Our mission is to raise the survival curve for the hardest to treat solid tumors.
Learn More
Single-cell data from human tissues is providing unprecedented detail into target expression and selectivity.
Our platform interrogates single-cell RNA data at scale and is currently focused on solid tumors.
Understanding the biology of tumors as whole systems unlocks powerful new therapeutic approaches.
Despite recent advances, outcomes for most solid tumor patients remain poor (e.g., colorectal, pancreatic, breast cancers). We believe the reason why drugs for these cancers have not translated well in the clinic historically is that they were largely discovered and studied in models that do not account for the diversity of cell types present in human tumors. To address this challenge, we have built an ML-powered transcriptomics platform that allows us to understand the interactions of all the cell types in these tumors to identify compelling targets and a system to test our drugs in human tumor explants thus delivering translational insights during our discovery process.
Our lead program is a CD3 engager that uses a novel targeting approach identified by our platform that should be able to overcome limitations of traditional tumor-associated antigens. This program is generating compelling results in challenging cancers and is now at a development candidate stage demonstrating Phenomic’s ability to identify novel high-impact, druggable targets.
At Phenomic, we are pioneers in using advanced machine learning tools for processing imaging, RNA sequencing, and spatial transcriptomics data to understand the biology of single cells sitting in complex multi-cell systems.
Our platform allows us to explore cell type and target expression profiles in exquisite detail, both in human cancer and normal tissue samples, as well as disease relevant experimental systems (e.g., human tumor explants, animal models).
Girish Aakalu
CEO
Girish brings over two decades of biopharma industry experience to Phenomic. Prior to joining Phenomic, Girish held leadership roles at Genocea, Ipsen, Pfizer, and Genentech. He began his career at LEK Consulting’s life science practice. Girish received a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology from Caltech and a BA in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University.
Sam Cooper
CTO
Sam completed his PhD at the Institute of Cancer Research in the UK, where he used machine learning to solve problems in biology and drug discovery. Sam founded Phenomic in 2017 alongside Oren Kraus.
Mike Briskin
CSO, Chair SAB
Mike is an immunologist with >25yrs of experience spanning numerous biotechs including Jounce and LeukoSite (acquired), where his work led to the development and subsequent approval of Vedolizumab (Entyvio®). Mike joined in 2020 as a founding member of the team.
Chris Harvey
VP of Research and Translational Development
With 12 years of Immune-Oncology experience, including leading Jounce's lead program ICOS through pre-clinical and Clinical development, Chris has the expertise needed to lead Phenomics' assets to clinic and beyond.
Nikolai Suslov
Biology
Nikolai is a biochemist with 10+ years of industry experience in biotherapeutic discovery and optimization. He brings protein engineering and project leadership experience from Takeda, Rakuten Medical and Sanofi with primary focus on immune-oncology and autoimmunity.
Kerry White
Biology
Kerry has over 20 years of industry-based drug development experience from target validation through to phase I clinical trials. Most recently, she worked on immuno-oncology antibody drug discovery and translational science at Surface Oncology doing assay development and screening with a focus on whole blood immune cell functional assays.
Rockwell Anoyha
Biology
Rockwell earned his Phd in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard University studying the evolution and ontogeny of exploratory behavior in mice using a suite of machine learning and statistical tools. Prior to this, Rockwell studied gene regulatory networks using large scale CRISPR screens at the Broad Institute.
Disha Subrmanya
Biology
Disha has over 6 years of experience working in immuno-oncology. She was part of the team at SQZ Biotechnologies that worked on IND-enabling studies for their cell therapy product for HPV-associated cancers. Most recently, she has worked on CRISPR screens, target validation and T cell based assay development.
Liz Koch
Biology
Liz completed her PhD at the University of Toronto with Brad Wouters, where she investigated the role of hypoxia in the tumor microenvironment. Prior to this, she designed and ran high throughput screening assays for two years at GeminX as part of the drug discovery team.
Amanda Hanson
Biology
Amanda has 5.5 yrs industry experience in immune-oncology coming from Jounce Therapeutics where she worked on assay development for both pre-clinical and clinical stage programs.
Jessica Weaver
Biology
Jessica brings nearly 10 years of oncology and immuno-oncology disease modeling experience. Prior to Phenomic, she supported preclinical program development and led in vivo efforts from target validation through IND acceptance at Jounce and developed in vitro models of cancer for screening of tRNA molecules at Alltrna.
Lindsey Rice
Biology
Lindsey earned her PhD in Immunology from the University of Pennsylvania studying tissue specific T cell responses to infection. Prior to this, Lindsey worked on pre-clinical and clinical stage immune-oncology assets at Jounce Therapeutics and Novartis, with a focus on in vivo models.
Lauren Moran
Biology
Lauren earned her master’s degree from Michigan State University focusing on Pharmacology and Toxicology. She has over 20 years of in vivo experience. Prior to this, she worked on siRNA treatment of rare diseases as well as designed microbiota treatment for immune modulation and infection protection.
