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Vyant Bio Commences a Cash Preservation Plan Including a Reduction in Force

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Continuing to Explore Strategic Alternatives

CHERRY HILL, N.J., Feb. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Vyant Bio, Inc. (“Vyant Bio” or “Company”) (Nasdaq: VYNT) is an innovative biotechnology company reinventing drug discovery for complex neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. The Company’s proprietary central nervous system (“CNS”) drug discovery platform combines human-derived organoid models of brain disease, scaled biology, and machine learning. Today, Vyant Bio announced that on January 31, 2023 its Board of Directors determined it was appropriate to conduct a reduction in force as soon as practical so as to preserve cash to allow the Company, through its advisors including LifeSci Capital, to continue to pursue satisfactory strategic alternative transactions and/or execute an orderly wind down of the Company, if necessary.

John A. Roberts, President and Chief Executive Officer and Robert T. Fremeau, Jr. Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer agreed in principle with the Company to step down from their respective positions, effective as of February 3, 2023, to preserve cash for the execution of an orderly wind down process. Mr. Roberts will remain a member of the Board of Directors of the Company.

The Company’s Board of Directors has appointed Andrew D. C. LaFrence, currently the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, to assume the position of President and Chief Executive Officer to lead the Company through this period of transition.

“The Company’s Board and Management believe that it is prudent to allow time for LifeSci Capital to continue its mandate of exploring potential strategic transactions while providing for prudent cash management in the event strategic alternatives fail to materialize and an orderly wind down of the Company’s operations becomes necessary,” said Andy LaFrence, Chief Financial Officer of Vyant Bio.”

The Company’s decision to potentially pursue other strategic alternatives to unlock material value is based on its belief that its stock price does not reflect the fundamental value of the business. On January 4, 2023, the Company announced it had engaged LifeSci Capital to assist the Board in evaluating potential strategic options. To arrange a time to meet with the management team, please contact Hany Awadalla at LifeSci Capital at [email protected].

ABOUT VYANT BIO, INC.

Vyant Bio, Inc. (“Vyant Bio” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: VYNT) is an innovative biotechnology company focused on identifying unique biological targets and novel and repurposed therapeutics for treating the debilitating neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders for which there are no current therapies. Vyant Bio has built a platform of therapeutics seeking to treat neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, with current programs targeting Rett Syndrome (“Rett”), CDKL5 Deficiency Disorders (“CDD”), and familial Parkinson’s Disease. The Company’s approach to drug discovery integrates human-derived biology with artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to de-risk candidate selection, with the goal of improving the potential effectiveness of drugs discovered earlier in the development cycle. Vyant Bio’s management believes that drug discovery needs to progressively shift to more efficient methods as the widely used models for predicting safe and effective drugs have under-performed, as evidenced by the significant time and cost of bringing novel drugs to patients. By combining sophisticated data science capabilities with highly functional human cell derived disease models, Vyant Bio seeks to leverage its current ability to screen and test therapeutic candidates and create a unique approach to assimilating data that supports decision making iteratively throughout the discovery phase of drug development to identify both novel and repurposed CNS therapeutic candidates.

For more information, please visit or follow Vyant Bio at:
Internet: www.vyantbio.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vyant-bio
Twitter: @VyantBio

Forward Looking Statements:

Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for the Company, including but not limited to statements about its ability to identify, assess and execute a strategic transaction or realize any value from its existing assets, its ability to preserve cash in order to adequately fund an orderly wind down of the Company’s operations if no transaction is consummated, the ability of creditors, shareholders and other stakeholders to realize any value or recovery as part of a transaction or a wind down process, the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern, the Company’s workforce reduction and future charges expected to be incurred in connection therewith, the adequacy or sufficiency of the Company’s existing cash resources and other statements containing the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “target,” “potential,” “likely,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “continue,” and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: the Company’s ability to continue to pay its obligations in the ordinary course of business as they come due; the ability to retain key personnel, the adequacy of its capital resources in light of changing circumstances, the actions of creditors of the Company and such other important factors as are set forth in the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and quarterly reports and other filings on file thereafter with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company’s views as of the date of this press release. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause its views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, it specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Investor Contact:
Vyant Bio, Inc.
Andrew LaFrence, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer
Email: [email protected]

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Tencent Announces Winners of Flagship CarbonX Program to Combat Climate Change

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SHENZHEN, China, May 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent (00700.HK) is awarding 13 exceptional teams that won the first phase of its groundbreaking CarbonX Program, which is aimed at boosting promising new climate technologies. The winners, which emerged from a pool of 30 finalists and more than 300 initial applications, will receive a total of around RMB 100 million (US$14 million) in financial support from Tencent. It showcases the company’s commitment to driving sustainable social innovations in the fight against climate change.

