Predictive Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ:POAI) has announced the launch of ACE (Accelerating Compound Exploration), a program to advance oncology drug development initiatives with academic and research institutions.
The Eagan, Minnesota-based company said it created ACE to grant early-stage academic drug development groups and technology transfer offices access to its PEDAL platform.
PEDAL pairs active machine learning with an extensive biobank of 150,000 privately-held tumor samples and in vitro assay results to help evaluate drug compounds and enable a more informed selection of drug-tumor type combinations, Predictive Oncology explained.
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“We designed the program to give researchers the opportunity to explore an otherwise unreachable experimental space,” Dr Arlette Uihlein, the company’s senior vice president of drug discovery operations, said in a statement. “Our goal is to help shorten the time necessary to identify impactful drug candidates and circumvent the funding limitations that might prevent those drugs from reaching the clinic. We can additionally help them re-evaluate small molecules that would not have had sufficient traction to reach the market.”
The company said noted that PEDAL helps efficiently address tumor heterogeneity earlier in development and offers researchers the ability to strengthen the data package for preclinical drug compounds in areas of licensing, increased likelihood of transferring the technology, de-risking the transaction, the chance to lead at the cutting edge of discovery and the opportunity to help biopharma advance their drug development efforts.
It said compounds selected for the ACE program will be included in PEDAL campaigns with shared non-exclusive rights to the resultant tumor response data. Participation will be provided at no up-front cost to the investigator or institution. Applications are being accepted at https://predictive-oncology.com/ace/ through March 31, 2023, for the first phase of the ACE program. Additional information about its technology and the submission process can be found at https://predictive-oncology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/ACE-Program_Invitation.pdf, it added.
Predictive Oncology is focused on applying artificial intelligence (AI) to develop optimal cancer therapies, which can ultimately lead to more effective treatments and improved patient outcomes.
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