Josephine Orrick
Biology
Josephine earned her Master’s in Biomedical Research from Boston University studying immunology, pathology, and imaging techniques. Josephine previously worked in clinical pathology at Lahey Medical Center and has three years of experience working with pre-clinical assets at Scholar Rock and Marengo Therapeutics.
Javier Diaz
Data Science
Javier has >15yrs experience in scRNA analysis and bioinformatics, notably at Princess Margaret Hospital where he headed up one of Toronto's leading scRNA biology teams. He is also set up and runs Toronto's only scRNA and bioinformatics group now with over 250 people.
Brendan Innes
Data Science
Brendan started his scientific training as a biochemist before switching to bioinformatics for his PhD at the University of Toronto, just in time for the single-cell revolution. Since then he’s been all-in on single-cell analysis, with a focus on cell communication inference.
Gregor Lueg
Bioinformatics
Gregor completed his PhD at the Francis Crick Institute in cancer and chemical biology and transitioned to data science at BenevolentAI. Prior to joining Phenomic AI, Gregor supported at UCB the oncology programs and developed the computational target discovery platform.
Sofia Pedersen
Bioinformatics
Sofia completed her PhD at the Francis Crick Institute, where she focused on data-driven biomarker discovery in colorectal cancer. Prior to this, she worked in data science and early oncology at AstraZeneca.
Octavian Focsa
Machine Learning
Octavian completed his masters in physics at Imperial College London, alongside Sam Cooper, before turning his attention towards machine learning and biotech. Before joining Phenomic he was part of an intrepid Colombia-based agrotech startup, Farming Data.
Elias Williams
Machine Learning
Elias studied Computer Science at the University of Toronto, specializing in Machine Learning. Before joining Phenomic, Elias worked at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, where he designed scRNA-seq analysis pipelines for Pam Ohashi's Immunotherapy Lab.
Dylan Mendonca
Programming
Dylan completed his masters in bioengineering at the university of Toronto in 2020, working on analysis of imaging data from complex assays. Previously he interened at Genentech in SF and joins us with the motivation to power through analysis of scRNA data with Javier.
Gagan Dhaliwal
Finance
Gagan is a CPA with over 12 years of experience working with start-ups and in private equity. She enjoys financial analysis and finding ways to make systems and processes more efficient. Gagan is excited to grow with the company and can’t wait to see what the future of Phenomic holds.
Amanda Thill
People and Operations
Amanda is excited to apply her decade of experience providing exceptional patient care to Phenomic. Amanda’s passion, attention to detail, and drive allows her to give focused, personalized support.
James Allison
Immune-Oncology
Jim Allison was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2018 for his pioneering research in cancer immunotherapy, which led to the approval of ipilimumab, a life-extending therapy for metastatic melanoma. His current work is focused on identifying new targets to further unleash the immune system and eradicate cancer.
Padmanee Sharma
Immune-Oncology
Pam Sharma is an expert in oncology clinical trials and drug development, where she focuses on mechanisms of response and resistance to immunotherapy. Pam is currently exploring combinations of immune therapies with other drugs in preclinical models and early-stage trials seeking to improve outcomes for cancer patients.
Tony Hunter
Cell Biology
Tony is a foremost leader in the field of growth factor signalling. He is a recipient of the Wolf Prize in Medicine for the seminal discovery that tyrosine kinases are a driver of cellular growth and cancer. He currently is a professor and director at the Salk Institute Cancer Center and an American Cancer Society Professor.
Oren Kraus
Machine Learning
Oren Kraus was one of the first researchers to apply deep-learning to microscopy data, with key papers in the space. Oren completed his PhD under the supervision of Brendan Frey, founder of Deep Genomics. Inspired by this, Oren started Phenomic in 2017 alongside Sam Cooper.
Boris Hinz
Fibroblast Biology
Boris's research focuses on the mechanics and biology of fibroblast activation, with implications for fibrosis disease research. In his early work Boris demonstrated that mechanical stress can cause TGF-beta release from an inactive latent complex, which in turn leads to fibroblast activation.
Jimmy Ba
Machine Learning
Jimmy is at the forefront of AI research, having developed critical optimizers such as ADAM. Now a Prof. at the Vector Institute, Jimmy was a PhD student in Geoff Hinton's lab, often considered the godfather of AI, at the same time Oren was completing his PhD next door with Brendan Frey.
Anne Fletcher
Stromal Biology
Anne is the head of the Stromal Immunology laboratory at Monash University in Australia. Anne has made several seminal discoveries in fundamental fibroblast immunology, and is now focused on developing new therapeutics that target cancer-associated fibroblasts.
Alex Swarbrick
Translational Biology
Alex leads a tumor stroma focused lab at the Garvan Institute in Australia. Currently his lab is focused on building an atlas of cell-types and interactions found in specific types of breast cancer that are difficult to treat with conventional and immune therapies.
