Universidad Nacional de Colombia

MONCTON, NB, Jan. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Breathe BioMedical (BBM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Rachel Brem to the company's Board of Directors in her newly appointed role of Executive Director and Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Brem is a world-renowned expert in breast cancer and the Director of the Breast Imaging and Interventional Center at the George Washington University. She is a cutting-edge clinician, researcher with over 120 peer-reviewed publications, author of a recently published book, No Longer Radical: Understanding Mastectomies and Choosing the Breast Cancer Care that's Right for You (Simon and Schuster, 2023), advocate, and a breast cancer survivor. She has been recognized as a Top Cancer Doctor by Newsweek as well as a Best American Physician, Best Cancer Doctor by numerous organizations as well as Whose Who in American Medicine. Throughout her career, Dr. Brem has been instrumental in developing, implementing and advancing groundbreaking technologies to improve the diagnosis and outcomes of breast cancer including artificial intelligence, molecular breast imaging and ultrasound tomography. BBM is focused on developing an accessible, noninvasive breath test to detect breast cancer in women, specifically women with dense breast tissue. Dr. Brem's leadership in breast cancer and her leadership in the critically important area of dense breast tissue makes her an optimal addition to our team. Her unique experiences make her the ideal person to help guide and support our initiatives as we advance our clinical study with our exciting platform technology. Dr. Brem is the Chief Medical Officer of the Brem Foundation, a 501(c) 3 which began nearly 20 years ago, inspired by her mission and life story that is dedicated to the early detection of breast cancer. The Brem Foundation focuses on education, health equity and advocacy on the local and national level and is instrumental in passage of breast cancer legislation. Their mission to maximize women's chances of finding early, curable breast cancer through education, access, and advocacy is well aligned with BBM's mission. "Dr. Brem is a renowned radiologist and researcher in the breast cancer field. Her story is incredibly inspiring and her passion and drive to find early, accessible methods for breast cancer detection is directly aligned with our work and mission at BBM," said BBM CEO, Bill Dawes. "We are excited to have Dr. Brem's leadership at the Executive Director level to lead our Clinical and Regulatory strategy as our Chief Medical Officer." "The team at BBM is developing technology that will address the challenges of early breast cancer detection to further decrease breast cancer mortality. I look forward to joining BBM to support their development in the breast cancer field," said Dr. Brem of her new role at BBM. Dr. Brem received her medical degree from Colombia University, completing an internship in internal medicine at Sinai Hospital and her residency in radiology at John Hopkins Hospital. About Breathe BioMedical: Breathe BioMedical (BBM) is a medical technology company focused on developing an accurate breath test to detect early-stage breast cancer in women. Breath analytics involves the collection, processing, and analysis of breath samples to identify biomarker patterns associated with specific diseases. BBM is located in Moncton, New Brunswick and its US subsidiary is located in Boston, Massachusetts. One day, detecting disease may be as easy as breathing. For more information, visit: or SOURCE Breathe BioMedical

Researchers re-examined a plant fossil found decades ago in Colombia and realized that it wasn't a plant at all: it's a fossilized baby turtle. It's a rare find, because juvenile turtles' shells are soft and often don't fossilize well. From the 1950s to the 1970s, a Colombian priest named Padre Gustavo Huertas collected rocks and fossils near a town called Villa de Levya. Two of the specimens he found were small, round rocks patterned with lines that looked like leaves; he classified them as a type of fossil plant. But in a new study, published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica, researchers re-examined these "plant" fossils and found that they weren't plants at all: they were the fossilized remains of baby turtles. "It was truly surprising to find these fossils," says Héctor Palma-Castro, a paleobotany student at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The plants in question had been described by Huertas in 2003 as Sphenophyllum colombianum. The fossils come from Early Cretaceous rocks, between 132 and 113 million years ago, during the dinosaurs' era. Fossils of Sphenophyllum colombianum were surprising at this time and place -- the other known members of the genus Sphenophyllum died out more than 100 million years prior. The plants'a ge and locality piqued the interest of Fabiany Herrera, the Negaunee assistant curator of fossil plants at the Field Museum in Chicago, and his student, Palma-Castro. "We went to the fossil collection at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá and started looking at the plants, and as soon as we photographed them, we thought, 'this is weird,'" says Herrera, who has been collecting Early Cretaceous plants from northwestern South America, an area of the world with little paleobotanical work. At first glance, the fossils, about 2 inches in diameter, looked like rounded nodules containing the preserved leaves of the plant Sphenophyllum. But Herrera and Palma-Castro noticed key features that weren't quite right. "We spent days searching through wooden cabinets for fossil plants. When we finally found this fossil, deciphering the shape and margin of the leaf proved challenging," says Palma-Castro. "When you look at it in detail, the lines seen on the fossils don't look like the veins of a plant -- I was positive that it was most likely bone," says Herrera. So he reached out to an old colleague of his, Edwin-Alberto Cadena. "They sent me the photos, and I said, "This definitely looks like a carapace' -- the bony upper shell of a turtle," says