precision-oncology
(52)
Adam Friedman
He took the name from the brightest star in the Scorpius constellation. Now Adam Friedman is betting a Boston biotech, and up to $1.9 billion in deals, on drugging the targets everyone else called impossible.
Shidong Jia
Shidong Jia, MD, PhD, is the founder and global CEO of Predicine, a Silicon Valley precision-oncology company building multi-omic liquid biopsy tests that read cancer from blood and urine. Trained as a physician-scientist at Harbin Medical University, Peking Union Medical College, Dana-Farber and Harvard, he ran oncology biomarker strategy at Genentech before leaving to start Predicine in 2015. His pitch is simple: precision diagnostics to enable precision medicine, built 'From Pharma, For Pharma.'
Ataraxis AI
Ataraxis AI is a New York-based precision-oncology company building AI-native cancer diagnostics. Founded in 2022 by physician-scientist Jan Witowski and AI researcher Krzysztof Geras, it developed Kestrel, a digital-pathology foundation model trained on hundreds of millions of tissue images. Its flagship platform, Ataraxis Breast, reads standard pathology slides to predict recurrence risk and estimate whether an individual patient will benefit from chemotherapy - reported to be roughly 30% more accurate than the current standard of care - returning results within about an hour and without additional tissue procedures.
BostonGene
BostonGene is a Waltham, Massachusetts biotechnology company that applies AI-driven multiomics to cancer. Its Tumor Portrait platform integrates DNA and RNA sequencing with immune and tumor-microenvironment analysis into a single test, producing molecular profiles that help oncologists select therapies and help pharmaceutical partners design trials, identify biomarkers, and accelerate drug development. Founded in 2015 and led by CEO Andrew Feinberg, the company reached unicorn status in 2022.
Ensem Therapeutics
Ensem Therapeutics is a Waltham, Massachusetts clinical-stage biotech using its Kinetic Ensemble platform - a blend of AI/ML, molecular simulation, and experimental biophysics - to find cryptic and allosteric pockets in proteins that are otherwise considered difficult to drug. The company designs small-molecule precision medicines for cancer, with two lead programs: ETX-636, an allosteric pan-mutant-selective PI3Kalpha inhibitor and degrader for breast cancer (FDA Fast Track), and ETX-197/BG-68501, a selective CDK2 inhibitor partnered with BeiGene.
K36 Therapeutics, Inc.
K36 Therapeutics is a Cambridge, Massachusetts clinical-stage biotech developing first-in-class oral small-molecule inhibitors of NSD2/MMSET, an epigenetic enzyme that drives hard-to-treat cancers. Its lead candidate, gintemetostat (KTX-1001), is in Phase 1 for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma carrying the t(4;14) translocation, and a second program, KTX-2001, targets metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Backed by Atlas Venture, F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, Nextech Invest and Bristol Myers Squibb, K36 has raised roughly $100M+ to translate chromatin biology into precision cancer medicines.
PAQ Therapeutics
PAQ Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company in Burlington, Massachusetts developing a new class of small-molecule degraders that harness autophagy, the body's natural cellular recycling system, to destroy disease-causing proteins. Its proprietary ATTEC (autophagosome-tethering compound) platform aims to eliminate targets that traditional inhibitors cannot reach. The company's lead programs are KRAS degraders - PT0253, a selective KRAS G12D degrader, and PT0511, a pan-KRAS degrader - both in Phase 1 clinical trials for lung, colorectal and pancreatic cancers driven by KRAS mutations.
Pathos AI
Pathos AI is an AI-driven biotech company building what it describes as one of the largest multimodal foundation models in oncology. By combining millions of clinical, molecular, and imaging records with proprietary AI, Pathos aims to identify the right patients for a given therapy, design smarter adaptive clinical trials, and de-risk cancer drug development. Founded in 2020 by Eric Lefkofsky and Ryan Fukushima and led since 2025 by CEO Iker Huerga, the company raised a $365 million Series D that valued it at roughly $1.6 billion.
