Debiopharm’s digital health team is delighted to have led Tel Aviv-based NucleAI’s $6.5m Series A round. NucleAI uses computer vision and machine learning to analyze large sets of tissue images and model the spatial characteristics, for example, of the tumor and the patient’s immune system, generating biomarker signatures that are predictive of patient response. This type of biomarker may be invaluable to understand which patients might respond to a specific treatment such as immune-oncology therapy in cancer, or in understanding why certain patients respond in clinical trials for drug development.
Nucleai’s founders have deep experience coming from years of work in an elite Israeli intelligence unit specializing in artificial intelligence and big data for image analysis. The company is at the early commercial stage and will use the funds to continue to develop their technology for additional indications, as well as to increase the commercial activity. As Tanja Dowe, CEO of Debiopharm’s digital health fund, stated:
We think imaging biomarkers are a missing piece of the puzzle in getting targeted therapies to the right patients and realizing the potential of precision medicine.