Genocea Announces Publications Highlighting ATLAS™ T cell Antigen Discovery Efforts in Chlamydia and Malaria

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA), a biopharmaceutical company
developing T cell-directed vaccines and immunotherapies, today announced
publications in the current issues of two peer-reviewed journals Clinical
and Vaccine Immunology
and Vaccine, highlighting the
Company’s approach to discovering vaccine candidates that prevent and
control chlamydia and malaria.

The Clinical and Vaccine Immunology paper, titled “Resolution of
chlamydia trachomatis infection is associated with a distinct T cell
response profile,” identified specific responses to T cell antigens in
chlamydia patients who were able to clear their infections. The work
also identified different antigens associated with chlamydia
comorbidities in subjects, such as female infertility. The data suggest
that Genocea’s ATLASTM technology can identify unique
chlamydia T cell antigens for vaccine development, while avoiding
antigens that may increase disease or be pathologic.

In the Vaccine journal article, “Large screen approaches to
identify novel malaria vaccine candidates,” researchers outlined a
series of distinct large-scale screening approaches to malaria vaccine
antigen discovery. They described different techniques, including
Genocea’s proprietary antigen discovery technology ATLAS, in use to find
targets of either antibody responses or T cell responses using human
specimens collected in Controlled Human Malaria Infections (CHMI) or
under conditions of natural exposure in the field.

“ATLAS is a first-of-its-kind technology – to our knowledge no studies
have ever comprehensively profiled effective T cell immunity in large
populations of diverse human subjects to select appropriate T cell
antigens for inclusion in subunit vaccines for chlamydia and malaria,”
said Jessica Baker Flechtner, Ph.D., senior vice president of research
at Genocea. “We are deeply committed to translating the insights
uncovered by ATLAS of smarter targets of T cell response into novel
medicines in disease areas with serious unmet medical need.”

About Genocea’s Chlamydia Program

There is currently no vaccine against chlamydia. Despite the
availability of antibiotics, chlamydia remains a significant global
health problem; the consequences of lack of treatment can be
devastating. The disease is the most common cause of preventable
blindness worldwide, with eight million people visually impaired or
blind. Up to 40 percent of untreated women develop pelvic
inflammatory disease
, which can lead to infertility, ectopic
pregnancies, and chronic pelvic pain. Chlamydia can also cause
genitourinary and rectal conditions in men. Genocea has used ATLAS to
screen the T cell immune responses of hundreds of human subjects exposed
to chlamydia. Through this, Genocea has identified protein targets of T
cell responses that appear, in animal models, to reduce bacterial burden
and prevent re-infection.

About Genocea’s Malaria Program

Malaria is one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world. In
2012, more than 600 million cases of malaria were reported by the World
Health Organization (WHO), claiming over 600,000 lives, many of them
children and largely in developing countries. There is no licensed
vaccine to prevent malaria, an infection caused by Plasmodium parasites
transmitted by mosquitoes. When the parasite is injected through the
bite of an infected mosquito, it rapidly travels to the liver where it
replicates in large numbers and is released into the bloodstream causing
sickness. T cells in the liver could potentially kill the cells in which
the parasite is hiding before the parasite is able to break out into the
bloodstream. Genocea’s T cell target discovery platform, ATLAS, is
currently being applied to identify which components of the plasmodium
could act as T cell targets and become part of novel vaccine candidates.

About ATLASTM

ATLAS is a first-of-its-kind proprietary rapid antigen identification
screening system that finds targets of protective T cell responses. The
technology solves challenges to date associated with finding targets of
T cell response. ATLAS can examine T cell responses from large, diverse
human populations, and comprehensively screen every potential protein
from a pathogen or target indication in a rapid, high-throughput manner,
taking weeks versus years to find relevant antigens. Because targets are
identified by ATLAS using actual human immune responses to all potential
targets in the pathogen or indication, by the time these candidates
reach clinical trials there may be a greater likelihood of success in
clinical development. This approach may provide the ability to identify
smarter targets for use in developing vaccines and immunotherapies to
treat infectious disease, cancer and autoimmune disease.

About Genocea

Genocea is harnessing the power of T cell immunity to develop
life-changing vaccines and immunotherapies. T cells are increasingly
recognized as a critical element of protective immune responses to a
wide range of diseases, but traditional discovery methods have proven
unable to identify the targets of such protective immune response. Using
ATLAS™, its proprietary technology platform, Genocea identifies these
targets to potentially enable the rapid development of medicines to
address critical patient needs. Genocea’s pipeline of novel
clinical-stage T cell-enabled product candidates includes GEN-003 for
genital herpes, GEN-004 for the prevention of infection by all serotypes
of pneumococcus, and earlier-stage programs in chlamydia, genital herpes
prophylaxis, malaria and cancer immunotherapy. For more information,
please visit the company’s website at www.genocea.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements herein relating to future business performance, conditions
or strategies and other financial and business matters, including
expectations regarding clinical developments, are forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act. Genocea cautions that these forward-looking statements are
subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change
over time. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially

from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements or
historical experience include risks and uncertainties, including
Genocea’s ability to progress any product candidates in preclinical or
clinical trials; the scope, rate and progress of its preclinical studies
and clinical trials and other research and development activities;
anticipated clinical trial results; current results may not be
predictive of future results; even if the data from preclinical studies
or clinical trials is positive, regulatory authorities may require
additional studies for approval and the product may not prove to be safe
and efficacious; Genocea’s ability to enter into future collaborations
with industry partners and the government and the terms, timing and
success of any such collaboration; risks associated with the manufacture
and supply of clinical and commercial product; the cost of filing,
prosecuting, defending and enforcing any patent claims and other
intellectual property rights; Genocea’s ability to obtain rights to
technology; competition for clinical resources and patient enrollment
from drug candidates in development by other companies with greater
resources and visibility; the rate of cash utilized by Genocea in its
business and the period for which existing cash will be able to fund
such operation; Genocea’s
ability to obtain adequate financing in
the future through product licensing, co-promotional arrangements,
public or private equity or debt financing or otherwise; general
business conditions; competition; business abilities and judgment of
personnel; the availability of qualified personnel and other factors set
forth under “Risk Factors” in Genocea’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, and other filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Further information on
the factors and risks that could affect Genocea’s business, financial
conditions and results of operations is contained in Genocea’s filings
with the SEC, which are available at
www.sec.gov.
These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press
release and Genocea assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.

Contacts

For media:
Spectrum Science Communications
Megan
Lustig, 202-955-6222
mlustig@spectrumscience.com
or
For
investors:

Genocea Biosciences
Jonathan Poole, 617-876-8191
jonathan.poole@genocea.com

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