Scorpion Therapeutics
Scorpion Therapeutics was a Boston-based, clinical-stage precision oncology company built to advance what it called "Precision Oncology 2.0" - pairing cancer biology, computational chemistry, medicinal chemistry and genomics to design small-molecule drugs against cancer targets that had resisted earlier approaches. Founded in 2020 by a group of prominent scientists and biotech operators, it raised more than $440 million and built a pipeline of mutant-selective inhibitors, most notably the PI3K-alpha inhibitor STX-478 and a franchise of fourth-generation EGFR inhibitors. In January 2025 Eli Lilly agreed to acquire the company and its PI3K-alpha program in a deal worth up to $2.5 billion, while Scorpion's remaining pipeline and staff were spun into a new independent company, Antares Therapeutics.
Triomics
Triomics builds oncology-specific AI infrastructure that turns messy, unstructured cancer patient records into structured, cited, actionable data. Its OncoLLM engine and workflow agents automate clinical trial matching, visit preparation, and cancer registry reporting for leading cancer centers, cutting manual chart review time while increasing trial enrollment. Founded in 2021 and headquartered in New York, the company is used by 4 of the top 10 U.S. cancer hospitals and raised a $22M Series B led by Battery Ventures in May 2026.
Katherine Bowdish
Katherine (Kathy) Bowdish is a molecular geneticist and biopharmaceutical leader who serves as President and CEO of PIC Therapeutics, a Natick, Massachusetts biotech developing cancer drugs that work by modulating RNA translation - targeting the eIF4E 'master switch' that tumors use to overproduce oncogene proteins. Over more than two decades she has founded and led a string of early-stage life science companies including Prolifaron (acquired by Alexion), Anaphore and Permeon Biologics, and she built and ran Sanofi Sunrise, the pharma giant's early-stage venture and partnering arm. She holds a PhD in molecular genetics from Columbia and led PIC through a $35 million Series A to push its lead program toward the clinic in drug-resistant breast cancer.
AmMax Bio., Inc.
AmMax Bio is a clinical-stage biotechnology company in Redwood City, California, developing first-in-class cancer therapeutics built on a CSF1R-targeting antibody platform. Founded in 2020 by pharmaceutical veteran Larry Hsu, PhD, in partnership with Amgen, the company advances a pipeline that spans a monoclonal antibody for tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT), a therapy for colorectal cancer minimal residual disease (in partnership with MD Anderson), and a lead antibody-drug conjugate, AMB-104, for acute myeloid leukemia. AmMax's strategy is to de-risk development by combining clinically validated antibodies with established linker-payload technology.
NEOK Bio
NEOK Bio is a Palo Alto-based clinical-stage biotechnology company developing bispecific antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for solid tumors. Founded and led by physician-executive Mayank Gandhi and backed by Korean antibody specialist ABL Bio, NEOK launched from stealth in November 2025 with a $75 million Series A. Its dual-targeting approach binds two complementary tumor antigens at once, aiming to widen the therapeutic window and overcome the resistance and toxicity limits of conventional single-target ADCs. The company's two lead programs, NEOK001 (ROR1/B7-H3) and NEOK002 (EGFR/MUC1), both cleared FDA IND review in early 2026 and are headed into Phase 1 studies.
Shengfang Jin
Shengfang Jin is a co-founder and the President and CEO of Ensem Therapeutics, a Waltham, Massachusetts biotech developing small-molecule cancer drugs by targeting protein pockets that only exist while the protein is in motion. Under Jin, Ensem built its Kinetic Ensemble platform, took its first CDK2 inhibitor into the clinic, and its ETX-636 breast cancer program earned FDA Fast Track designation. She trained at Tufts and Harvard, spent years at Agios helping deliver first-in-class cancer metabolism drugs, and then ran discovery biology at Editas before starting Ensem.
Terrence Connolly
Terrence (Terry) Connolly is a chemist-turned-dealmaker who runs K36 Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech chasing a single target: NSD2/MMSET, an epigenetic switch that drives hard-to-treat cancers. A Ph.D. organic chemist who started at the lab bench making molecules at Roche, Wyeth and Celgene, he crossed over into business development at Celgene, closed more than two dozen deals, then ran the business side at Skyhawk and Dragonfly. In 2021 he took the top job at K36, and now steers its lead compounds KTX-1001 (for t(4;14) multiple myeloma) and KTX-2001 (for treatment-resistant prostate cancer) through early clinical trials, backed by a $70 million Series B led by Nextech Invest with Bristol Myers Squibb participating.
Holobeam Technologies
Holobeam Technologies is a Bethpage, New York biotech developing Holographic Energy Teleportation (HET), a patented method of focusing energy to precise microscopic locations inside the body. Paired with antibody-guided AdvaNan nanoparticles, the approach - branded the Holothermia protocol - aims to both detect individual cancer cells earlier than conventional imaging and heat them to death while sparing surrounding tissue. Founded by prolific inventor Gene Dolgoff, the LCD-projector pioneer who says he conceived the Star Trek Holodeck, the company is building HET-based MRI and portable scanners for diagnosis and treatment.
Myris Therapeutics
Myris Therapeutics is a Pittsburgh-based precision oncology company building the next generation of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). Formerly BioHybrid Solutions, Myris uses proprietary polymer chemistry rooted in Carnegie Mellon's ATRP (atom transfer radical polymerization) technology to grow polymer bottlebrushes on antibodies, achieving ultra-high drug-to-antibody ratios (DAR) of 50-300 - roughly 10 to 100 times higher than conventional ADCs. That capability opens up new chemical space for cancer payloads that were previously unusable, aiming to deliver more potent, precisely targeted therapies.
Alterome Therapeutics, Inc
Alterome Therapeutics is a San Diego-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company building next-generation small molecule cancer drugs aimed at specific oncogenic mutations. Using its Kraken platform - a structure-guided, machine-learning approach to drug design - Alterome has advanced two precision oncology programs into the clinic: ALTA2618, an AKT1 E17K mutation-selective inhibitor, and ALTA3263, a KRAS-selective inhibitor covering roughly 90% of KRAS mutations including G12V and G12D.
Valar Labs
Valar Labs is a Palo Alto precision-oncology company building AI tests that read the pathology slides already made during routine cancer care. Its Vesta platform applies proprietary foundation models to standard H&E-stained tissue images to predict how individual patients will respond to therapy - starting with bladder cancer, where it forecasts whether a patient is likely to benefit from BCG treatment and stratifies the risk of recurrence and progression. Founded in 2021 by Stanford AI researchers, the company has raised $26M total and earned the FDA's first Breakthrough Device Designation for an AI digital-pathology prognostic test in bladder cancer.
Gene Dolgoff
Gene Dolgoff is the founder, CEO, CTO, and Chairman of Holobeam Technologies, a Long Island biotech building holographic tools to detect and treat cancer. He has been making holograms since 1964, holds over 65 patents worldwide, built the world's first LCD projector, and consulted with Gene Roddenberry on the concept that became the Star Trek Holodeck. Today his company is developing Holographic Energy Teleportation (HET), advanced nanoparticles, and a new class of MRI imaging - aiming, in his words, to teleport energy through the body to kill cancer cells.
Convergent Therapeutics, Inc.
Convergent Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts developing next-generation targeted radiotherapies for cancer. Its lead candidate, CONV01-α, is a PSMA-targeted monoclonal antibody linked to the alpha-emitting radioisotope actinium-225, designed to deliver tumor-killing radiation to metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer while sparing healthy tissue. The technology, pioneered in the lab of PSMA-targeting pioneer Dr. Neil Bander and licensed from Cornell University, is led by oncologist Dr. Philip Kantoff.
858 Therapeutics
858 Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company in San Diego building small-molecule cancer drugs aimed at novel targets in DNA damage response, RNA modulation, and innate immunity. Its lead candidate, the oral PARG inhibitor ETX-19477, is in a first-in-human Phase 1/2 trial for advanced solid tumors and has won FDA Fast Track designation for BRCA-mutated, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. Founded in 2019 by a serial team of San Diego drug developers, the company has raised $110 million across Series A and B financings.
Alentis Therapeutics
Alentis Therapeutics is a Swiss clinical-stage biotech built around a single, unusual biological target: Claudin-1 (CLDN1), a tight-junction protein that becomes exposed in both fibrotic tissue and solid tumors. Founded in 2019 on the discovery of physician-scientist Professor Thomas Baumert, the company develops first-in-class monoclonal antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates that bind exposed CLDN1 to reverse organ fibrosis and treat CLDN1-positive cancers. Headquartered in Allschwil near Basel with R&D roots in Strasbourg, Alentis has raised roughly $365 million across rounds, including a $181.4 million Series D in November 2024, and is running clinical trials for its lead antibody lixudebart (ALE.F02) and two ADCs, ALE.P02 and ALE.P03.