Cadena, a paleontologist who focuses on turtles and other vertebrates at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá. When he saw the scale of the photos, Cadena recalls, "I said, 'Well, this is remarkable, because this is not only a turtle, but it's also a hatchling specimen, it's very, very small." Cadena and his student, Diego Cómbita-Romero of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, further examined the specimens, comparing them with the shells of both fossil and modern turtles. "When we saw the specimen for the first time I was astonished, because the fossil was missing the typical marks on the outside of a turtle's shell," says Cómbita-Romero. It was a little bit concave, like a bowl. At that moment we realized that the visible part of the fossil was the other side of the carapace, we were looking at the part of the shell that is inside the turtle." Details in the turtle's bones helped the researchers estimate how old it was at death. "Turtle growth rates and sizes vary," says Cómbita-Romero, so the team looked at features like the thickness of its carapace and the spots where its ribs were knitting together into solid bone. "This is a feature uncommon in hatchlings but observed in juveniles. All this information suggests that the turtle likely died with a slightly developed carapace, between 0 to 1 years old, in a post-hatchling stage," he says. "This is actually really rare to find hatchlings of fossil turtles in general," says Cadena. "When the turtles are very young, the bones in their shells are very thin, so they can be easily destroyed." The researchers say that the rarity of fossilized baby turtles makes their discovery an important one. "These turtles were likely relatives of other Cretaceous species that were up to fifteen feet long, but we don't know much about how they actually grew to such giant sizes," says Cadena. The researchers don't fault Padre Huertas for his mistake -- the preserved shells really do resemble many fossil plants. But the features that Huertas thought were leaves and stems are actually the modified rib bones and vertebrae that make up a turtle's shell. Cómbita-Romero and Palma-Castro nicknamed the specimens as "Turtwig," after a Pokémon that's half-turtle, half-plant. "In the Pokémon universe, you encounter the concept of combining two or more elements, such as animals, machines, plants, etc. So, when you have a fossil initially classified as a plant that turns out to be a baby turtle, a few Pokémon immediately come to mind. In this case, Turtwig, a baby turtle with a leaf attached to its head," says Palma-Castro." In paleontology, your imagination and capacity to be amazed are always put to the test. Discoveries like these are truly special because they not only expand our knowledge about the past but also open a window to the diverse possibilities of what we can uncover." The scientists also note the importance of these fossils in the larger scheme of Colombian paleontology. "We resolved a small paleobotanical mystery, but more importantly, this study shows the need to re-study historical collections in Colombia. The Early Cretaceous is a critical time in land plant evolution, particularly for flowering plants and gymnosperms. Our future job is to discover the forests that grew in this part of the world," says Herrera. This project was supported by the National Geographic Society, grant (EC-96755R-22) Discovering Early Cretaceous Floras from Northern South America & the Negaunee Integrative Research Center, Field Museum.

SAB and MAG comprise global key opinion leaders in translationaltumor immunology and immunotherapy Paris, France – May9, 2023 Enterome, a clinical-stage company developing first-in-class immunomodulatory drugs for cancer and inflammatory diseases based on its unique Mimicry platform, announces the creation of its international Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and Medical Advisory Group (MAG) comprising highly respected and influential scientific and clinical leaders in oncology and immunotherapy. The newly formed SAB and MAG will provide strategic, scientific, and clinical guidance to Enterome as it progresses its pipeline of innovative OncoMimics™ immunotherapies targeting solid and liquid tumors. Enterome’s Scientific Advisory Board comprises (biographies below): David Klatzmann, MD, PhD - Professor of Immunology at the Sorbonne University (Paris, France) Pedro Romero, MD, PhD - Director of Scientific and Medical Affairs, Novigenix, Professor Emeritus at University of Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland) Justin Eyquem, PhD - Assistant Professor in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California (San Francisco, CA, US) Enterome’s Medical Advisory Group comprises (biographies below): Zuzana Jirakova, MD, PhD - Chief Medical Officer at Highlight Therapeutics (Madrid, ES) Peter Kiener, PhD - Venture Partner at ICG Life Sciences (Portland, OR, US) Alexander Zukiwski, MD - Chief Medical Officer at CASI Pharmaceuticals (Rockville, MD, US) “We are very pleased to announce the creation of our Scientific Advisory Board and Medical Advisory Group,” commented Pierre Belichard, CEO at Enterome. “Their combined knowledge and experience in immune-oncology will be fundamental as we look to advance and expand our pipeline of OncoMimics immunotherapies into and through clinical development targeting solid and liquid cancers. Their insights and expertise will be crucial to Enterome as we approach important near-term clinical readouts from the ROSALIE trial with EO2401 in recurrent glioblastoma and from the SIDNEY trial with EO2463 in Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and as we consider the design and strategy for potentially pivotal clinical trials with these candidates. In addition, we look forward to their input to the development strategies around our other OncoMimics candidates, which are planned to enter clinical trials in 2023, including EO2040 in colorectal cancer with ctDNA-defined, minimal residual disease, and EO4010 for third-line colorectal cancer.” Biographies Scientific Advisory Board David Klatzmann, MD, PhD is a world-renowned immunologist who contributed