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ShenzhenMay 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Recently, XtalPi (2228.HK), a globally leading AI and robotics-driven drug discovery platform, in collaboration with Sequencio Therapeutics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CK Life Sciences, officially released the latest preclinical results from their joint AI cancer vaccine platform research at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. Leveraging XtalPi’s proprietary PepiX™ AI peptide drug discovery platform, the research team successfully optimized novel neoantigen peptides targeting the highly challenging broad-spectrum anticancer target p53. These optimized peptides demonstrated superior experimental data in terms of affinity, immunogenicity, and response durability, marking a breakthrough in this field and laying a solid foundation for the subsequent development of cancer vaccines. This progress not only signifies that XtalPi’s AI peptide drug discovery platform has achieved substantial results in tackling “difficult-to-drug” targets but also indicates that the jointly developed AI cancer vaccine platform is steadily advancing beyond the early discovery stage. The two parties will continue their close collaboration to accelerate the transformation of platform outcomes into cutting-edge pipelines with high clinical potential.
Conquering the “King of Tumor Suppressors”: AI Solves the Long-Standing Challenge of the p53 Target
In the field of tumor immunotherapy, p53, as the most frequently mutated tumor suppressor gene in human cancers, harbors mutations present in nearly half of cancer patients worldwide, covering multiple high-incidence cancer types such as lung cancer, breast cancer, and colorectal cancer. This represents a vast unmet clinical need and a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity. Peptide vaccines, with their high targeting specificity, safety, and cost advantages, hold the potential to precisely guide the immune system to recognize and destroy tumor cells, minimize damage to healthy tissues, and stimulate durable T-cell immune memory to fundamentally prevent tumor recurrence. However, p53 neoantigens have long been considered a “high-hanging fruit” difficult to reach with traditional R&D methods due to their weak immunogenicity and narrow human leukocyte antigen (HLA) binding repertoire.
Facing this challenge, XtalPi leveraged the PepiX™ platform’s tens of millions of high-quality data points to successfully construct an industry-leading deep learning prediction model, applied to the rapid prediction, sequence optimization, and immunogenicity enhancement of p53 neoantigen peptides. The platform significantly improved the prediction success rate of peptide presentation for major MHC-I alleles. Furthermore, AI-designed epitopes demonstrated potent T-cell activation capabilities in mouse models, with T cells activated through screening achieving over 50% killing efficiency against tumor cells. Experimental data confirmed that peptides optimized by PepiX™ formed stable, high-affinity complexes with multiple major HLA subtypes and significantly enhanced immunogenicity in humanized HLA models. Preclinical cellular immunogenicity screening further indicated that, compared to the original parent peptides, AI-designed modified peptides induced superior and more durable CD8+ T-cell immune responses. These optimized neoepitopes exhibited enhanced cross-reactivity and anti-tumor potential, laying a solid foundation for the clinical development of p53-driven cancer immunotherapies.
Sharing a Multi-Billion Dollar Blue Ocean: Accelerating Commercialization of the AI Cancer Vaccine Platform
With advances in biotechnology, cancer vaccines are at a critical juncture of rapid development. According to Grand View Research, the global cancer vaccine market is projected to grow from $9.9 billion in 2025 to $23.3 billion by 2033, at a compound annual growth rate of 11.3%. Targeting this blue ocean, XtalPi and CK Life Sciences initiated their collaboration on the AI cancer vaccine platform in 2022. In March 2026, CK Life Sciences announced the establishment of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sequencio Therapeutics, to focus on advancing its portfolio of therapeutic cancer vaccines. The positive data released at AACR this year fully validates the industry-leading position of this AI cancer vaccine platform. Going forward, Sequencio Therapeutics will continue its close collaboration with XtalPi to comprehensively advance clinical translation and commercialization. This innovative model of deeply integrating “cutting-edge AI algorithms with top-tier industrial resources” not only significantly enhances R&D success rates and efficiency but also sets a new benchmark for the synergistic development of the biomedical industry between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, accelerating the transformation of scientific breakthroughs into tangible industrial returns.
PepiX™: Building the Foundational Infrastructure for Peptide Drug Innovation
Peptide drugs combine the tissue penetration of small molecules with the high targeting specificity of large-molecule biologics, possessing immense market potential. This represents another core AI R&D domain for XtalPi, following small molecules and antibodies, where cutting-edge technology is industrialized and commercially validated. Addressing traditional R&D pain points such as short half-life and poor cell permeability of peptides, XtalPi independently developed the integrated peptide discovery platform PepiX™. This platform integrates three core capabilities: precise AI molecular design, automated synthesis, and high-throughput wet-lab screening, forming an efficient closed loop of “dry-lab design + wet-lab validation.” PepiX™ not only significantly shortens R&D cycles but also rapidly screens for molecules with pM-level high affinity and stability.
Currently, PepiX™ has successfully empowered dozens of complex peptide R&D projects, targeting enzymes, hormones, membrane proteins, and intrinsically disordered proteins. Its core AI-driven peptide molecular generation technology, “one-bead-one-compound” chemical combinatorial library screening technology, and trillion-scale mRNA display peptide library screening technology have all received high recognition from domestic and international clients, establishing a highly technically differentiated integrated peptide R&D platform.
In the RDC nuclear medicine field, the company has partnered with Jingjiahang to initiate the development of a new generation of “AI + nuclear medicine” peptide carriers. In the metabolic disease field, it collaborates with Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals to accelerate innovative drug discovery, achieving full-chain collaboration from technology R&D to clinical translation. In the oral peptide field, it has a deep partnership with Xingweida, aiming to change the current clinical reality where peptide drugs for autoimmune and metabolic diseases are primarily administered via injection. Through continuous deep cultivation in frontier areas such as crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and targeting difficult-to-drug IDP targets, XtalPi is transforming the PepiX™ platform into the foundational infrastructure driving global drug innovation, with a consistently validated delivery capability. In the future, the company will continue to broaden the boundaries of peptide druggability, accelerate the implementation of universal therapies with cutting-edge technology, and persistently create scientific value and commercial returns for the industry.
About Sequencio Therapeutics Company Limited
Sequencio Therapeutics Company Limited (“Sequencio”) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CK Life Sciences Int’l., (Holdings) Inc. It is dedicated to the research and development of therapeutic vaccines that activate patients’ own immune systems to fight cancer cells, aiming to achieve durable and stable disease control while maintaining a favorable safety profile, thereby addressing key limitations of current standard therapies. Sequencio holds a long-term vision: to reshape the cancer treatment paradigm, moving from inducing transient tumor shrinkage towards achieving long-term, controllable remission through the immune system.
About XtalPi
XtalPi (“XtalPi Holdings Limited”, stock abbreviation: XTALPI, stock code: 2228.HK) was founded in 2015 by three physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is an innovative R&D platform based on quantum physics, empowered by artificial intelligence and driven by robotics. The company combines quantum physics-based first-principles calculations, artificial intelligence, high-performance cloud computing, and scalable, standardized robotic automation to provide drug and materials science R&D solutions and services to global and domestic companies in the pharmaceutical and materials science industries (including agricultural technology, energy, new chemicals, and cosmetics).