BlossomHill Therapeutics, Inc.
BlossomHill Therapeutics is a San Diego clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company designing small-molecule precision medicines for cancer and autoimmune disease. Founded in 2020 by drug designer J. Jean Cui and biotech veteran Y. Peter Li - the team behind Turning Point Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2022) - the company is advancing a wholly-owned pipeline led by BH-30643, a first-in-class macrocyclic OMNI-EGFR inhibitor for EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer, and BH-30236, a CLK inhibitor targeting aberrant RNA splicing in AML and high-risk MDS.
ConcertAI
ConcertAI is a Cambridge, Massachusetts company that combines real-world clinical, genomic, imaging, and claims data with applied AI to accelerate cancer research and clinical development. Through its CARA AI platform, large independent oncology data network, and Digital Trial Solutions, it helps biopharma companies, healthcare providers, and medical societies design smarter trials, match patients faster, and generate evidence on how treatments perform outside controlled studies.
Edgewood Oncology
Edgewood Oncology is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing BTX-A51, a first-in-class oral small-molecule multi-kinase inhibitor that co-targets casein kinase 1 alpha (CK1α) and cyclin-dependent kinases 7 and 9 (CDK7/CDK9) - three master regulators of cancer cell survival and transcription. Founded by veteran biotech executive David N. Cook and emerging from stealth in March 2024 with $20M in Series A financing from Alta Partners, the company is advancing BTX-A51 through Phase 2a trials in relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia and genetically-defined (GATA3-mutant) ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer.
Fore Biotherapeutics
Fore Biotherapeutics is a Philadelphia-based, registration-stage precision oncology company developing targeted therapies for patients with hard-to-treat cancers. Its lead candidate, plixorafenib, is a next-generation BRAF inhibitor (a 'dimer breaker') aimed at BRAF-altered solid tumors, including BRAF V600E-mutated high-grade glioma, for which it received FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation in 2026. Spun out of the Israeli functional-genomics company NovellusDx, Fore has raised more than $200M to push plixorafenib toward an accelerated FDA approval pathway.
GeneCentric Therapeutics
GeneCentric Therapeutics is a Durham, North Carolina precision-oncology company that reads cancer's gene activity, not just its mutations, from a tube of blood. Its proprietary EXpressCT technology infers RNA-based gene expression signatures from cell-free DNA fragmentomics, and its GenomicsNext platform combines that expression read-out with DNA variant detection in a single liquid biopsy. The company also markets PurIST, an RNA expression subtyping test for pancreatic cancer. Founded in 2011 out of gene-expression research at UNC, GeneCentric partners with biopharma and commercial labs to bring richer, blood-based biomarkers into routine cancer care.
Andy Kidd
Andy Kidd is the chief executive officer of Tentarix Biotherapeutics, a San Diego company building conditionally active multispecific biologics for oncology and autoimmune disease through its Tentacles platform. A physician turned operator, he carries an unusual pairing of credentials - an M.D. from Oxford and a CFA - and spent over two decades crossing from the consulting room into the boardroom, from Boston Consulting Group to Baxter International to the helm of Nasdaq-listed Aptinyx, which he took public. He stepped into the Tentarix CEO seat in April 2024 to scale a science-heavy startup backed by partnerships with Gilead and AbbVie.
Asit Parikh
Asit Parikh is a physician-scientist turned biotech chief executive who runs MOMA Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company built around the idea of systematically drugging molecular machines - the highly dynamic, shape-shifting proteins that most drug hunters avoid. An MD-PhD trained at Vanderbilt with clinical roots in gastroenterology, he spent two decades at Millennium and Takeda, where he helped steer the inflammatory bowel disease drug vedolizumab (Entyvio) from research to global blockbuster, before taking the CEO seat at MOMA in 2021. He has since raised a $150 million Series B and signed a roughly $2 billion partnership with Roche to push precision cancer medicines toward the clinic.