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Lantern Pharma and National Cancer Institute Partner to Aid Precision Oncology Research and Treatments

01-10-2019

Collaboration will leverage Lantern’s proprietary AI platform and NCI’s platform to better predict patients’ tumor responses to specific drug classes and therapeutics

DALLAS and KEARNY, N.J., Oct. 01, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lantern Pharma, a clinical stage oncology biotech leveraging AI and genomics, today announced a collaboration agreement with the Developmental Therapeutics Branch (DTB) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to identify gene signatures that help predict a potential response of a patient’s tumor to a drug therapy.

Lantern Pharma will work with the DTB Genomics and Pharmacology Facility at NCI to apply its CellMiner™ and CellMinerCDB platforms, regression models and algorithms to independently categorize gene predictors of response or sensitivity to Lantern’s pipeline drug candidates by tumor type. This collaboration will facilitate identification of correlates from NCI-generated omics datasets – including DNA mutation, mRNA/ miRNA expression, DNA methylation, DNA copy number and protein arrays – with Lantern’s pipeline drug candidate bioactivity profiles through NCI’s CellMiner™ platform.

These multi-variant analyses will deliver deeper insights into the mechanism of action of Lantern’s drug candidates in pre-clinical and clinical development. Additionally, Lantern plans to narrow down the multi-omic signatures predictive of drug efficacy into a curated list of candidate biomarkers, which will be experimentally validated. Lantern and NCI plan to work together on publication of research results generated by the collaboration. This comprehensive approach highlights Lantern Pharma’s dedication to paving a path for the use of AI in precision oncology and how the partnership will help foster the next wave of effective cancer therapies.

“Lantern believes that the convergence of artificial intelligence, machine learning and genomic data mark the next frontier for a highly productive period in drug development, especially in cancer therapeutics,” said Panna Sharma, CEO of Lantern. “We are very appreciative of this collaboration with NCI’s Developmental Therapeutics Branch, one we believe is a clear reflection of the vast potential for cancer therapeutics developed using precision oncology, ultimately benefiting medical practitioners, the investor community, and most importantly – patients and their families.”

About Lantern Pharma
Lantern Pharma is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company innovating the repurposing, revitalization and development of precision therapeutics in oncology. Lantern leverages advances in machine learning, genomics and artificial intelligence by using a proprietary AI platform to discover biomarker signatures that help identify patients more likely to respond to our pipeline of cancer therapeutics. Lantern’s focus is to improve the outcome for patients by leveraging our technology to uncover, rescue and develop abandoned or failed drugs. Lantern seeks out experienced industry partners, world-class scientific advisors and innovative clinical-regulatory approaches to deliver cancer therapies to patients as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Lantern’s current therapy product pipeline consists of three drugs, two in clinical stages and one in preclinical, all focusing on cancers that have unique and unmet clinical needs with a clearly defined patient population. Lantern believes that the use of machine learning, genomics and computational methods can help accelerate the development and commercialization of small molecule-based therapies. These drugs can be targeted to patients whose genomic profile identifies them as having the highest probability of benefiting from the drug, thereby achieving better outcomes. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.lanternpharma.com or view company updates on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Contact:
Kyle Evans
FischTank Marketing and PR
e: lantern@fischtankpr.com
p: 646-699-1414