PRESS RELEASE
May 29, 2023
Rebirthel Co., Ltd.
Room 311, Creation Core Kyoto Mikuruma
448-5 Kajii-cho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-0841 Japan
Phone: (81) 75-212-3770
URL: https://rebirthel.com/en/

Rebirthel signs collaborative research agreement
for the development of automated cell mass culture technology
to spread allogenic T cell therapy
Kyoto - Rebirthel Co., Ltd. (Rebirthel) announced that it entered into a collaboration research
agreement with Kyoto University and Hitachi, Ltd. (Hitachi) on January 6, 2023, for thedevelopment of automated cell mass culture technology to spread allogeneic T cell therapy*1for cancer treatment.
In recent years autologous cell therapy*2 has been recognized as an effective treatment forcertain diseases. Autologous cell therapy is a made-to-order treatment which uses the patient's
own cells, therefore reducing the risk of rejection. However, there still exists several issues
including cost and time consuming process.
Cell therapies are increasingly expected to treat cancers and other diseases. Allogeneic T celltherapy, in particular, merits attention as a future therapy as it can treat a large number ofpatients due to its universality. In this collaboration project, we developed an automated cellmass culture technology that can supply a larger quantity of homogeneous quality T cells togeneralize allogeneic T cell preparation than autologous cell therapy.
Prof. Hiroshi Kawamoto, Director of Institute for Life and Medical Sciences, Kyoto University
and his team have been carrying out research and development of off-the-shelf and universal T
cell therapy and fundamental technologies for allogeneic T cell therapy that are globallypatented. Most recently, his team achieved the required conditions for feeder-free cell culture*3of all processes.

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Rebirthel was founded in October 2019 with the aim of providing novel treatments against
cancer, infectious diseases, and other immune-related diseases. The strategy is based upon thetechnology of killer T cell regeneration from pluripotent stem cells, which was pioneered by Prof.
Kawamoto. Rebirthel is planning two clinical trials using allogeneic killer T cells regenerated from
iPS cells*5: one for leukemia at Kyoto University and the other for cytomegalovirus (CMV)*6 at
Fujita Health University. Furthermore, Rebirthel has been granted an exclusive global sublicensable license for allogeneic T cell therapy from Kyoto University and has various
collaboration research and licensing agreements with multiple pharmaceutical companies.
Rebirthel has started a collaboration research project with Kyoto University and Hitachi to add
functionality to regenerate allogenic killer T cells from pluripotent stem cells into Hitachi’s
automated cell mass culture technology. Prof. Kawamoto stated “In this collaboration, we bringan innovative automated system to produce allogeneic T cells so that we can deliverhomogeneous allogeneic cell preparation to patients quickly".

< Epexegeses >*1 Allogeneic T cell therapy: This therapy uses cell preparations. Using pluripotent stem cells(cells derived from others, not from the patient himself/herself) such as iPS and ES cells as
material, T cells are regenerated.
*2 Autologous cell therapy: This therapy collects the patient's own cells and gives them backafter transducing and expanding.
*3 Feeder cells: Cells that support target cells to grow by providing nutrition and growth factors
when culturing target cells.
*4 Killer T cell: A type of cell that specifically recognizes variant cells (e.g., cancer cells), viruses,and bacteria in the human body and controls immunity to attack and kill them. Allogeneic killer
T cell are killer T cells regenerated from pluripotent stem cells - such as iPS and ES cells - througha special method.
*5 Cytomegalovirus (CMV): A type of virus that causes infectious diseases. In addition tocongenital, it is transmitted by breast milk or by birth canal infection. Serious infections can becaused by reactivation of this virus after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

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2nKyoto University
Kyoto University is a leading research and educational institution in Japan and Asia. Its

mission is to contribute to the harmonious coexistence of global society by taking on thechallenge of solving multidisciplinary problems, while continuing and developing the academic
culture of freedom established since its founding in 1897. The University has produced
numerous Nobel Laureates and winners of prestigious international awards. Kyoto University
has enormous research centers, facilities, and offices throughout Japan and abroad andprovides a broad cross-disciplinary curriculum in the humanities and sciences at both theundergraduate and graduate levels.
The Institute for Life and Medical Science (formerly known as the Institute for Frontier Lifeand Medical Science) that carries out this collaboration research was formed by the merger of
two institutes: the Institute for Virus Research, which was known for its groundbreaking
research in medical science - including the discovery of the human leukemia virus - and forpioneering work in molecular biology, and the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, which hadbuilt an innovative foundation in regenerative medicine by establishing human embryonic stemcells (ES cells) and discovering induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and regulatory T cells. InApril 2022, the Institute was renamed "The Institute for Life and Medical Science" with the aimof exploring new academic fields in medical and life sciences.
Kyoto University Open Innovation Institute is a research center that plans and conducts
large-scale collaborative studies between organizations based on university-wide research
themes and is the manager of this project.
nRebirthel Co. Ltd.

Rebirthel is a bio-venture originating from Kyoto University, established in October 2019 byProf. Hiroshi Kawamoto, Director of the Institute for Life and Medical Science, Kyoto University.
In recent years autologous cell therapy, which uses the patient's own cells, has been an effective
treatment for certain cancers. However, it is not a perfect solution: it can only be used for thedonor patient; it is a burden on the patient's body; treatment is time-consuming; the cost is high;and the heterogeneous quality. In addition, infectious diseases require rapid treatment, but
autologous cell therapy cannot provide killer T cells immediately. As a result, there is currently
no ongoing cell therapy for infectious diseases.

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To solve these problems, Rebirthel provides a completely novel allogeneic immune cell therapy
treatment. Specifically, this method uses pluripotent stem cells as a source material andregenerates them into immune cells that specifically recognize and kill cancers and viruses. It is
now possible for regenerated antigen-specific immune cells to be utilized in the treatment ofpatients. We aim to realize universal, off-the-shelf killer T cell preparations produced via
patented technologies to provide universal, rapid, low cost, and high-quality treatment options
to patients.

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