to the discovery of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), revealing its preferential tropism and cytopathic effect- the first indication that HIV is the cause of AIDS. David is Professor of Immunology at the Sorbonne University. He also holds several roles at both the Pierre and Marie Curie Medical School and Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, including as Chief of Biotherapy, Coordinator of the Clinical Investigation Center for Biotherapy and Immunology. With a current focus on translational system immunology, David brings a wealth of expertise and knowledge on T cell-based therapies in cancer and auto-immune diseases. Pedro Romero, MD, PhD is a specialist in translational tumor immunology and immunotherapy of cancer as well as immune and tumoral responses. He currently serves as Deputy Scientific Director of the Lausanne branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Switzerland and in 2021 was made Honorary Professor of the University of Lausanne. He joined Novigenix, Lausanne, as Director of Scientific and Medical Affairs in April 2023. Pedro was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Immunology, the National University of Colombia and New York University School of Medicine. Pedro’s research which has been published in leading scientific journals has been instrumental to tumor immunology and clinical cancer immunotherapy developments. Justin Eyquem, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Investigator at the Gladstone-UCSF Institute for Genomic Immunology and co-founder and scientific advisor for Mnemo Therapeutics. Justin brings with him a unique understanding of the engineering of T lymphocytes to enhance CAR T and natural killer (NK) cell functions in hematological and solid tumors. Justin earned his PhD from the University of Paris-Diderot (France) in collaboration with the biotech company Cellectis and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, US. Medical Advisory Group Zuzana Jirakova Trnkova, MD, PhD has over 20 years of pharmaceutical industry and leading biotech experience in global drug development. Zuzana serves as a Chief Medical Officer at Highlight Therapeutics. Previously, she was Vice President of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs Radiology at Bayer Pharmaceuticals. Before this, she served as Vice President of Clinical Research and Development at BioNTech in Germany. Zuzana earned her MD and PhD in immunology and molecular biology at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Zuzana brings cross-disciplinary experience in early to late-stage oncology drug development of small molecules and biologics in various indications, translational research and clinical pharmacology. Peter Kiener, PhD has extensive experience in research and development in biologics, immunotherapy and biopharmaceuticals and a brings a wealth of knowledge in drug development from discovery through to approval. He is a Venture Partner at ICG Life Sciences and the former Chief Scientific Officer at Sucampo. Prior to this, he was President and co-founder of Zyngenia and has held R&D leadership roles at Ambrx, MedImmune/AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Peter earned his PhD in biochemistry at the University of Oxford. Alexander Zukiwski, MD, has 25+ years of experience in global oncology drug development and serves as Chief Medical Officer at CASI Pharmaceuticals. He has held several leadership roles in the pharmaceutical industry, including in global drug development, clinical evaluation and registration of many successful oncology treatments at leading companies such as Hoffmann-LaRoche, Glaxo Wellcome, Johnson & Johnson, MedImmune, and Arno Therapeutics. Alexander received his MD from the University of Calgary and conducted his post-graduate training at St. Thomas Hospital Medical Center in Akron, Ohio, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Contacts ENTEROME MEDIA RELATIONS Guillaume Bayre Head of External Communications Tel; +33 (0)1 76 21 58 15 communication@enterome.com Sylvie Berrebi / Mark Swallow / David Dible MEDiSTRAVA Consulting Tel. +44 (0) 203 928 6900 enterome@medistrava.com About Enterome Enterome is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing breakthrough immunomodulatory drugs for the treatment of cancer and immune diseases. Enterome’s pioneering approach to drug discovery is based on its unique and powerful bacterial Mimicry drug discovery platform, allowing it to analyze and uncover new biological insights from the millions of gut bacterial proteins in constant cross-talk with the human body. Its first-in-class small protein and peptide drug candidates modulate the immune system by closely mimicking the structure, effect or actions of specific antigens, hormones, or cytokines. The company’s two pipelines of drug candidates include: OncoMimics™ peptides, a pipeline of peptide-based immunotherapies. Lead candidate, EO2401, is in Phase 2 clinical trials in patients with glioblastoma and adrenal tumors and has demonstrated clinical proof of concept. EO2463 is in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for indolent non-Hodgkin lymphomas, with clinical data expected in H1 2023. EO2040, a new immune therapy, is expected to start a Phase 2 trial in 2023 in patients suffering from colorectal cancer with ctDNA-defined, minimal residual disease. EO4010 is in development for third-line colorectal cancer and targeted to enter clinical trials in 2023. EndoMimics™ peptides, a pipeline of next generation bioactives acting like human hormones or cytokines, are being developed in collaboration with Nestlé Health Science, for food allergies and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Lead candidate, EB1010, expected to enter the clinic in 2024, is a potent local inducer of IL-10, designed to improve therapeutic outcomes for patients with IBD. Enterome employs 73 people and is headquartered in Paris, France. Since its inception, the company has raised a total of €116 million from Europe- and US-based life science investors and more than €100 million from pharmaceutical partnerships. For more information, please visit the company’s website at: