January 25, 2018

BrightPath concludes agreement to develop
personalized cancer vaccine
Research collaboration focusing on a novel method for neoantigen identification
Tokyo – BrightPath Biotherapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, entered an agreementfor developing a personalized cancer vaccine using a novel method involving the body’s
immune response. The collaborative research agreement was concluded with The Universityof Tokyo and the Kanagawa Cancer Center in Yokohama.
Recent progress in cancer immunotherapy has led to remarkable advances in thedevelopment of treatments for cancer patients. They include such treatments as immune
checkpoint inhibitors, making use of the body’s immune response to recognize and attack
cancer cells, and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, employing the body’s
own immune cells that have been genetically altered to better target tumor cells.
To realize more effective therapies, researchers are now focusing on personalized medicine,which offers optimal treatment based on individual patients’ pathology and immune
responses. Rapid progress in genome sequencing and analysis technologies in recent years
is making it possible to comprehensively analyze cancer-specific genetic mutations that areunique to each patient.
Because antigens (substances that give rise to an immune response) derived from suchmutations, called neoantigens, appear only when cancer develops, the immune system ismore likely to recognize them and mount a strong response to the tumor. Trials aimed atdeveloping fully personalized cancer immunotherapy, in which each patient receives a unique
set of neoantigens, are currently underway.
A fully personalized neoantigen vaccine has two important elements: One is to identify theneoantigens made by an individual’s tumor using next-generation DNA sequencing
technology; the other is to predict neoantigen-derived peptides—a type of chemicalcompound—that the patient’s immune system might recognize.
The current research collaboration will employ a combination of mass spectrometry, ananalytical method that identifies and measures the mass of various substances, and genemutation analysis to increase the accuracy of identifying neoantigens and predicting
immunogenicity—the capability for eliciting an immune response—in evaluating thefeasibility of producing an optimal mix of neoantigens for vaccination.

1

The gene analysis will be conducted to precisely identify the gene mutations unique to cancer
cells based on analyzing a pair of genomic DNA taken from healthy cells and tumor cells. At
the same time, mass spectrometry analysis will be used to identify peptides that appear on
the surface of cancer cells after isolating them. Matching the results of both analyses will
make it possible to identify neoantigens that actually show up on the surface of the cancer
cells and are thus expected to possess immunogenicity.
The collaboration consisting of genomic, proteomic (studying the set of proteins produced bya certain genome) and immunology research is led by Professor Hiroyuki Aburatani andAssociate Professor Takeshi Kawamura of the University of Tokyo, with Dr. Tetsuro Sasada,director of the Cancer Vaccine Center at the Kanagawa Cancer Center, and BrightPath also
participating.
BrightPath is currently conducting two clinical trials for cancer peptide vaccines: a late-stage
trial in Japan employing a semi-personalized administration method, and an early-stage
clinical trial in the U.S. using a combination of a peptide vaccine and immune checkpoint
inhibitors.
This research collaboration promises to lead to the next phase of clinical studies aimed atdeveloping a fully personalized cancer vaccine as a next-generation treatment for thedisease.
###Contact for inquiries:
Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo
Tel: +81-3-5452-5424
Email: press@rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://www.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index_en.html
Isotope Science Center, The University of Tokyo
Tel: +81-3-5841-2881
Email: syomu@ric.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://www.ric.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
Kanagawa Cancer Center, Kanagawa Prefectural Hospital Organization
Tel: +81-45-520-2222
http://kcch.kanagawa-pho.jp/kccri/
BrightPath Biotherapeutics Co., Ltd.
Business Administration
Tel: +81-3-5840-7697
https://www.brightpathbio.com/english/index.html

2

Appendix
Diagram of neoantigen vaccine
Whole exome sequence
Identification of tumor mutation
Mutation

Tumor

Isolation of peptides
on tumor

PeptidesMatching

Mutated antigen(neoantigen)
identificationDNA

Mass spectrometry

HLACancer cell

Identification of peptides

Vaccine formulation