SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Nov. 5, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:FPRX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing novel protein therapeutics for cancer and inflammatory diseases, announced that it will present a poster describing the use of the company's protein screening platform to identify unique cancer immunotherapy targets on November 7 and 8 at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 29th Annual Meeting. The meeting is being held November 6-9, 2014, in National Harbor, Maryland.
The poster, entitled "Discovery of Novel Immune Checkpoint Regulators in a Comprehensive Library of Human Extracellular Proteins," is being presented by Dr. Nathan Sallee, a Scientist at Five Prime. A copy will be available at http://www.fiveprime.com/news-media/publications-presentations following the presentation.
The poster refers to Five Prime's comprehensive library of substantially all human extracellular proteins (more than 5,700), as well the company's proprietary in vitro and in vivo high-throughput protein screening technologies for discovering and validating new targets in a variety of disease areas. The platform is well suited for the discovery of new targets in cancer immunotherapy, including novel checkpoint regulators and the counter-receptors for previously "orphan" checkpoints. As described in the poster, Five Prime used domain structure, phylogeny and other factors to identify a subset of 391 human proteins in its library that are enriched for possible cell surface-expressed immune regulatory proteins. These proteins were screened for the ability to modulate anti-CD3-stimulated human T cell proliferation. This screen identified a number of known checkpoint regulators, which validates Five Prime's discovery platform and screening approach. It also identified numerous novel co-inhibitory proteins – the majority of which have no published link to immune cell regulation. For a number of these proteins, Five Prime demonstrated activity in orthogonal assays, such as inhibition of purified human T cell proliferation and modulation of tumor growth in mouse cancer models. Further in vitro and in vivo characterization of these proteins is ongoing.
About Five Prime
Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. discovers and develops innovative therapeutics to improve the lives of patients with serious diseases. Five Prime's comprehensive discovery platform, which encompasses virtually every medically relevant extracellular protein, positions it to explore pathways in cancer, inflammation and their intersection in cancer immunotherapy, an area of oncology with significant therapeutic potential and a growing focus of the company's R&D activities. Five Prime has entered into strategic collaborations with leading global pharmaceutical companies and has promising product candidates in clinical and late preclinical development. For more information, please visit www.fiveprime.com.
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