On October 2, 2018 Gossamer Bio, Inc. ("Gossamer Bio") reported that it has been named by FierceBiotech as one of 2018’s Fierce 15 biotechnology companies, designating it as one of the most promising private biotechnology companies in the industry (Press release, Gossamer Bio, OCT 2, 2018, View Source [SID1234529746]).

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"We are honored to be selected as a Fierce 15 company for 2018," said Sheila Gujrathi, M.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gossamer Bio. "We have an exciting portfolio of innovative clinical and research stage programs across multiple indications that leverage our deep mechanistic understanding of immunobiology. With a focus on immunology, inflammation and immuno-oncology, our world-class team is committed to applying our collective expertise in discovery and development to bring forth important new medicines to patients who are suffering."

The Fierce 15 celebrates the spirit of being "fierce" – championing innovation and creativity, even in the face of intense competition. This is FierceBiotech’s 16th annual Fierce 15 selection.

An internationally recognized daily report reaching a network of over 285,000 biotech and pharma industry professionals, FierceBiotech provides subscribers with an authoritative analysis of the day’s top stories. Every year FierceBiotech evaluates hundreds of private companies from around the world for its annual Fierce 15 list, which is based on a variety of factors such as the strength of its technology, partnerships, venture backers and a competitive market position.

On October 2, 2018 Kronos Bio, Inc. (Kronos), a Two River portfolio company, reported that it has been named by FierceBiotech as one of 2018’s Fierce 15 biotechnology companies, designating it as one of the most promising private biotechnology companies in the industry for its pursuit of novel therapies against some of the most important and intractable targets in cancer research (Press release, Kronos Bio, OCT 2, 2018, View Source [SID1234529766]).

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"It is an honor to have Kronos named by FierceBiotech as one of their Fierce 15 biotechnology companies for 2018," said Norbert Bischofberger, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Kronos. "Fierce adeptly describes our pursuit of targets many have viewed as ‘undruggable.’ We believe our small molecule microarray (SMM) technology will enable us to engage recalcitrant targets and develop innovative therapies for cancer and other life altering diseases."

The foundation of Kronos was built on over a decade of research into high-throughput screening strategies for chemical modulators of transcription factors and other recalcitrant targets in oncology. By combining small molecule microarrays with extensive know-how in biological assay development, Kronos’ technology platform enables high-throughput screens of chemical libraries against target proteins in a more physiologically relevant context. As a result, a single screening assay can identify compounds that bind or interfere with target protein activity directly, disrupt protein-protein or protein-DNA interactions, or indirectly modulate target protein activity by binding to co-factors or
other protein complex members. This approach is ideally suited for rapid discovery of unique ligands that can be utilized in the generation of novel modulators or degraders of historically challenging targets such as transcription factors.

The Fierce 15 celebrates the spirit of being "fierce" – championing innovation and creativity, even in the face of intense competition. This is FierceBiotech’s 16th annual Fierce 15 selection. An internationally recognized daily report reaching a network of over 285,000 biotech and pharma industry professionals, FierceBiotech provides subscribers with an authoritative analysis of the day’s top stories. Every year FierceBiotech evaluates hundreds of private companies from around the world for its annual Fierce 15 list, which is based on a variety of factors such as the strength of its technology, partnerships, venture backers and a competitive market position

On October 2, 2018 Synlogic, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYBX), a clinical stage company applying synthetic biology to probiotics to develop novel, living medicines, reported the appointment of Aoife Brennan, M.B., B.Ch., as president and chief executive officer of Synlogic, effective immediately (Press release, Synlogic, OCT 2, 2018, View Source [SID1234530532]). Dr. Brennan joined Synlogic as chief medical officer in 2016 and has served as interim president and chief executive officer since May 2018.

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"After conducting a thorough search process, it was clear to the board of directors that Aoife is the right person to lead Synlogic at this time in the company’s evolution," said Peter Barrett, chairman of Synlogic’s board of directors. "Aoife stepped into the interim role and rapidly demonstrated her effectiveness. Her broad experience across multiple stages of drug development and therapeutic areas, her demonstrated leadership abilities, and her ambitious vision for Synlogic, make her uniquely qualified for the job. We are confident that under her leadership, Synlogic will be well-positioned to deliver Synthetic Biotic medicines to patients."