CarbonX was launched in March 2023 to advance the next generation of low-carbon technologies. Tencent has committed RMB 200 million (US$28 million) in catalytic funding over the next three years to innovative ideas that might otherwise languish or fail to gain traction.
CarbonX’s first phase focused on carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), as well as technology-based carbon removal. These solutions were chosen for their unique ability to curb emissions from hard-to-abate industries such as steel and cement, mitigate the continued reliance on fossil fuels, and reduce legacy emissions created from decades of industrialization.
Backed by Tencent’s mission of Tech for Good and an alliance of like-minded industry partners, CarbonX aims to help these cutting-edge technologies make the leap from the research or early startup stage to commercial scale. The ultimate goal is supporting them in making a significant impact toward the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement, which includes a 45 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
Dr. Hao Xu, Tencent’s Vice President of Sustainable Social Value and Head of Tencent’s Carbon Neutrality Lab, said: “Technology innovation serves as the driving force to accelerate our progress toward achieving carbon neutrality. CarbonX program is aimed at fostering the growth of these technologies, driving positive impact across society, and laying the groundwork for a more sustainable future.”
Professor Jerry Yan, Chair Professor of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Co-chairman of the CarbonX expert committee, said: “To pave the path for a greener economy, we must champion the development of cutting-edge low-carbon technologies. Just as solar and wind power were nurtured in their infancy, emerging solutions like CCUS and tech-based carbon removal demand our early support.”
The program assembled a panel of experts from academia, industries, and the investor community as the jury, and welcomed submissions from diverse participants across three distinct tracks:
CarbonX Lab: Designed to incubate research institutions, universities, or labs that bring in game-changing climate solutionsCarbonX Accelerator: Designed to accelerate the growth of climate-tech startups that exhibit commercialization potentialCarbonX Infrastructure: Designed to support capacity building to facilitate industry developmentThe finalists comprise four projects from the Lab track, six from the Accelerator track, and three from the Infrastructure track. These projects explore innovative solutions, such as using steel slag to capture and store carbon directly from furnace exhaust, converting CO2 into sustainable aviation fuel and valuable chemicals through electrochemical reactions or microorganisms, and employing new approaches to directly capture CO2 from the atmosphere with the hope of slashing the cost to less than US$150 per ton.
Meanwhile, Tencent is also collaborating with Tsinghua University to develop a comprehensive system of Measure, Reporting and Verification (MRV) tools to accurately gauge progress toward decarbonization.
Aside from receiving financial and advisory support, several projects will also have the opportunity to collaborate with industry partners and test their research beyond the laboratory setting.
Building upon the success of the first phase, Tencent is poised to launch the second iteration of CarbonX globally as early as later this year in pursuit of early-stage climate tech innovation.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/tencent-announces-winners-of-flagship-carbonx-program-to-combat-climate-change-302153596.html

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NEXCOM Delivers Exceptional Performance in Edge AI Video Analytics

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TAIPEI, May 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — NEXCOM, a leading supplier of network solutions, published AI and storage performance test results of its NSA 7160R: high-performance Edge server. NSA 7160R is powered by dual Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors for high computing, and enhanced with DDR5 memory, high-bandwidth PCIe Gen5 LAN modules, and high-capacity NVMe storage modules. The test results show the efficiency of the NSA 7160R in processing edge video server workloads and were explained in the accompanying paper. 

