Queen Mary announces Strategic Collaboration Agreement with Envisagenics and Cancer Research Horizons

Queen Mary University of London, Envisagenics, an Artificial Intelligence ("AI")-driven biotechnology company that delivers therapies for RNA splicing diseases, today (December 13) announced a research collaboration agreement with Cancer Research Horizons, Cancer Research UK's innovation engine. Envisagenics will leverage its SpliceCore® AI platform and use Queen Mary's de-identified data to further explore the role of alternative splicing in hematopoietic cancers for research and development.

Ana Rio-Machin, Ph.D., lead researcher on the project from Queen Mary's Barts Cancer Institute said: "We have completed multi-omics profiling that combines genomics, proteomics and drug screening, in samples from more than 50 patients with an aggressive type of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia ("AML"). This collaboration will allow us to explore the RNA splicing landscape in our cohort of primary AML samples by applying Envisagenics' expertise and bioinformatics tools to our multi-omics data. We hope this new analysis and the integration with our previous findings will shed light on the pathogenesis of this disease and provide significant preclinical data to support precision medicine approaches for difficult-to-treat hematopoietic cancers."

"As an AI-driven biotechnology company, data plays a critical role in facilitating the discovery of quality candidates. With the support of Cancer Research Horizons' team and its principal investigators, we are thrilled to partner with organizations that have comprehensive data packages which are vital for reaching the right patients sooner," said Martin Akerman, Ph.D., Envisagenics' CTO and Co-founder. "Through our SpliceCore platform, we will continue to enhance our data-driven R&D strategy and acquire insights with Cancer Research Horizons' rich datasets to ultimately deepen our understanding of complex tumor biology and accelerate the development of therapeutics for patients with hematopoietic cancers."

Tony Hickson, Chief Business Officer at Cancer Research Horizons, said: "We are at an exciting crossroads where researchers and industry are realizing the great potential in combining the wealth of healthcare data within our network, with advanced computational approaches to drive innovation towards new therapies and diagnostics for patients. We are delighted to be collaborating with Envisagenics to explore the role of alternative splicing in a subset of particularly poorly served hematopoietic cancers and hope to uncover new avenues to bring improved treatment options to patients faster."