Innovation Award

(Chicago, Illinois) June 4, 2025

ExoMira Medicine is pleased to announce that scientific co-founders Drs. Deyu Fang and Huiping Liu, faculty at Northwestern University, have been selected to receive a 2025 Research Innovation Challenge Award from the Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, supported by the IDP Foundation. Their funded project focuses on advancing new therapeutics that inhibit USP22, a critical regulator of cancer cell plasticity and immune evasion.

This award is designed to accelerate high-impact, interdisciplinary collaborations that are positioned to lead to a multi-PI submission to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) or a clinical trial proposal within 24 months of the award date. The project unites Dr. Fang’s expertise in tumor immunology with Dr. Liu’s pioneering work on circulating tumor cells and metastasis, directly supporting the development of ExoMira’s lead candidate, MIRA-1, a first-in-class USP22 inhibitor.

The recognition of Drs. Fang and Liu through this program highlights the strong institutional and philanthropic support behind ExoMira’s translational platform and underscores the company's momentum toward clinical-stage development.