"I appreciate the confidence and support of the board of directors and am thrilled to be selected to lead Synlogic as we pioneer the development of a completely new class of living medicines," said Dr. Brennan. "We have made great progress to date, advancing two Synthetic BioticTM programs into the clinic. I look forward to continuing to execute on our plans for the clinical development of our lead candidates while capitalizing on the broad applicability and potential of our novel platform to build a pipeline of therapies for patients with serious and life-threatening diseases."

Prior to joining Synlogic, Dr. Brennan spent six years at Biogen in roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as vice president and head of the Rare Disease Innovation Unit, which included programs ranging from pre-clinical to commercial. She has also led programs across multiple therapeutic areas including the late-phase development of nusinersen for spinal muscular atrophy and treatments for Hemophilia B and Hemophilia A, ALPROLIX and ELOCTATE. Earlier, Dr. Brennan was director of clinical development at Tolerx, a start-up biotech company focused on immunotherapy for Type 1 diabetes. Dr. Brennan holds a medical degree from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and completed her post-graduate training in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland. Additionally, she completed post-doctoral training in clinical research and metabolism at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and is a graduate of the Harvard Medical School Scholars in Clinical Science Program.

On October 2, 2018 NantKwest (Nasdaq:NK), a leading, clinical-stage natural killer cell based therapeutics company, reported that the company will be presenting at the upcoming Cantor Global Healthcare Conference onTuesday, October 2nd in New York City During the conference, company management will be presenting a corporate overview, as well as conducting one-on-one meetings to provide a corporate update, as well as review R&D and clinical activities (Press release, NantKwest, OCT 2, 2018, http://ir.nantkwest.com/news-releases/news-release-details/nantkwest-present-2018-cantor-global-healthcare-conference?field_nir_news_date_value[min]=2018 [SID1234529706]).

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Conference Details:

Event: Cantor Global Healthcare Conference
Date/Time: Tuesday, October 2, 2018 at 4:00pm
Location: New York, NY

On October 2, 2018 BioInvent International AB (OMXS: BINV) reported that the company will present two posters together with its transgender for a new checkpoint blocking antibody optimized for slow elimination and its targeted oncolytic virus vector at Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper)s (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper) annual meeting that will be held November 7-11 in Washington DC (USA) (Press release, BioInvent, OCT 2, 2018, View Source [SID1234529707]). The anti-CTLA-4 antibody encoding oncolytic virus product candidate is developed for tumor localized cancer immunotherapy.

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Generation and characterization of a CTLA-4 antibody with improved Fc γ R -dependent Treg deletion of tumor microenvironment-targeted oncolytic virotherapy of cancer

Author: Monika Semmrich, Jean-Baptiste Marchand, Petra Holmkvist, Linda Mårtensson, Ulla-Carin Tornberg, Laetitia Fend, Mathilda Kovacek, Ulla-Carin Tornberg, Ingrid Teige, Andre McAllister, Eric Quéméneur, Björn Frendéus.
Poster number: P602
Antibody-armed oncolytic vaccinia virus to block immunosuppressive pathways in the tumor microenvironment

Author: Jean-Baptiste Marchand, Monika Semmrich, Laetitia Fend, Ulla-Carin Tornberg, Nathalie Silvestre, Björn Frendéus, Eric Quéméneur
Poster number: P615
The posters will be shown on Friday and Saturday, November 9-10 in the poster (hall E).

Björn Frendéus, BioInvents Chief Scientific Officer, said: "We are pleased to announce a potentially safe and more effective strategy for combining anti-CTLA 4 and anti-PD-1 / PDL1 checkpoint inhibition in oncolytic viral therapy. By building on the extensive clinical validation of checkpoint blockers, onkoviral tumor localized administration of our monoclonal antibody optimized for slow elimination potential has improved the therapeutic window for CLTA-4 targeted checkpoint intervention, enabling a better tolerated and more effective combination therapy with approved antibodies directed against the PD-1 / PD-L1 axis. "