Kiromic Announces 6 Posters Presented at American Association of Cancer Research 2021 Showcasing our Artificial Intelligence (AI) Biomarker Engine

Rhea-AI Summary

Kiromic BioPharma (Nasdaq: KRBP) showcased its innovative technologies at the AACR 2021 meeting, highlighting their use of AI in developing CAR-T therapies for solid tumors. The company presented six posters on their proprietary platforms, including CancerDiff and CancerSplice, which harmonize large data sets for biomarker identification. Kiromic's AI-driven approach is believed to significantly lower development timelines compared to industry standards. The firm aims to lead in allogenic CAR-T therapies, expecting to realize this vision with planned human trials in Q3 2021.

Positive

• Showcased 6 posters at AACR 2021, setting a record for a single company.
• AI-driven technology may compress drug development timelines.
• Demonstrated effectiveness of their chPD1 receptor on solid tumors with minimal toxicities.
• Launched innovative platforms like CancerDiff and CancerSplice for biomarker discovery.

Negative

• None.

Kiromic BioPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: KRBP), an immuno-oncology target discovery and gene-editing company, with a proprietary artificial intelligence neural network platform (Diamond AI) to develop novel oncology therapeutics, has announced its technology showcases at the recent American Association of Cancer Research (“AACR”) 2021 meeting.

Kiromic BioPharma is using cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology to select biomarkers to develop CAR-T therapy for solid tumors.

The Company believes that the use of AI will enable it to compress development timelines in ways which are not achievable by its peers who are not equipped with AI technology.

The American Association of Cancer Research recognized Kiromic's innovation with its acceptance of 6 poster presentations at the recent conference on April 9-14, 2021.

Kiromic’s 6 posters showcased the company’s following technology platforms and advances:

• CancerDiff, a deep data mining engine that harmonizes billions of data points across disease types and states, data types, data structures and data platforms and Diamond AI, a proprietary system which combs through billions of transcription data points across public and private RNA databases to present the best immunogenic peptide candidates for CAR-T;
• CancerSplice, the Company’s 3D, isoform prediction engine, which examines billions of data points to select the best targets;
• Validation of the Company’s AI technology in identifying NY-ESO-1, which is a very well-known target and served as an excellent validation of the Company’s engine's accuracy;
• Our company also demonstrated that our chPD1 receptor is effective on solid tumors in both in vitro and in vivo models with minimal toxicities;
• We showed that our non-viral gene edit technology could have the same target specificity of Cas9 without the DNA destruction common to HIV integrase;
• Finally we investigated NK as a potential adoptive cell therapy platform for CAR-T.

Dr. Maurizio Chiriva, PhD stated that, "Our mission is to become the leader in allogenic, off-the-shelf CAR-T in solid tumors. Our cutting-edge AI engine for biomarker identification and selection will support our development pathway going forward. We believe that our ability to deliver allogenic, off-the-shelf CAR-T for solid tumors is within reach and that our therapy will offer patients higher efficacy at lower costs. We expect to make this therapy a reality this year."

Mr. Gianluca Rotino, the Company’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, noted that, "We are proud to have set a new record for the number of posters accepted for a single company by the prestigious American Association of Cancer Research (AACR 2021), who accepted 6 of our posters. These poster presentations also broke ground for the number of new technologies that Kiromic is bringing to the world of live-cell therapy (CAR-T).

"We believe that we are disrupting the industry with our innovative approach as summarized in the following table:

	Kiromic's approach	Industry standard
Targeting	AI driven and machine learning bio-informatics for targeting	Classic chemistry
Live Cell Type	Gamma Delta T cells for CAR-T	Peers' NK, or Mesenchymal (stem cells)
Donor Tissue Type	Allogenic gamma delta T cells from healthy donors	Marketed therapies' autologous T-cells from frail patients
Gene Editing	Non-viral, non-destructive to DNA	Industry standard CRISPR Cas9
GMP Manuf.	In-house Vivarium and GMP manufacturing for our clinical trials	Industry standard of using external Contract Manufacturers

"With these innovations, we believe that we are poised to lead the future for CAR-T in solid tumors. We expect to build on this lead with planned in-human dosing in the third quarter of 2021."

ABOUT KIROMIC POSTERS AT AACR 2021

Session	Focus	Poster	Link to Poster at AACR
BSB01.05	New Software for Data Analysis	247	Identification of an ovarian cancer selective splice variant of mesothelin utilizing the Kiromic proprietary search engine CancerDiff   CancerDiff: Our deep data-mining engine which harmonizes billions of data points across: -- disease types and states -- data types, -- data structures, and -- data platforms.   Diamond AI: Our system which combs through billions of transcription data points across public and private RNA databases to present the best immunogenic peptide candidates for CAR-T.
PO.IM02.01	Adoptive Cell Therapy	1534	Mesothelin isoform 2 is a novel target for allogenic CARγδT cell therapy in solid tumors   CancerSplice: Our 3D, isoform prediction engine which examines billions of data points to select the best targets.
BSB01.04	New Algorithms	243	Identification of novel epitopes of NY-ESO-1 for solid malignancies by Kiromic proprietary search engine Diamond   NY-ESO-1: How we got to NY-ESO-1 using our AI target selection engine. NY-EOS-1 is a very well-known target and served as an excellent validation of our engine's accuracy.
PO.ET08.01	Gene and Vector-Based Therapy	1154	Site-specific gene editing with ABBIE for T-cell therapy   ABBIE: We showed that our non-viral gene edit technology could have the same target specificity of Cas9 without the DNA destruction common to HIV integrase.
PO.IM02.01	Adoptive Cell Therapy	LB148	Gamma delta T cells engineered with a chimeric PD-1 receptor effectively control PD-L1 positive tumors in vitro and in vivo with minimal toxicities.   chPD1: We demonstrated that our chPD1 receptor was effective on solid tumors in both in vitro and in vivo models with minimal toxicities.
PO.IM02.01	Adoptive Cell Therapy	1535	Allogenic CAR iNKT as a cell therapy platform targeting tumor antigen Isomesothelin   iNKT: We investigated NK as a potential adoptive cell therapy platform for CAR-T.

About AACR (American Association of Cancer Research)

www.aacr.org

About Kiromic

Kiromic BioPharma, Inc. is an immuno-oncology biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel immuno-oncology applications through its robust product pipeline. The pipeline development is leveraged through the Company’s proprietary target discovery engine called "Diamond." Kiromic's Diamond is essentially big data science meeting target identification, dramatically compressing the man-years and the millions of drug development dollars needed to develop a live drug. The Company’s headquarters are located in Houston, TX, adjacent to the world’s largest medical center and the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

For more information, please visit Kiromic’s website at:

www.kiromic.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “seek,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “target,” “aim,” “should,” "will” “would,” or the negative of these words or other similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements are based on our company’s current expectations and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Further, certain forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section titled “Risk Factors” in the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and our company undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

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FAQ

What did Kiromic BioPharma present at AACR 2021?

Kiromic presented six posters showcasing their AI-driven technologies for CAR-T therapies.

How does Kiromic's AI technology impact drug development timelines?

The AI technology is expected to significantly compress development timelines compared to traditional methods.

What are the key technologies highlighted by Kiromic at AACR 2021?

Key technologies include CancerDiff and CancerSplice, which aid in biomarker identification.

When does Kiromic plan to start human trials for CAR-T therapies?

Kiromic plans to begin human trials in the third quarter of 2021.

What is the significance of Kiromic's 6 poster presentations?

The presentations set a record for the number of posters accepted from a single company at AACR.