Yesterday, the HICOOL 2025 Global Entrepreneurship Competition, a top-tier global entrepreneurs summit, announced its list of winners. SIGNET, with its forward-thinking approach in the "organoid + AI" drug development field and the excellent progress of its pipeline based on this platform, clinched the award in one fell swoop.HICOOL 2025 Global Entrepreneurship Competition Third Prize (RMB 500,000奖金)。
SIGNET's Participating Project: "AI-Driven Targeted Drug Development for Tumors Based on Organoids》, since the initial evaluation at the beginning of 2024, after multiple rounds of intense competition, fromA Total of 10,055 Projects Across All Industries in 39 Countries and Regions WorldwideStands out in cutting-edge projects and successfully ranks among the third prize winning projects.
SIGNET's entry project this time is based on the company's unique "organoid + AI" drug discovery platform.The World's First First-in-Class Drug Pipeline SIGX1094R for Diffuse Gastric CancerThe "Organoid+AI" drug discovery platform uses AI technology to conduct broad screening of candidate drugs, while utilizing organoid disease models to provide precise efficacy evaluation (based on disease model organoids) and safety testing (based on normal organoids). By combining AI virtual screening with organoid experimental validation, the platform significantly improves the efficiency of traditional pharmaceutical chemistry and the clinical success rate of drugs. Taking SIGNET's core pipeline SIGX1094R as an example, this pipeline progressed from drug target discovery to Phase I clinical trials.In just over three yearsWith its potential as the only targeted drug for diffuse gastric cancer, SIGX1094R has been granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) and Fast Track Designation (FTD) by the U.S. FDA. It is currently undergoing Phase I clinical trials at the Peking University Cancer Hospital, led by Professor Lin Shen, an authoritative expert in gastrointestinal cancer. The drug has shown good safety and preliminary anti-tumor activity during the dose escalation phase of the Phase I clinical trial. In addition to demonstrating significant therapeutic potential in preclinical models of diffuse gastric cancer and advanced ascites, SIGX1094R has also shown excellent results in preclinical studies on metastatic cancers such as ovarian cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, and pancreatic cancer.
On August 11 this year, SIGX1094R, developed by Signet Therapeutics, was nominated for the Galien Award (Prix Galien USA), known as the "Nobel Prize of the pharmaceutical industry" and the highest honor in international biomedicine, as a candidate for the 2025 Best Biotechnology Product Award. This makes it the only Chinese biopharmaceutical company nominated in this field this year, as well as the only drug developed using the "organoid + AI" model. On July 29 this year, STAT, a globally authoritative pharmaceutical and health media outlet, featured SIGX1094R as a representative innovative drug case in its exclusive opinion column (First Opinion), highlighting the trend of internationalization in China's biopharmaceutical innovation.
HICOOL is a top-tier global innovation and entrepreneurship platform. Since its launch in 2020, it has built a mature entrepreneurial ecosystem that integrates competitions/summits, concierge services, business schools, industrial parks, funds, and digital platforms, serving as the preferred gateway for global entrepreneurs entering China. Among its initiatives, the HICOOL Global Entrepreneurship Competition, an innovative international event with global influence, has attracted 45,000 entrepreneurial talents and 34,000 high-quality projects from 167 countries and regions over the past five years. It has successfully incubated one publicly listed company, 16 unicorn enterprises, and 197 specialized and sophisticated companies, with the total post-competition financing of award-winning projects exceeding 45.7 billion yuan.
About SIGNET
SIGNET is a pioneer in the global "organoid + AI"-powered innovative targeted drug R&D model, and is a national high-tech enterprise as well as a specialized and new enterprise. The company's founding team consists of outstanding talents from top institutions such as Harvard University, MIT, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. As first/corresponding authors, they have published more than 20 groundbreaking research papers on stomach cancer and esophageal cancer in journals with impact factors over 20, including Nature, Nature Medicine, and Cancer Cell, making them a global leader in stomach and esophageal cancer research. Since its establishment in Shenzhen at the end of 2020, the company has completed nearly 220 million yuan in financing and project funding, and holds more than 40 core intellectual properties.
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, and has been granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) and Fast Track Designation (FTD) by 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 via 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' strategically forward-looking technology system, "Organoids + AI," which empowers innovative targeted cancer drug research and 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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