From October 26th to 28th, the largest, highest-level, and most extensive national doctoral and postdoctoral event in China — the Final of the Third National Doctoral and Postdoctoral Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (hereinafter referred to as "Bochuang Competition") — was held in Quanzhou City. This competition was hosted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Signet Therapeutics, as one of the representative teams from Guangdong Province, won the bronze award with the project "Development of Innovative Targeted Cancer Drugs Based on Organoids + AI."
The Third Bochuang Competition Attracts CCTV Attention
This year's Bochuang Competition has received significant attention, with the number of participating projects and participants surpassing the first and second editions. It has brought together seven major tracks, including new-generation information technology and artificial intelligence, high-end equipment manufacturing and robotics, new energy, and energy conservation and environmental protection. A total of 8,006 projects and 36,000 participants were attracted, setting new records in both project quantity and participant numbers. The participating projects focus on China’s major national strategies, cutting-edge science and technology, and industrial development needs.1721The project has entered the finals of the national competition.
SIGNET's entry project this time is a first-class innovative oncology drug pipeline developed based on the company’s unique "organoid + AI" drug discovery platform. Among these, SIGX1094R, as the core pipeline, is the world's first innovative drug targeting diffuse gastric cancer, taking just over three years from target discovery to Phase I clinical trials. As a potential sole targeted therapy for diffuse gastric cancer, SIGX1094R has been granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) and Fast Track Designation (FTD) by the U.S. FDA. Currently, it is undergoing Phase I clinical trials at the Peking University Cancer Hospital, led by Professor Lin Shen, an authoritative expert in gastrointestinal cancer. In addition to showing significant therapeutic potential in preclinical models of diffuse gastric cancer and advanced ascites, SIGX1094R has also demonstrated excellent efficacy in preclinical studies of metastatic cancers such as ovarian cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, and pancreatic cancer.
In addition, SIGNET's organoid platform has also participated in the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) and the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC) project "Evaluation Research on Alternative Methods for Non-clinical Drug Studies," promoting the establishment of guidelines and standards for the use of organoid technology in drug development and regulation. As the only pharmaceutical company among the participating organizations, SIGNET is leading the methodological validation of cardiac and tumor organoids. On April 10 this year, the FDA also officially announced the adoption of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and organoids for drug development and evaluation, sparking a transformation in pharmaceutical research and development models.
About SIGNET
SIGNET is a global pioneer in the "organoid + AI"-empowered innovative targeted drug R&D model, and is a national high-tech enterprise as well as a specialized and innovative enterprise. The company's founding team is composed of outstanding talents from top institutions such as Harvard University, MIT, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. As first/corresponding authors, they have published over 20 groundbreaking research papers on gastric cancer and esophageal cancer in high-impact journals such as *Nature*, *Nature Medicine*, and *Cancer Cell* (with impact factors exceeding 20), establishing themselves as global leaders in gastric and esophageal cancer research. Since its establishment in Shenzhen at the end of 2020, the company has raised nearly 220 million yuan in financing and project funding, and holds more than 40 core intellectual property rights.
The company currently has four first-in-class drug pipelines and one organoid platform in its portfolio. Its core pipeline, SIGX1094R, is the world’s first targeted drug for diffuse gastric cancer. It has received IND approval from both the U.S. FDA and China's NMPA, as well as Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) and Fast Track Designation (FTD) from the U.S. FDA. In August 2025, this drug was nominated for the Galien Award, known as the "Nobel Prize of the pharmaceutical industry." It is currently undergoing Phase I clinical trials at the Peking University Cancer Hospital. This pipeline is also the world’s first drug to be advanced to the clinical stage through an "organoid + AI" technology platform and is expected to enter Phase II clinical trials by the end of 2025.
Since its establishment at the end of 2020, Signet Therapeutics' forward-looking strategic layout of an "Organoid+AI"-powered technology system for innovative targeted cancer drug development has gained international authoritative recognition. It was featured on the homepage of the globally renowned biotech media Fierce Biotech and hailed as the "NEXT Generation paradigm for cancer drug development." In April 2025, the U.S. FDA officially issued a statement explicitly supporting the gradual replacement of traditional animal testing with organoid and AI technologies, fully validating the foresight and scientific rigor of the company's technical layout from four years prior.
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