December 19, 2018

University of Tokyo and BrightPath Conclude Collaborative Research
Agreement for Fully Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy
Tokyo, December 19, 2018 — The University of Tokyo and BrightPath Biotherapeutics Co.,
Ltd., a biopharmaceutical company, have entered into a new collaborative research
agreement aimed at improving the accuracy and efficacy of algorithms for identifying highly
effective neoantigens for use in fully personalized cancer immunotherapy.
Cancer is caused by genetic mutations, which allow cancer cells to continue growing
uncontrollably. Focusing on the fact that gene mutations and their developments vary
among individual patients, fully personalized cancer immunotherapy is intended toeliminate cancer cells by inducing strong immune responses that target patient-specificcancer mutations. The immunotherapy to be developed under this collaborative research
project will use machine learning algorithms to analyze gene mutations accumulating incancer cells to identify highly immunogenic mutations as neoantigens. Based on theseresults, a fully personalized vaccine to attack such neoantigens will be made andadministered to each patient.
It is a challenging task to precisely identify the gene mutations unique to cancer cells.
Among others, the heterogeneity in tumor tissues, which originates from the accumulationof intricately branching gene mutations in cancer cells, and the uncertainty ofimmunogenicity predictions constitute major factors that increase the difficulty of identifying
effective neoantigens. We therefore need to develop new computational techniques toidentify neoantigens based on mathematic modeling of cancer genomics data. To develop
and implement algorithms for the neoantigen identification, BrightPath has decided tocollaborate with a team of academics in the field of bioinformatics focused on cancer
genomics and immuno-oncology at the University of Tokyo, led by Professor Satoru Miyano(Human Genome Center, the Institute of Medical Science) and Professor Seiya Imoto(Health Intelligence Center, the Institute of Medical Science).
BrightPath has already been pursuing multiple projects for fully personalized cancer
immunotherapy with various academic groups. In BrightPath’s research framework aimed
at clinical application of neoantigen-based vaccines, this new collaborative project serves
as the last piece of the puzzle to improve the accuracy of algorithms for predicting effective
neoantigen targets.

* A neoantigen is defined as a tumor antigen generated from gene mutations present incancer cells. The human immune system recognizes antigens, and induces immune
responses to eliminate pathogens and tumor cells. While the immune system does notstrongly respond to the body’s normal “self” antigens, a strong immune response isgenerated against “non-self” neoantigens since they are present only in tumor cells.

1BrightPath
BrightPath is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development ofnovel cancer immunotherapies to transform cancer treatment for progressive or refractory
cancers that cannot be treated using conventional standard therapies. In addition to thecancer peptide vaccines currently under clinical trials in the United States, BrightPath isactively involved in developing cell therapies, immunomodulatory antibodies and new drugs
targeted toward cancer-specific neoantigens.

Contacts
BrightPath Biotherapeutics Co., Ltd.
Business Administration
Tel: ＋81-3-5840-7697
E-mail: irpr05@brightpathbio.com
https://www.brightpathbio.com/english/index.html

Source: BrightPath Biotherapeutics Co., Ltd.

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