Hummingbird Bioscience, a clinical-stage biotech company focused on developing revolutionary therapies for hard-to-drug targets, is collaborating with Tempus, an expert in artificial intelligence and precision medicine.
This will drive the development of Hummingbird’s lead clinical program, HMBD-001, as it advances into clinical trials in HER3-driven cancers, including those that harbour neuregulin 1 (NRG1) fusions.
As part of the collaboration, Hummingbird will be using Tempus’ AI-enabled platform and proprietary data, as well as joining its TIME Trial Network, for rapid identification, site activation and efficient enrollment of cancer patients who have NRG1 fusions and meet eligibility criteria for HMBD-001 clinical trials.
NRG1 fusions are a rare genetic mutation that are increasingly recognised as a driver of multiple tumour malignancies, and an actionable target for HER3 targeted therapy. NRG1 fusions cause the overproduction of NRG1 ligands, resulting in increased HER3 activation and tumour growth. Up to 1% of all solid tumours harbor NRG1 fusions, therefore, it is important to identify this patient population and develop therapies that can treat them.
HMBD-001 is a uniquely differentiated anti-HER3 neutralising antibody that was developed using Hummingbird’s proprietary Rational Antibody Discovery platform. HMBD-001 has been immune- engineered to bind with high affinity to the HER3 dimerization interface and block HER3 growth signals to the cancer. Most importantly, HMBD-001 blocks HER3 in both open and closed conformations, and in the presence or absence of high concentrations of NRG1.
Pre-clinical studies have shown that these differentiated properties of HMBD-001 lead to robust and sustained tumour growth inhibition in multiple HER3 cancer models, including those with NRG1-fusions.
“We are excited to collaborate with Tempus to leverage their just-in-time clinical trial program and apply Hummingbird’s deep knowledge of disease driving protein mechanisms in order to identify patients with actionable genetic abnormalities,” said Dr Piers Ingram, Co-founder and CEO of Hummingbird.
