- ARGONAUT will profile four types of solid tumor cancers: non-small cell lung cancer, triple negative breast cancer, colorectal cancer and pancreatic cancer -

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Persephone Biosciences Inc., a synthetic biology company reimagining patient health through the development of microbiome-based medicines, today announced that the first participant has been enrolled in the ARGONAUT clinical study to determine the impact of gut microbiome composition and function on the immune system and the efficacy of cancer treatment. The first participant was enrolled in one of the study arms that is progressing in collaboration with Janssen Research & Development, LLC (Janssen).

"I am thankful to the participants enrolling in our ARGONAUT study who are helping Persephone achieve our ambition of better understanding the human gut microbiome and its role in cancer development and treatment outcomes," said Stephanie Culler, CEO and Co-founder of Persephone Biosciences. "As the largest study ever of its kind in the U.S., ARGONAUT will utilize large-scale, high-throughput data collection coupled with machine learning. We are thankful to Janssen for collaborating with us on two of ARGONAUT’s study arms: colorectal cancer and healthy individuals with cancer risk. We continue to welcome expressions of interest from third parties for the study’s prospective arms covering non-small cell lung cancer, triple-negative breast cancer and pancreatic cancer.”

ARGONAUT is a longitudinal, prospective and observational study that will enroll up to 4,000 advanced-stage cancer patients of various racial and ethnic backgrounds to collect data for the development of precision microbiome medicines, and for the identification of companion diagnostics to guide therapeutic decisions. The study will profile non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), colorectal cancer (CRC) and pancreatic cancer. Participants in the study will provide at least 2 samples each of blood and stool over a 24-month period and will be followed for up to eight years. In December 2021, Persephone announced that it will work with Janssen on the CRC patient arm and additional healthy individuals with varying cancer risk. Persephone intends to sign further agreements covering the study's other arms.

Patients who are about to have a standard-of-care colonoscopy should visit https://www.argonautvirtualtrial.com/ for more information and potential sign-up for the study.

About ARGONAUT

The official title of the ARGONAUT study is: "Development and Analysis of a Blood and Stool Sample Bank for Cancer Patients, Enabling the Systematic Study of the Effect of Blood and Gut Microbiomes on Response to Treatment." More information can be found at www.clinicaltrials.gov using the identifier NCT04638751.

About Persephone Biosciences

Persephone Biosciences is pioneering the use of synthetic biology for the development of microbial products that impact patient and infant health. Persephone is building an end-to-end platform to industrialize the development of engineered cells that restore health to damaged human ecosystems. The company was founded in the summer of 2017 by synthetic and metabolic engineering pioneers, Stephanie Culler, Ph.D., and Steve Van Dien, Ph.D. For more information, visit persephonebiosciences.com, or on Twitter and LinkedIn.

CONTACTS:
Dr. Stephanie Culler
CEO and Co-founder
Persephone Biosciences, Inc.
investors@persephonebiosciences.com

Or

Laurence Watts
Managing Director
Gilmartin Group, LLC.
laurence@gilmartinir.com

Media
Tim Ingersoll
Bioscribe
tim@bioscribe.com

Source: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/09/20/2519538/0/en/Persephone-Biosciences-Announces-First-Participant-Enrolled-in-the-ARGONAUT-Study-of-Gut-Microbiome-Linked-Immune-Modulation-in-Cancer-Treatment-Response.html