Envisagenics Announces Research Collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb

Collaboration will leverage Envisagenics' SpliceCore® AI platform for accelerated discovery and development of oncology therapeutic candidates

NEW YORK, Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Envisagenics, an Artificial Intelligence ("AI")-driven biotechnology company that delivers therapies for RNA splicing diseases, today announced a research collaboration agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY). The multi-year collaboration will leverage Envisagenics' SpliceCore® AI platform to identify alternative splicing derived targets for therapeutic development to expand Bristol Myers Squibb's vast oncology pipeline. Envisagenics will receive an upfront payment and milestone payments based on development, regulatory, and commercial achievements.

SpliceCore, a cloud-based, AI-powered platform, can identify disease-specific splicing-derived targets by using RNA-sequencing data.  Envisagenics will integrate data from thousands of patients to identify mRNAs encoding for tumor-specific cell surface antigens, thereby fostering the discovery of novel targets to enable development of therapeutics.

"It is exciting to see how quickly significant scientific breakthroughs in the biopharma industry can be achieved with the assistance of AI," said Maria Luisa Pineda, Ph.D., Envisagenics' CEO and Co-founder. "Our SpliceCore platform, coupled with Bristol Myers Squibb's expertise, has the potential to accelerate target identification, transform modern drug development, and improve patient outcomes."

The SpliceCore platform applies an ensemble of proprietary algorithms to RNA-sequencing data, creating a sequence search space of approximately 7 million splicing events, thus maximizing the odds of drug target discovery. SpliceCore prioritizes drug targets based on their disease-specificity, biological roles, and druggability through a variety of drug modalities. Thanks to its scalable and cost-effective cloud architecture, the platform can process massive amounts of RNA-seq data efficiently and at high speed. SpliceCore helps to identify drug targets quickly and, in turn, predicts drug-responding alternative splicing events for therapeutic development.

Martin Akerman, Ph.D., Envisagenics' CTO and Co-founder, added, "novel therapeutic targets are urgently needed for patients, and Envisagenics is thrilled to be collaborating with BMS as part of our quest for innovation."

Envisagenics is an Artificial Intelligence-driven biotechnology company that focuses on the discovery of novel RNA splicing variants that cause cancer and other genetic diseases. Its principal technology is the SpliceCore® discovery platform. The platform re-envisions the human genome with a validated exon-centric approach, combined with machine learning algorithms and high-performance computing. It is up to 250 times more likely to discover novel targets than gene-centric discovery tools. Using innovative technology and RNA analysis expertise, Envisagenics accelerates the development of highly specific therapeutics that modulate RNA splicing events that drive pathogenesis of oncology, neurodegenerative, and metabolic disorders.

Envisagenics partners with biopharmaceutical companies and academic institutions to advance their drug discovery capabilities. Envisagenics also has its own internally developed RNA therapeutic programs. Envisagenics is a spin-out of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and a proud woman- and minority-led recipient of several grants from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the National Cancer Institute.

For more information, please visit www.envisagenics.com. Follow us on – Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube.

Envisagenics Media Contact
Bradley Harris
[email protected]
Tel: (929) 777-2001

SOURCE Envisagenics