Tessellate BIO, Omico & CMRI Announce Multi-Year Collaboration

Tessellate BIO recently announced a collaboration with CMRI and Omico to advance the understanding of the prevalence of alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) across tumor types and the genetic factors involved, and thereby accelerate the development of precision medicine tools and new cancer therapies. ALT is a mechanism that some cancer cells use to maintain the integrity of their telomeres during cell division, and is essential for their unlimited replicative potential. It builds on the collaboration with Tessellate BIO co-founder Prof. Hilda Pickett at CMRI.

The large genomically characterized patient sample cohort was collected by Omico as part of the MoST (Cancer Molecular Screening and Therapeutics) program and has already allowed the partners to explore ALT prevalence in primary tissue samples utilizing the C-Circle Assay, the expected gold standard for establishing ALT status.

While ALT has been detected in 10 to 15% of all cancers, it has primarily been studied in cancers with ALT prevalence exceeding 50%, eg, soft tissue sarcomas and osteosarcomas. Initial results of the Tessellate BIO – Omico – CMRI collaboration are already revealing the presence of ALT in cancers that were previously not associated with this mechanism of telomere maintenance.

Tessellate BIO is developing novel therapies specifically targeting ALT cancers and the collaboration contributes to its leadership position in the field of ALT biology and drug discovery.

Dr. Jurgen Moll, Tessellate BIO CSO, said “The Omico – CMRI collaboration is instrumental for us to identify subpopulations of patients in different cancer indications that are driven by ALT and for which we are developing targeted drugs. In addition, we are excited about the opportunity to validate the C-Circle Assay to detect ALT+ cancer patients by screening a wide range of human cancer samples. This brings us closer to our aim: to make the C-Circle Assay the future gold standard for identifying these patients in the clinic – true precision medicine.”

Prof. Roger Reddel, CEO of CMRI and chair of the Tessellate BIO scientific advisory board, added “Synthetic lethality has huge potential for the development of new cancer therapies but has so far been directed to only a small proportion of cancer types by targeting of Homologous Recombination Deficiency (HRD). This collaboration has been established to make a meaningful contribution to expanding lethality beyond HRD into ALT+ cancers through the development of new therapies and associated companion diagnostics.”

Prof. David Thomas, Omico Chief Science and Strategy Officer, also added “We welcome this collaboration and to publishing the results in due course, with the aim to further the understanding of ALT cancers in the broader scientific community and eventually to develop new tools and therapies to improve patients’ lives.”

“Tessellate BIO is delighted with the collaboration and anticipates that the results will help therapies for ALT cancers become available to the right patients with the highest probability to benefit from them. The collaboration partners plan to publish their findings in the future,” said Tessellate BIO CEO Andree Blaukat.

Tessellate BIO discovers and develops novel precision oncology medicines with the mission to turn cancer patients into cancer survivors. A private preclinical stage biotechnology company, Tessellate BIO is redefining Synthetic Lethality by developing drugs that target unexplored or difficult to drug pathways beyond HRD.

The company’s strategy is to drive small molecule drug discovery towards novel, validated oncology targets and, critically, the parallel development of associated companion diagnostics, including a potentially best-in-class diagnostic to detect ALT positive cancers for identification of treatment-eligible patients. The company also has follow-on programs in tumor suppressor Loss-of-Function (LoF) settings.

Led by an experienced team of drug hunters, the company is building a pipeline of first-in-class medicines based on cutting-edge research sourced from international world-renowned laboratories and research centers including Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI), Australia, Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM), Portugal, and Omico (Australia). Its lead program targets complexes that are critical for the ALT mechanism including the FANCM protein complex.

Headquartered in the Netherlands and with research labs at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, UK, Tessellate BIO is supported by top-tier life science investors BioGeneration Ventures (BGV) and Forbion. For more information, visit: www.tessellatebio.com.

Omico (Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre) is a national, not-for-profit organization enabling a network of research and treatment centers that facilitates, supports, and promotes clinical trials in genomic cancer medicine. The MoST (Cancer Molecular Screening and Therapeutics) program is a framework protocol for multiple, parallel, signal-seeking clinical studies of novel molecularly targeted therapies for patients with advanced cancer and unmet clinical need, collected by researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. The major objective of the MoST program is to deliver precision medicine approaches to cancer patients through comprehensive molecular screening. For more information, visit www.omico.com.au.

CMRI (Children’s Medical Research Institute), is a medical research institute located in Sydney, Australia. The ALT cancer mechanism was first discovered at CMRI in 1995, and the research into telomere biology and ALT cancers remains a key focus of the institute to this day. Prof. Hilda Pickett is the Telomere Length Regulation Unit Head at CMRI, an experienced researcher with extensive experience in telomere length regulation. Prof. Pickett is a co-founder of Tessellate Bio. For more information, visit https://www.cmrijeansforgenes.org.au/.