Selected for the FY2025 “Innovation Promotion Project Toward Realizing Zero Emission Tokyo”

ProteoBridge Inc. (Head Office: Koto-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Ryo Kumagai) is pleased to announce that it has been selected as a supported company under the university-originated venture / general category in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Innovation Promotion Project Toward Realizing Zero Emission Tokyo (FY2025).”

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government implements the “Innovation Promotion Project,” which subsidizes expenses necessary for product and service development, improvement, demonstration, and market expansion, with the aim of creating new businesses through open innovation between startups and small and medium-sized enterprises in Tokyo and large corporations.

The project selected this time is “Development of an Antibody Testing Panel to Enable Safe Anticancer Drug Treatment.” Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), which target the immune checkpoint molecule PD-1, have become widely used worldwide as a core method of cancer treatment. On the other hand, it has become a major issue that a certain proportion of patients develop immune-related adverse events (irAE) as side effects.

Our company is advancing the development of an antibody testing panel that integrates stratification testing prior to administration and monitoring testing after administration, in order to visualize the risk of immune-related adverse events (irAE) associated with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment, and aims to build a new foundation for safety evaluation.

■ Overview
Application Theme: Development of an antibody testing panel to enable safe anticancer drug treatment
Application Summary: Antibodies targeting the immune checkpoint molecule PD-1 have been commercialized as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) and have become widely used worldwide as a core cancer treatment method. However, a challenge is that a certain proportion of patients develop immune-related adverse events (irAE) as side effects. In this project, we will develop stratification testing to prevent this in advance and monitoring testing after administration, thereby contributing to the safe use of ICI.
Implementing Organization: Startup Support Section, Commerce and Industry Department, Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs

■ Project Objectives and Future Development
In the medical field, the importance of early detection and early treatment of diseases is increasing, and there is an urgent need to develop technologies that can predict future disease risks with high accuracy. In particular, for autoimmune diseases and collagen diseases, it is known that characteristic autoantibodies appear several years before onset, and by capturing these signs early, there is potential to delay onset and prevent severe progression. However, commercially available antibody testing kits are limited to certain diseases and do not sufficiently meet the need in clinical settings for multi-item, high-precision testing.

Against this background, health checkup and comprehensive medical examination providers are increasingly motivated to introduce new high-value-added testing in order to differentiate themselves from competitors and strengthen services for affluent customers. In our interviews as well, expectations were expressed for tests that are highly accurate, less prone to false negatives and false positives, and capable of simultaneously measuring multiple types. Therefore, based on established autoantibody detection technology, we aim to provide a testing service that can simultaneously and sensitively measure the risk of more than 30 types of diseases and continuously update risk evaluations based on the latest research findings, thereby promoting early diagnosis and early treatment in medical institutions, reducing medical burden, and creating new value in the medical checkup market.

【About ProteoBridge Inc.】

ProteoBridge Inc. is a biotechnology company dedicated to early disease detection and the realization of personalized medicine through biomarker research and analysis focused on autoantibodies.

Through collaborative development with research institutions and pharmaceutical companies, we strive to create innovative research testing and analytical technologies in the field of autoimmune diseases.

Address: 2-4-7 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo

CEO: Ryo Kumagai

Founded: January 5, 2018

Website: https://proteo-bridge.co.jp/en/