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NEWARK, Calif., and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., – Flow Pharma Inc., a San Francisco Bay Area biotechnology company focused on personalized vaccine development, announced today that it has selected BGI Americas Inc. to provide the sequencing services required for all FlowVax neoantigen-based personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines under development by Flow Pharma.
The first two Flow Pharma products under development are FlowVax HPV for the treatment of cervical cancer and FlowVax BreastCA for the treatment of breast cancer. FlowVax Breast CA will be a personalized therapeutic vaccine requiring patient-specific gene sequencing.
“The exciting new area of personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines requires rapid, accurate genomic and transcriptomic sequencing. BGI Americas is unique in providing next generation sequencing services using its own unique DNBseq™ sequencing technology based on combinatorial probe-anchor synthesis (cPAS), linear isothermal rolling-circle replication and DNA nanoball (DNB) technology,” said Victor Zhang, Ph.D., CEO of BGI Americas. “BGI has a strong track record supporting the therapeutic and biomarker development of top biopharma and biotech companies. Our DNBseq technology has been validated by leading academic centers and industry users and will deliver strong value in our collaboration with Flow Pharma.”
“In order to make a personalized therapeutic cancer vaccine, you have to know the genomic information of the patient’s tumor as well as that of the patient. Speed and accuracy are both critical. Once we have these gene sequences, we can use AI-augmented bioinformatics tools to quickly identify tumor targets for T-cell attack and then rapidly load these targets into a FlowVax vaccine customized for that particular patient.” Said Lu Wang, Ph.D., Flow Pharma bioinformatics team leader
“We have spent a decade developing the FlowVax vaccine platform. FlowVax is optimized to simultaneously deliver multiple unmodified peptide targets for killer T-cell attack. Each of the chemical components used in the FlowVax platform are currently part of an FDA approved vaccine or pharmaceutical, simplifying our regulatory pathway,” said Charles Herst, Ph.D., Flow Pharma chief science officer. “Personalized FlowVax therapeutic vaccines can be manufactured quickly and efficiently, keeping the cost down and getting the therapy in the hands of treating physicians soon after the diagnosis is made, for maximum efficacy.”
“We believe that BGI’s DNBseq NGS platform is the best in class for the rigorous requirements of personalized therapeutic cancer vaccine development. The fact that BGI Americas provides professional and competitive genomic sequencing services along with experience and knowledge in supporting drug development, allows us to become a full-stack company in the space without the time and expense required to bring gene sequencing technology in-house,” said Reid Rubsamen, M.D., CEO of Flow Pharma.
About BGI Americas
BGI Americas provides comprehensive sequencing and bioinformatics services for basic and translational research as well as pharmaceutical drug development in North, Central and South America. We help our customers achieve their research goals by delivering rapid, high-quality results using a broad array of cost-effective, cutting-edge technologies, including our own innovative DNBseq™ sequencing technology.
Our customers also benefit from BGI’s vast scientific expertise and massive sequencing capacity in state-of-the-art service laboratories, including our CAP/CLIA laboratory in Hong Kong. For more information, visit https://www.bgi.com/us/
BGI Americas is a subsidiary of BGI Genomics, which is a publicly traded entity listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China.
About Flow Pharma
Flow Pharma, Inc. is a San Francisco Bay Area based, biotechnology company using artificial intelligence to guide selection of neoantigen peptide targets on cancer cells or virus-infected cells for attack by the patient’s own, native immune system. These peptides can then be loaded into the FlowVax platform for administration by injection.
Flow Pharma, Inc. is preparing to test therapeutic cancer vaccines targeting neoantigens found in various cancers. Neoantigens are small peptide markers expressed on cancer cells as a result of a cancer-causing viral infection or mutation of the DNA in normal cells.
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