Syntekabio Signs MOU with US 'Metaclips' for "Patient-Customized Cancer Vaccine Research"

AI new drug development specialist Syntekabio announced on the 31st that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for joint research on personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines with Metaclip Therapeutics (hereinafter Metaclip), a US-based immuno-oncology vaccine platform developer.

Michael Coleman, CEO of Metaclips (from left), Shaker Reddy, founder and COO of Metaclips, and Jeong Jong-sun, CEO of Syntekabio, are taking a commemorative photo after signing a business agreement on July 28 (local time). Photo by Syntekabio

Following this MOU, Syntekabio plans to support the discovery of various antigen candidates based on NEO-ARS® by utilizing clinical trial data of personalized cancer vaccines developed with Metaclip’s proprietary technology.

Metaclip, located in Georgia, USA, possesses Membrex™ technology that develops patient-specific therapeutic cancer vaccines using tumor membrane vesicles (TMV). In April, it received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of the Membrex treatment targeting triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), and is expected to begin patient recruitment in the second half of this year.

Metaclip’s clinical trial aims to verify the safety and anticancer efficacy of the TMV-based cancer vaccine. For follow-up clinical research, Syntekabio will analyze tumor sample genomic data from clinical trial subjects using its cancer neoantigen prediction AI platform NEO-ARS® and identify patient-specific cancer neoantigens.

Metaclip’s cancer vaccine uses TMV derived from the patient’s own tumor as the main component and employs multiple cancer antigens. Unlike other vaccines, it can utilize a variety of antigen candidates, minimizing antigen selection errors. Syntekabio expects that this joint research will highlight the diverse antigen candidate discovery capabilities of NEO-ARS®.

After this agreement, the two companies will comprehensively analyze Syntekabio’s neoantigen prediction results and Metaclip’s cancer vaccine clinical trial outcomes to evaluate the correlation between neoantigen profiles and therapeutic responses. They plan to conduct joint research to identify individual neoantigens that induce strong immunogenicity among the multiple antigens incorporated in the TMV cancer vaccine.

Michael Coleman, CEO of Metaclip, said, “TMV-based cancer vaccines have the advantage of utilizing multiple cancer antigens derived from the patient’s tumor, making them highly suitable for personalized immuno-oncology treatment. Through this MOU, we aim to discover neoantigen candidates that play a crucial role in activating the patient’s immune system and find the optimal dosage for each patient, thereby exploring various applications of the Membrex™ treatment.”

Jongseon Jeong, CEO of Syntekabio, stated, “We are pleased to be able to conduct neoantigen discovery research using clinical data from Metaclip, a cancer vaccine specialist company in the clinical development stage, with NEO-ARS, which has been recognized for its excellent cancer neoantigen prediction capability. We will continue to keep open the possibility of collaboration with companies specializing in cancer vaccines and immunotherapies and contribute in various ways to help domestic and international vaccine manufacturers engaged in cancer vaccine clinical development achieve positive outcomes.”