Press release

Kiromic Announces 6 Posters Presented at American Association of Cancer Research 2021 Showcasing our Artificial Intelligence (AI) Biomarker Engine

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Kiromic BioPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: KRBP), an immuno-oncology target discovery and gene-editing company, with a proprietary artificial intelligence neural network platform (Diamond AI) to develop novel oncology therapeutics, has announced its technology showcases at the recent American Association of Cancer Research (“AACR”) 2021 meeting.

Kiromic BioPharma is using cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology to select biomarkers to develop CAR-T therapy for solid tumors.

The Company believes that the use of AI will enable it to compress development timelines in ways which are not achievable by its peers who are not equipped with AI technology.

The American Association of Cancer Research recognized Kiromic’s innovation with its acceptance of 6 poster presentations at the recent conference on April 9-14, 2021.

Kiromic’s 6 posters showcased the company’s following technology platforms and advances:

  • CancerDiff, a deep data mining engine that harmonizes billions of data points across disease types and states, data types, data structures and data platforms and Diamond AI, a proprietary system which combs through billions of transcription data points across public and private RNA databases to present the best immunogenic peptide candidates for CAR-T;
  • CancerSplice, the Company’s 3D, isoform prediction engine, which examines billions of data points to select the best targets;
  • Validation of the Company’s AI technology in identifying NY-ESO-1, which is a very well-known target and served as an excellent validation of the Company’s engine’s accuracy;
  • Our company also demonstrated that our chPD1 receptor is effective on solid tumors in both in vitro and in vivo models with minimal toxicities;
  • We showed that our non-viral gene edit technology could have the same target specificity of Cas9 without the DNA destruction common to HIV integrase;
  • Finally we investigated NK as a potential adoptive cell therapy platform for CAR-T.

Dr. Maurizio Chiriva, PhD stated that, “Our mission is to become the leader in allogenic, off-the-shelf CAR-T in solid tumors. Our cutting-edge AI engine for biomarker identification and selection will support our development pathway going forward. We believe that our ability to deliver allogenic, off-the-shelf CAR-T for solid tumors is within reach and that our therapy will offer patients higher efficacy at lower costs. We expect to make this therapy a reality this year.”

Mr. Gianluca Rotino, the Company’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, noted that, “We are proud to have set a new record for the number of posters accepted for a single company by the prestigious American Association of Cancer Research (AACR 2021), who accepted 6 of our posters. These poster presentations also broke ground for the number of new technologies that Kiromic is bringing to the world of live-cell therapy (CAR-T).

“We believe that we are disrupting the industry with our innovative approach as summarized in the following table:

 

Kiromic’s approach

 

Industry standard

Targeting

AI driven and machine learning bio-informatics for targeting

 

Classic chemistry

Live Cell Type

 

Gamma Delta T cells for CAR-T

Peers’ NK, or Mesenchymal (stem cells)

Donor Tissue Type

 

 

Allogenic gamma delta T cells from healthy donors

Marketed therapies’ autologous T-cells from frail patients

Gene Editing

 

Non-viral, non-destructive to DNA

Industry standard CRISPR Cas9

GMP Manuf.

In-house Vivarium and GMP manufacturing for our clinical trials

 

Industry standard of using external Contract Manufacturers

“With these innovations, we believe that we are poised to lead the future for CAR-T in solid tumors. We expect to build on this lead with planned in-human dosing in the third quarter of 2021.”

ABOUT KIROMIC POSTERS AT AACR 2021

Session

Focus

Poster

Link to Poster at AACR

 

BSB01.05

New Software for Data Analysis

247

Identification of an ovarian cancer selective splice variant of mesothelin utilizing the Kiromic proprietary search engine CancerDiff

 

CancerDiff:

Our deep data-mining engine which harmonizes billions of data points across:

— disease types and states

— data types,

— data structures, and

— data platforms.

 

Diamond AI:

Our system which combs through billions of transcription data points across public and private RNA databases to present the best immunogenic peptide candidates for CAR-T.

 

PO.IM02.01

Adoptive Cell Therapy

1534

Mesothelin isoform 2 is a novel target for allogenic CARγδT cell therapy in solid tumors

 

CancerSplice:

Our 3D, isoform prediction engine which examines billions of data points to select the best targets.

 

BSB01.04

New Algorithms

 

243

Identification of novel epitopes of NY-ESO-1 for solid malignancies by Kiromic proprietary search engine Diamond

 

NY-ESO-1:

How we got to NY-ESO-1 using our AI target selection engine. NY-EOS-1 is a very well-known target and served as an excellent validation of our engine’s accuracy.

 

PO.ET08.01

Gene and Vector-Based Therapy

1154

Site-specific gene editing with ABBIE for T-cell therapy

 

ABBIE:

We showed that our non-viral gene edit technology could have the same target specificity of Cas9 without the DNA destruction common to HIV integrase.

 

PO.IM02.01

Adoptive Cell Therapy

LB148

Gamma delta T cells engineered with a chimeric PD-1 receptor effectively control PD-L1 positive tumors in vitro and in vivo with minimal toxicities.

 

chPD1:

We demonstrated that our chPD1 receptor was effective on solid tumors in both in vitro and in vivo models with minimal toxicities.

 

PO.IM02.01

Adoptive Cell Therapy

1535

Allogenic CAR iNKT as a cell therapy platform targeting tumor antigen Isomesothelin

 

iNKT:

We investigated NK as a potential adoptive cell therapy platform for CAR-T.

 

About AACR (American Association of Cancer Research)

www.aacr.org

About Kiromic

Kiromic BioPharma, Inc. is an immuno-oncology biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel immuno-oncology applications through its robust product pipeline. The pipeline development is leveraged through the Company’s proprietary target discovery engine called “Diamond.” Kiromic’s Diamond is essentially big data science meeting target identification, dramatically compressing the man-years and the millions of drug development dollars needed to develop a live drug. The Company’s headquarters are located in Houston, TX, adjacent to the world’s largest medical center and the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

For more information, please visit Kiromic’s website at:

www.kiromic.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “seek,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “target,” “aim,” “should,” “will” “would,” or the negative of these words or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are based on our company’s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled “Risk Factors” in the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and our company undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.