) for reducing the time of large-scale protein processing as part of a new joint service: host response enrichment for pharmaceutical companies. Both of these developments will contribute towards the enablement of personalized cancer therapy for patients.

"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 grant and support from the BIRD Foundation represents an important milestone for OncoHost," said Dr. Ofer Sharon, CEO of OncoHost. "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."

OncoHost's host response profiling platform PROphet™ leverages proprietary machine learning and bioinformatics technology, and will be used together with RayBiotech's high-throughput protein analysis platform to identify treatment resistance in cancer patients.

"This partnership perfectly aligns with our mission to advance precision medicine," said Dr. Ray Huang, CEO of RayBiotech. "Antibody array-based profiling of patient samples has proven a critical approach to informing personalized therapies and biomarker discovery studies, particularly in cancer research. We are eager to see how the PROphet platform can harness the power of high-throughput protein detection."

About OncoHost

OncoHost combines life-science research and advanced machine learning technology to develop personalized strategies to maximize the success of cancer therapy. Utilizing proprietary proteomic analysis, the company aims to understand patients' unique response to therapy and overcome one of the major obstacles in clinical oncology today – resistance to therapy. OncoHost's Host Response Profiling platform (PROphet) analyzes proteomic changes in blood samples to monitor the dynamics of biological processes induced by the patient (i.e., the host) in response to a given cancer therapy. This proteomic profile is highly predictive of individual patient outcome, thus enabling personalized treatment planning. PROphet also identifies potential drug targets, advancing the development of novel therapeutic strategies as well as rationally based combination therapies.

For more information, visit http://www.oncohost.com.

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About RayBiotech

RayBiotech is a leading life sciences company providing proteomic discovery tools. RayBiotech has nearly 150 employees whose objectives are to provide excellent products and service worldwide to RayBiotech customers which include scientists in industry, academic and research institutes in 41 countries. RayBiotech's mission is to provide cutting-edge array technologies for the discovery of disease-related protein biomarkers and key factors, the identification of new drug targets, and the advancement of personalized medicine. RayBiotech is committed to accelerating customer success through innovation and leadership in the Life Sciences. https://www.raybiotech.com/