Elpis Appoints Leading Immuno-Oncology Expert Dr. Vincenzo Bronte to its Scientific Advisory Board
LEXINGTON, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Elpis Biopharmaceuticals, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing next generation multifunctional immunotherapies to transform cancer treatment, today announced the appointment of Vincenzo Bronte, M.D., of the University of Verona in Italy, to its Scientific Advisory Board. Additionally, the company has entered into a collaboration with Dr. Bronte’s laboratory to discover and develop human therapeutic antibodies against inhibitory myeloid derived suppressive cells (MDSCs), which play key roles in suppressing the immune cell activation within tumors.
“I am honored to welcome Dr. Bronte to our Scientific Advisory Board. It is exciting to collaborate with his team to develop novel immunotherapeutic antibodies,” said Yan Chen, President and Chief Executive Officer at Elpis Biopharmaceuticals. “Dr. Bronte is a world leader in the biology of myeloid cells, which are central to the mechanisms of immunosuppression in cancer. His tremendous expertise in this area will undoubtedly strengthen the Elpis myeloid-related programs.”
“I am delighted to be joining distinguished colleagues with great achievements in immuno-oncology on the Scientific Advisory Board of Elpis,” said Dr. Bronte. “I am equally enthusiastic about collaborating with Elpis on developing a novel therapeutical antibody program and further expanding the company’s myeloid biology portfolio, which already includes their exciting pre-clinical anti-Siglec15 mAb candidate.”
Under the collaboration, Elpis will discover fully human mAb candidates utilizing its proprietary mRNADisTM technology and leveraging mechanistic insights and immuno-suppression mechanism models developed by Dr. Bronte and his team at the University of Verona. The most promising candidate will be developed and commercialized by Elpis.
Dr. Bronte is Full Professor of Immunology at the University of Verona, Head of the Immunology Section of the Department of Medicine of Verona University and of the Immunology Unit of the Verona University Hospital. He has received multiple awards, including the International Prize Francesco De Luca and the prize Guido Venosta for oncology researchers. He has authored 124 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and has been an editor of several immunology and oncology journals, including Frontiers in Immunology, Frontiers in Oncology, the Journal of Immunology, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and Cancer Immunology Research and Cancer Research. Among Dr. Bronte’s other achievements is his definition and characterization of myeloid-derived suppressor cells. He is also a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher (2018 to 2021).
Elpis’ proprietary mRNADis™ human antibody discovery and mSCAFold™ cytokine engineering platforms enable rapid and robust discovery of multifunctional human antibodies and mechanism fine-tuned immunomodulators through precision modulation of the downstream mechanisms.
About Elpis Biopharmaceuticals
Elpis Biopharmaceuticals is engineering and developing multifunctional immunotherapies, that modulate disease biology with great precision and safety to overcome cancer resistance. Through its proprietary mRNADisTM antibody discovery and mSCAFoldTM protein engineering platforms, Elpis is advancing a rich pipeline to treat solid tumors and hematological malignancies with the goal of improving outcomes for patients with difficult-to-treat and resistant cancers. The company’s lead immuno-oncology product candidates EPIM-001, a tumor-targeted engineered bifunctional IL-2Rβ agonist/anti-PDL1 with reduced IL-2Rα activation and EPB-001, an anti-Siglec15 mAb to treat solid tumors are being advanced to enter into clinical studies in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Elpis is headquartered in Lexington, MA, with research labs in the U.S. and China.
Contacts
Media:
Karen Sharma
MacDougall
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