Edge AI Is the Future
With the rise of smart cities, processing data from cloud to the edge is becoming increasingly critical. Imagine the surge of visual data from ubiquitous security cameras – that information needs real-time analysis right where it’s collected. This is just the tip of the iceberg. As artificial intelligence permeates our lives, certain AI tasks will also need edge computing for efficient, lightning-fast performance. The key is to avoid bottlenecks in the data center by keeping things localized and streamlined.
Your Turnkey Solution Awaits
When it comes to Edge video servers, you need top-notch hardware and software that can handle all the “heavy lifting”. To speed up the total solution bringing up Intel comes in with their Intel® Edge Video Infrastructure (Intel® EVI) reference design. NEXCOM ran a bunch of tests using this design to evaluate its NSA 7160R for essential tasks including storage, image retrieval, and AI features such as inference and feature matching.
After conducting all tests, the results have shown that NSA 7160R meets all performance expectations with outstanding results. For a detailed breakdown of the solution description, test configuration, and results, please refer to the accompanying paper.
Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.
About NEXCOM
Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, NEXCOM integrates its diverse capabilities and operates six global businesses, including the Network and Communication Solutions (NCS) unit. NCS focuses on the latest network technology and helps to build reliable network infrastructure, by delivering professional design and manufacturing services for customers all over the world. NCS’s network application platform is widely adopted in Cyber Security, Load Balancing, 5G uCPE, SD-WAN, SASE, Edge Computing, OT Security, Storage, NVR, and other network applications for businesses of all sizes.
Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WlO8fyWnu4

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/nexcom-delivers-exceptional-performance-in-edge-ai-video-analytics-302153555.html

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Qiming Venture Partners Promotes Alex Zhou to Managing Partner

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SHANGHAI, May 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Qiming Venture Partners, a global-leading venture capital firm, is pleased to announce the promotion of Alex Zhou to Managing Partner.

As a Qiming home-grown Managing Partner, Alex first joined the firm in 2014 as a Vice President and has since emerged as one of the most active investors in frontier technologies, especially in the field of artificial intelligence. Alex will join fellow Managing Partners Duane Kuang, Nisa Leung and William Hu in managing Qiming’s operations.
In the past few years, Alex has actively participated in or led investments in many outstanding technology companies across the artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductors, new energy vehicles, and software sectors. Notable among these include Roborock, UBTech, Unisound, Biren Technology, ROX Motor, VIEWTRIX Technology, Zhipu AI, Mech-Mind Robotics, Axera, HyperStrong, DeepWay, etc.
“I am deeply grateful for the guidance and trust I received from Qiming over the past 10 years.” Alex said. “We are at the forefront of a new wave of technological revolution. This era will undoubtedly bring about many bold innovators who will shape the future. Together with all the Managing Partners and colleagues at Qiming, I am excited and fully committed to seize the opportunities, embrace any potential challenges, explore new possibilities and build a better Qiming.”
Since its inception 18 years ago, Qiming has always committed to upgrading its institutional capabilities and team development in order to stay ahead in an ever-evolving technological and market landscape. The success achieved in the fields of healthcare, mobile internet and frontier technology is a testament to this strategic approach. Alex’s promotion to the most senior position in the firm demonstrates Qiming’s continued confidence in the future of technology innovation.
About Qiming Venture Partners
Qiming Venture Partners was founded in 2006. Currently, Qiming Venture Partners manages eleven US Dollar funds and seven RMB funds with $9.5 billion in capital raised. Since our establishment, we have invested in outstanding companies in the Technology and Consumer (T&C) and Healthcare industries at the early and growth stages.
Since our debut, we have backed over 530 fast-growing and innovative companies. Over 200 of our portfolio companies have achieved exits through IPOs at the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX, Shanghai Stock Exchange, or Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or through M&A or other means. There are also over 70 portfolio companies that have achieved unicorn or super unicorn status.
Many of our portfolio companies are today’s most influential firms in their respective sectors, including Xiaomi, Meituan, Bilibili, Zhihu, Roborock, Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals, Tigermed, Zai Lab, CanSino Biologics, Schrödinger, APT Medical, New Horizon Health, Sanyou Medical, AmoyDx, Berry Genomics, SinocellTech, UBTech, Yuanxin Technology, Caidya, Belief BioMed, WeRide, among many others.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/qiming-venture-partners-promotes-alex-zhou-to-managing-partner-302153306.html

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