Israeli Startup OncoHost Raises $8M For AI Precision Oncology Platform

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Israeli company OncoHost, the developer of an AI-powered personalized cancer therapy platform, announced on Tuesday that it raised $8 million in Series B funding led by OurCrowd.

The startup, founded in 2017, said the funding will help finance its ongoing clinical trials, open a US affiliate and prepare for the upcoming launch of its platform, PROphet, which combines proteomic analysis with AI to predict patient response to immunotherapy. The platform analyzes proteomic changes in blood samples to monitor the dynamics of biological processes induced by the patient (the host) in response to a given cancer therapy.

Proteomic analysis refers to the systematic identification and quantification of the complete complement of proteins (the proteome) of a biological system at a specific point in time, according to Nature.com.

OncoHost’s platform provides clinicians with potential combination strategies to overcome treatment resistance, the company says. The tool will first be made available to healthcare providers who can use it to help assess how a specific patient may respond to a given treatment. This will aid the oncologist and patient in making informed decisions regarding treatment options, lines of therapy, potential combination treatments, and participation in clinical trials.

OncoHost’s clinical trials are currently focused on melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and will soon expand to other indications

“This investment round supports our mission to better predict response to immunotherapy and identify personalized treatment options for cancer patients, as we continue to expand our collaboration with pharma on clinical trials and drug development,” said OncoHost CEO Dr. Ofer Sharon.

“Proteomic analysis is allowing us to make great advances in personalized cancer care, and we are grateful to our investors for their support in the midst of this particularly challenging time of a global pandemic. The future of personalized cancer care is no longer a distant reality, but within our reach,” he added.

“As the renowned entrepreneur Marc Andreesen said, ‘Software will the eat world,’ and OncoHost is proving that software will help eat cancer,” said OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved. “OncoHost is demonstrating that smart software can take an already promising technology such as immunotherapy and make it so much smarter.”