Compugen Enhances its AI/ML Predictive Computational Discovery Platform, Unigen with Ultima Genomics' Single Cell Genomics Sequencing Technology

PRNewswire 26-Feb-2025 7:00 AM

• Gene structure information identified by combining Compugen's AI/ML predictive computational discovery platform, Unigen™ with Ultima's UG 100™ sequencing platform to better understand tumor biology and immune regulation
• Leveraging Compugen's computational analytical tools uncovered high consistency in single-cell expression levels across Ultima's UG 100 sequencing platform, offering a potential advantage for demarcation of transcript termination.
• Research presented at Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) 2025 General Meeting

HOLON, Israel, Feb. 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ:CGEN) (TASE: CGEN) a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a pioneer in computational target discovery, today announced results generated in a joint research collaboration, combining Compugen's AI/ML powered predictive computational discovery platform, Unigen, with high throughput single cell sequencing on Ultima's UG 100 to uncover new insights on gene structure for immuno-oncology.

"We are excited to collaborate with Ultima Genomics, a pioneer in next generation gene sequencing, to enhance our proprietary gene sequencing database, which is part of our Unigen platform," said Eran Ophir, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Compugen. "We developed algorithms to study gene splicing in single cell resolution and applied it to analyze patient tumor samples to uncover new potential regulatory mechanisms in immuno-oncology. Some of the findings were presented at the AGBT conference. Compugen plans to further harness Ultima's technology to develop its proprietary single cell atlases for accelerated discovery of new immunotherapies."

"We are excited to support Compugen's capabilities in predictive computational discovery of new drug targets and development of new cancer immunotherapies," said Gilad Almogy, Founder and CEO of Ultima Genomics. "We built our innovative sequencing architecture and our UG 100 sequencing platform to enable researchers to unlock new applications and insights through lower cost sequencing and more omics data. The successful outcome of our collaboration with Compugen is a great example of an application that is data-starved due to the constraints of conventional sequencing technology and can be transformed through large scale data and AI/ML techniques. Single cell sequencing is also an excellent fit for our technology which is now compatible with the leading library prep technologies."

Dr. Roy Granit, Head of Computational Discovery at Compugen is the lead author on a poster presented by Ultima Genomics at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) 2025 general meeting on February 25, 2025, in Marco Island, Florida. 

Poster presentation details:

Title: Using 3' Single Cell Sequencing to Study Patient-Derived Tumor Cells Reveals Enhanced Potential to Study Differential Splicing at the Cell Type Level
Poster number: 224
Date and time: Tuesday, February 25, 4:45 p.m. - 6:10 p.m. ET
Leading author: Roy Granit, Ph.D., Director, Head of Computational Discovery, Compugen, Israel
Presenter: Zohar Shipony, Ph.D. Ultima Genomics, United States

Key Findings:

• Comparative analysis using tumor samples from cancer patients, found high consistency in single-cell expression levels across Ultima Genomics' UG 100 and Illumina's Novaseq 6000 sequencing platforms.
• UG 100 offers clearer demarcation of 3' mRNA transcript end and provides a unique opportunity to study gene structure, which can potentially be harnessed to better understand tumor biology and immune regulation.
•  Gene structure information identified in this approach is contributing to the predictive models of Unigen.

The poster is available on the publications section of Compugen's website, www.cgen.com.

About Unigen™

Compugen has been at the forefront of decoding cancer biology, with its AI/ML powered predictive computational discovery platform, recently branded as Unigen™. Unigen is Compugen's code-to-cure, flexible-loop platform for the computational prediction of novel drug target discovery and development of cancer immunotherapy. Unigen combines Compugen's deep scientific knowledge, AI/ML predictive algorithms and a cloud-based, technology-agnostic platform integrating a variety of biological data such as multi-omics, single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial omics data. The outcomes from Compugen's preclinical and clinical trials enrich the proprietary knowledgebase to discover additional novel drug targets and further understand complex biology. To date, Unigen has yielded multiple novel immuno-oncology drug targets, potential first- or best-in-class clinical stage immuno-oncology programs, validating partnerships with multiple pharmaceutical companies and undisclosed programs in its early-stage pipeline.

About Compugen

Compugen is a clinical-stage therapeutic discovery and development company utilizing its broadly applicable predictive computational discovery platform (Unigen™) to identify new drug targets and biological pathways for developing cancer immunotherapies. Compugen has two proprietary product candidates in Phase 1 development: COM701, a potential first-in-class anti-PVRIG antibody and COM902, a potential best-in-class antibody targeting TIGIT for the treatment of solid tumors. Rilvegostomig, a PD-1/TIGIT bispecific antibody where the TIGIT component is derived from Compugen's clinical stage anti-TIGIT antibody, COM902, is in Phase 3 development by AstraZeneca through a license agreement for the development of bispecific and multispecific antibodies. GS-0321 (previously COM503), a potential first-in-class, high affinity anti-IL-18 binding protein antibody, which is in Phase 1 development is licensed to Gilead. In addition, the Company's therapeutic pipeline of early-stage immuno-oncology programs consists of programs aiming to address various mechanisms of immune resistance. Compugen is headquartered in Israel, with offices in San Francisco, CA. Compugen's shares are listed on Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CGEN.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions of Compugen. Forward-looking statements can be identified using terminology such as "will," "may," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "potential," "plan," "goal," "estimate," "likely," "should," "confident," and "intends," and similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statement regarding Ultima's UG 100™ sequencing platform offering a potential advantage for demarcation of transcript termination and statements regarding Compugen's plans to further harness Ultima's technology to develop its proprietary single cell atlases for accelerated discovery of new immunotherapies. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of Compugen to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Among these risks: the clinical trials of any product candidates that Compugen, or any current or future collaborators, may develop may fail to satisfactorily demonstrate safety and efficacy to the FDA, and Compugen, or any collaborators, may incur additional costs or experience delays in completing, or ultimately be unable to complete, the development and commercialization of these product candidates; Compugen's business model is substantially dependent on entering into collaboration agreements with third parties and Compugen may not be successful in generating adequate revenues or commercializing aspects of its business model; Compugen's approach to the discovery of therapeutic products is based on its proprietary computational target discovery infrastructure, which is unproven clinically; general market, political and economic conditions in the countries in which Compugen operates, including Israel; the effect of the evolving nature of the recent war in Gaza; and Compugen does not know whether it will be able to discover and develop additional potential product candidates or products of commercial value. These risks and other risks are more fully discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of Compugen's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as other documents that may be subsequently filed by Compugen from time to time with the SEC. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent Compugen's views only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Compugen does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements unless required by law.

Compugen contact:
Yvonne Naughton, Ph.D.
VP, Head of Investor Relations, and Corporate Communications
Email: ir@cgen.com
Tel: +1 (628) 241-0071 

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