SINGAPORE, Sept. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hummingbird Bioscience, a data-driven precision biotherapeutics company discovering and developing transformative biologic medicines for hard-to-treat diseases, today announced that Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, Ph.D., Hummingbird Bioscience's Chief Scientific Officer, will present at the 2nd Annual VISTA Symposium on September 23, 2022.

"VISTA is a promising therapeutic target we believe has not been adequately drugged to date due to its complex biology," said Dr. Boyd-Kirkup. "I am excited to join the symposium to discuss the potential of anti-VISTA therapies alongside leading researchers and clinicians in immunology. Our differentiated, clinical-stage, anti-VISTA antibody HMBD-002 has potential as an important new therapy that may address VISTA-mediated immunosuppression across a broad range of tumors."

The symposium will focus on VISTA's function and applicability in cancer immunology, as well as the latest research and development in programs targeting VISTA.

Hummingbird Bioscience published preclinical data demonstrating the therapeutic potential of HMBD-002 in VISTA-expressing cancers in February 2022. A Phase 1 clinical trial NCT05082610 evaluating HMBD-002 is open and enrolling.

Presentation Details: 

Date:  September 23, 2022

Session Title: Role of VISTA in Tumor Immune Evasion

Dr. Boyd-Kirkup will join the panel discussion

Time:  10:00 AM - 10:30 AM Eastern Time

Session Title:  Anti-VISTA Therapeutic Strategies

Time:  12:10 PM - 12:55 PM Eastern Time

Register for the symposium:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2nd-annual-vista-symposium-tickets-374510088757 

About HMBD-002

HMBD-002 is an investigational IgG4 anti-VISTA antagonist antibody produced by our RAD platform to target the region where VISTA interacts with binding partners that have been shown to play an important role in modulating T cell activity, potentially unlocking the immune system to attack cancer cells. Due to complex biology, VISTA has not been adequately drugged to date. We believe HMBD-002 is the first Fc-independent anti-VISTA antibody designed to bind a computationally predicted functional epitope distinct from the epitopes of other known anti-VISTA antibodies in development. In the Company's preclinical studies, HMBD-002 demonstrated potent anti-tumor activity both as monotherapy and in combination with pembrolizumab, in multiple syngeneic and humanized mouse models of cancers. HMBD-002 is being developed for various VISTA-expressing cancers, both as a monotherapy and in combination with pembrolizumab. The development of HMBD-002 is supported in part by a grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT, DP190027).

About Hummingbird Bioscience

Hummingbird Bioscience is a data-driven precision biotherapeutics company discovering and developing transformative biologic medicines for hard-to-treat diseases. The Hummingbird Bioscience model combines computational and systems biology with wet lab drug discovery in a multi-disciplinary, collaborative environment spanning initial discovery through clinical development. We harness this integrated approach across target identification and patient selection, enabling our team to increase the efficiency of translating novel scientific insights while reducing the inherent risk in drug discovery and development. We are currently developing two clinical stage assets: HMBD-001, a humanized anti-HER3 monoclonal antibody targeting a novel epitope on HER3, and HMBD-002, a humanized anti-VISTA IgG4 monoclonal antibody. Both programs are currently in Phase 1 studies. At Hummingbird Bioscience, our commitment to rigorous science, teamwork, and intellectual integrity underpins our passion to accelerate the journey of new drugs from concept to clinic. 

For more information, please visit www.hummingbirdbioscience.com, and follow Hummingbird Bioscience on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.