OAKLAND, Calif. – Thursday March 12, 2026 – Omios Biologics, a biotechnology company revolutionizing cancer treatment through next-generation oncolytic virus immunotherapies and systemic gene delivery platforms, today announced the signing of a Material Transfer Agreement with the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope.
Under the agreement, City of Hope, one of the largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, will conduct advanced studies to further characterize Omios Biologics’ proprietary oncolytic virus platform in several solid tumor models. The research will be led by Dr. Stephen J. Forman, an internationally recognized expert in immunology, cellular therapies, and translational cancer research.
The Promise of Biomarker-Guided Oncolytic Viruses
While traditional oncolytic viruses are attenuated—which improves safety but often limits efficacy—Omios has reinvented the modality. Omios is targeting unmet medical needs in hard-to-treat solid tumors with its biomarker-guided, non-attenuated and systemic oncolytic virus platform. By harnessing specific cancer cell death deficiencies, Omios’ viruses selectively replicate and kill cancer cells. Conversely, the replication is turned off in normal cells to de-risk advanced applications like intravenous injection and early intervention in at-risk populations.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with City of Hope and Dr. Stephen Forman, a world-renowned oncologist,” said Aldo Pourchet, DVM, PhD, CEO of Omios Biologics. “Our goal at Omios is to bring our breakthrough precision therapy to cancer patients as soon as possible. Omios OV is the first and only biomarker-guided OV platform designed to treat patients sooner and better. We are pursuing hard-to-treat cancers and, in priority, breast, lung, GI, and pancreatic indications. This collaboration is a critical step in validating our clinical candidates as we drive toward our first-in-patient milestones. We hope this initial step will bring us to the clinic with the additional support and expertise of City of Hope in vaccinia OV manufacturing.”
“At City of Hope, everything we do begins with patients and the responsibility to move science forward in a thoughtful, meaningful way,” said Dr. Forman, director of the Hematologic Malignancies Research Institute at City of Hope. “Advances in immunotherapy, including oncolytic virus approaches grounded in strong biology, represent an important opportunity to rethink how we treat difficult cancers. This collaboration reflects City of Hope’s strength in translational cancer research and our commitment to carefully evaluating innovative platforms that could ultimately benefit patients who need better options.”
Founded in 2023, Omios is a California-based biotech corporation developing a novel therapeutic platform built upon patented technologies from New York University and Arizona State University. At the core of this innovation are Omios’ proprietary oncolytic viruses, which uniquely harness cancer-specific cell death deficiencies to deliver biomarker-guided, highly targeted, intravenous therapies with an exceptional safety profile. To further expand this precision medicine approach, the company utilizes an advanced computational platform designed to generate specific oncolytic virus and biomarker pairs for virtually every cancer subtype.
Bruno Larida, Chief Business Officer
Omios Biologics
bruno@omiosbio.com
