March 31, 2022
Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners Inc.
Knowledge Palette, Inc.

Axcelead DDP and Knowledge PaletteEntered into a Collaborative Research Contract for Establishment of a
New Evaluation Platform Using Axcelead DDP's Compound Libraries andLarge-Scale Transcriptome Analysis Technologies
Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners Inc. (headquarters: Fujisawa, Kanagawa; CEO: Yoshinori
Ikeura; hereinafter referred to as "Axcelead DDP") and Knowledge Palette, Inc. (headquarters:Kawasaki, Kanagawa; Co-founder, Representative Director: Hiroki Danno, Masakazu Fukuda;
hereinafter referred to as "Knowledge Palette") announce that both companies have entered intoa collaborative research contract for establishment of a new evaluation platform using Axcelead
DDP's compound libraries and Knowledge Palette's large-scale transcriptome analysis
technologies.
In this collaboration, whole gene expression data of cells treated with a wide variety ofcharacteristic compounds, which are selected from the Axcelead DDP's compound libraries, will beobtained using Knowledge Palette's large-scale transcriptome analysis technologies. Bothcompanies are aiming to analyze genes linked with various diseases or drug efficacy, safety,
toxicity, etc. of the compounds and establish a new evaluation platform which can predict andreveal mechanisms of drug action, by combining the newly obtained data with metadata which
Axceleadd DDP has stored.
Through the collaborative research, we will build an unique perturbative gene expression
database by gene expression profiling of the cells treated with characteristic compounds. Byutilizing the database, we can increase the effectiveness of target deconvolution in phenotypic
drug screening, drug repositioning, lead generation and optimization, and toxicity prediction.
Yoshinori Ikeura, CEO of Axcelead DDP, says: "The collaborative research with Knowledge Paletteallows us to establish a competitively advantageous, unique database from our compoundlibraries. By using the database, we will make more effective processes for drug discovery
research and make a contribution as a hub for drug discovery ecosystem."Hiroki Danno, Representative Director and CEO of Knowledge Palette, says: " We have anextensive phenotypic drug discovery platform based on whole gene expression profiling. By
adding the integrated data from this collaborative research to the database of our platform, wewill be able to explore and discover a variety of drug candidates with high success rate ofdevelopment more effectively. "About Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, Inc.
Axcelead is the first integrated drug discovery solutions provider in the pharmaceutical industry inJapan, having succeeded the drug discovery research capabilities of Takeda Pharmaceutical
Company Limited and started its business on July 1, 2017. The company provides integrated
services, from discovery of drug targets to optimization of small- and medium-molecule drugcandidates, in which the company has particular expertise, and to the process of bridging the gap
to clinical development. A-HiT Project is a library of potential drug candidates and optimized
evaluation systems for a variety of drug targets. For more information, please visit
https://www.axcelead.com/en/
About Knowledge Palette, Inc.
Knowledge Palette is a Japanese biotechnology company conducting phenotypic drug discovery,
biomarkers identification, and improvement of regenerative medicine manufacturing based on oursingle cell transcriptome analysis technology (Quartz-Seq2), which was ranked No.1 for bothaccuracy scores and overall scores in an international benchmark project in 2020. We arecollaborating with pharmaceutical companies and research institutes on acceleration of drug
discovery as well as optimization of cell culturing for regenerative medicine.
E-mail: info@knowledge-palette.com
URL: https://www.knowledge-palette.com/en/