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Funding to support a cancer diagnostic system to measure empirical treatment response


Houston, TX, July 20, 2023 - EMPIRI, Inc., who is revolutionizing how we treat cancer by providing empirical, personalized, drug response data prior to treatment selection, today announced the award of a Phase I NSF SBIR grant in support of EMPIRI’s automation of their E-Slice platform.


This grant will support further development of a first in class cancer diagnostic system that can deliver clinically actionable, personalized, drug response data for individual cancer patients using the E-slice platform. E-slice is a novel 3D culture-based assessment, which has been shown to accurately predict individual cancer patients’ response to treatment.

EMPIRI currently offers E-slice applications from their CLIA Certified laboratory in Houston, TX as a LDT as well as a service to pharmaceutical and academic research partners to enhance their drug discovery pipelines and clinical trials. Automation of the E-slice platform will expand EMPIRI’s service capabilities and future clinical testing applications. Beyond improving outcomes for cancer patients, the automation of E-slice is expected to have a far-reaching impact, accelerating and economizing drug screening, discovery, and development for pharma and academic organizations.


Today, cancer therapies are largely non-curative and provide poor patient outcomes. E-slice has been validated in two clinical studies to accurately predict patient response to chemotherapies and targeted therapy combinations. Furthermore, ti can measure immunotherapy efficacy from tumor-resident immune cells from patien tumors. This innovative method can be used to measure the cytotoxic effects of individual drugs as well as drug combinations to optimize efficacy and reduce toxicity by selecting optimized treatment for each individual patient.


“We are at the beginning of an exciting collaboration with the National Science Foundation to further develop our proprietary plaform for personalized treatment of cancer patients,” said Dave Gallup, Chief Executive Officer of EMPIRI, Inc. “We look forward to leverage this partnership to expand our pharma and academic services, and into clinical services that can maximize the deployment of currently available FDA approved drugs to optimize cancer treatment for all patients, including those without a standard of care treatment options.”

About EMPIRI, Inc.


EMPIRI is revolutionizing the way we treat cancer by providing empirical, personalized, drug response data prior to treatment selection. EMPIRI’s novel 3D culture method (E-slice) retains the integrity of each patient’s native cancer ecosystem. This innovative culture method measures cytotoxic effects of individual drugs or drug combinations using live patient tumor tissues. To make the greatest impact with this novel methodology, EMPIRI will automate this proprietary method to provide insight into clinical treatment decision making.


Dave Gallup CEO EMPIRI, Inc.

San Francisco, CA, Jan 8, 2023– EMPIRI today announced that it is presenting at Biotech Showcase™ 2023. This year, registered attendees can view EMPIRI’s presentation live, and also access a recorded version beginning November 29th – SIX weeks prior to the actual event. With 24x7 on-demand access, attendees can view recorded presentations at their convenience when scheduling does not allow viewing during the main event week.

Dr. Kyuson Yun, cofounder, will be presenting EMPIRI at Biotech Showcase.

EMIPRI was selected to present in the Biotech Showcase section on Tues, Jan 10th at 4:45pm in Franciscan C.


“We are excited to present EMPIRI at this year’s Biotech Showcase in San Francisco. EMPIRI was recently awarded a highly competitive NIH R01 grant (non-dilutive funding of ~$3.1M in collaboration with Dr. Naoto Ueno, a leader in breast cancer oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and our co-founder and inventor of our novel 3D culture method (E-slice), Dr. Kyuson Yun, a world renown cancer researcher at Houston Methodist/Weill-Cornell Medical College. NIH R01 grants are most rigorously reviewed by a panel of expert scientists, and this award provides a strong external validation for the innovation and potential impact of our technology in addition to testifying the strength of scientific data underlying our technology”


Biotech Showcase, produced by Demy-Colton and EBD Group, is an investor conference focused on driving advances in therapeutic development by providing a sophisticated networking platform for executives and investors that fosters investment and partnership opportunities. The conference takes place each year during the course of one of the industry's largest gatherings and busiest weeks.


“We are delighted that EMPIRI will be joining us in San Francisco and presenting at Biotech Showcase this year,” said Sara Demy, CEO of Demy-Colton. “Biotech Showcase is a prime occasion for life science entrepreneurs and investors to come together to discover the potential of innovative technologies that will drive the future of drug discovery.”

Biotech Showcase is an investor and networking conference devoted to providing private and public biotechnology and life sciences companies with an opportunity to present to, and meet with, investors and pharmaceutical executives in one place. Investors and biopharmaceutical executives from around the world gather at Biotech Now in its 15th year, this well-established, highly respected conference features multiple tracks of presenting companies, plenary sessions, workshops, networking, and an opportunity to schedule one-to-one meetings. This is the first year EMPIRI is presenting at this event. We are looking forward to meeting potential investors and clients for this groundbreaking functional precision medicine assay (now a CLIA LDT). We also want to let biotech and pharmaceutical companies aware of this technology that can transform their drug development pipelines, particularly for immunotherapies.


EMPIRI is a clinical-stage platform technology company founded in the Texas Medical Center (TMC), Houston, TX. EMPIRI’s mission is to revolutionize the way we treat cancer patients by identifying the optimal treatment for each cancer patient, empirically, to give them the best chance to fight cancer. EMPIRI’s novel 3D human tissue slice (E-slice) culture method enables drug testing from individual patient tissue directly, without the need for expansion or artificial manipulations outside of the body. This technology ensures the most faithful modeling of each patient's cancer outside the body, including the native tumor microenvironment and immune landscape. E-slice has demonstrated 100% accuracy in predicting colorectal cancer patient responses in two small retrospective clinical studies. Importantly, E-slices can measure immunotherapy efficacy ex vivo in 8 days from tumor-educated immune cells.


Contacts

Dave Gallup, CEO, Cofounder

dgallup@empiricancer.com

650-255-9761

Follow EMPIRI on Twitter at @empiricancer and Biotech Showcase at @EBDGroup and @Demy_Colton.


At the 11th annual Texas Life Science Forum, held on November 8, 2022, EMPIRI Inc. was once again recognized as one of the Rice Alliance Most Promising Life Science Companies for our E-Slice technology.


Hosted by BioHouston and Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, the Texas Life Sciences Forum presents panels and networking opportunities to grow the life sciences field.


It also hosted over 50 companies to pitch their solutions for improvement. Chosen by investors present, EMPIRI was the only company to repeat in the Top 10 (from the 10th annual event).

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