“We are very excited that Bristol Myers Squibb selected MEDiC as a collaborator to advance its oncology discovery programs,” said Kyuho Han, Ph.D., co-founder and chief executive officer of MEDiC. “We look forward to working with Bristol Myers Squibb to identify novel oncology targets to advance potentially effective new medicines for cancer patients.”

Under the terms of the agreement, MEDiC will receive upfront payments for the research collaboration and will be eligible for additional option payments on a target-by-target basis. MEDiC is also eligible for future development and regulatory milestone payments.

MEDiC has developed a proprietary CRISPR functional genomics platform that employs patient-tumor-like cancer models to identify optimal gene targets and biomarkers for cancer. While functional genomics approaches have been widely used to screen whole genomes for gene functions in cancer, MEDiC has demonstrated for the first time that using 3-dimensional tumor models, rather than traditional 2-dimensional cultures, may vastly improve the accuracy and translatability of CRISPR functional genomics. With this technology, MEDiC may identify novel cancer targets and biomarkers to develop drugs for solid tumor indications. MEDiC’s unique approach has already attracted partners seeking novel targets for drug development.