Jeff Ishizuka
Immune Oncology
Jeff's laboratory studies the tumor-immune microenvironment where he seeks to uncover novel approaches by which inflammation may be manipulated to improve cancer immunotherapies. Jeff is also a clinician where he specializes in the treatment of melanoma.
Erik Sahai
Stromal Biology
Erik runs a lab, at the Francis Crick Institute in London, where he uses cutting-edge techniques to probe how cancer cells grow and interact with the tissue and stroma around them. Erik obtained his PhD with Richard Treisman studying RhoGTPase signalling, prior to post-docs with Chris Marshall and John Condeelis.
Sheila Stewart
Cell Biology
Sheila is currently a Professor at the Washington University School of Medicine where her group is delving further into how old cells modulate the immune response and impact dormant tumor cells and thus promote cancer with the intent of identifying possible therapeutic targets. She is also an American Cancer Society Research Scholar.
Matthew Buechler
Immunology
Matthew 's lab at the University of Toronto studies unknown aspects of the immune system focused on fibrosis and stromal signalling. He received his PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Jessica Hamerman at the University of Washington, and postdoctoral work at Genentech with Dr. Shannon Turley a world-leader in stromal biology.
PharmaVoice: 5 noteworthy pharma AI investments in 2023
With promises that AI could shave valuable time off the drug discovery process, replace animals in pharmaceutical testing and increase global industry revenue by 3% to 5%, 2023 is the year pharma began to realize the true value in AI.
Fierce Biotech: Phenomic AI inks second deal in two days
Twenty-four hours after announcing a target identification deal with Boehringer Ingelheim worth more than $500 million, Phenomic is back. The terms of the deal with Astellas-owned cell therapy biotech Xyphos Biosciences weren’t disclosed Thursday but Phenomic says the work will involve an antibody for the tumor stroma target identified by its scTx platform.
Phenomic AI has been keeping a low profile since launching in October 2020 with $6 million. But that’s set to change, with a new partnership jumpstarting what’s expected to be a busy 2024
TORONTO, Ontario and WALTHAM, Massachusetts, November 30, 2023 – Phenomic AI Inc. (“Phenomic”), a biotech company developing therapies for stroma-rich tumors using its scTx® single cell transcriptomics platform, has entered into a strategic research collaboration with Astellas Pharma Inc., “Astellas” through Xyphos Biosciences, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Astellas). For this collaboration, Phenomic and Astellas will explore the ability of antibodies, developed by Phenomic and directed at a novel target of the tumor stroma identified with Phenomic’s scTx platform, to enhance cell therapy approaches for the treatment of solid tumors.
TORONTO, Ontario and WALTHAM, Massachusetts, November 29, 2023 – Phenomic AI (“Phenomic”) today announced that they have entered into a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim to discover targets important in stroma-rich cancers. The partners will leverage Phenomic’s expertise in target identification and stromal biology based on its scTx® single-cell transcriptomics platform which will greatly enhance Boehringer’s efforts to develop first-in-class medicines to transform the lives of people with cancer by delivering meaningful advances with the ultimate goal to cure a range of cancers.
We’re delighted to announce that Girish Aakalu will be
taking the helm at Phenomic as our new
CEO
Today (13th June 2022), we’re delighted to announce that Girish Aakalu will be taking the helm at
Phenomic as our new
CEO. Girish will succeed Phenomic co-founder Sam Cooper, who will return to his technical roots as CTO
where he will drive platform development and growth.
At Phenomic we’re focused on bringing down cancer’s wall, the tumor stroma, which limits the efficacy
of today’s medicines. Our approach uses AI/ML guided analysis of single-cell genetic data, coupled to
antibody discovery and engineering capabilities, to develop first-in-class therapies that target the
tumor stroma. Girish’s extensive biopharma leadership experience and expertise in strategy and
business development is complementary to Phenomic’s technical founding team and positions him well for
the role. Now equipped with a well-rounded executive team, legendary SAB, and a relentless team of
scientists, Phenomic is set to deliver game-changing new medicines into the clinic and ultimately to
patients with the most challenging to treat solid tumors.
Prior to joining Phenomic, Girish was Chief Business Officer at Genocea. Girish previously has held
strategy and business development roles at Ipsen, Pfizer, and Genentech. He began his career at LEK
Consulting’s life science practice. Girish received a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology from
Caltech and a BA in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins.
A new company out of Toronto is seeking to put AI and machine learning to the test, using the advanced technology to identify targets in solid cancers and other challenging diseases. And it has the backing of the industry’s resident power couple. Phenomic AI officially launched Wednesday with $6 million in seed funding and announced that Jim Allison and Pam Sharma have joined its scientific advisory board. The biotech is also bringing on new CSO Mike Briskin, who has a professional history with Allison and Sharma after working with them and Third Rock Ventures to found Jounce Therapeutics about a decade ago. “We’ve been close over the years ever since we started Jounce,” Briskin said. “We started talking about different areas to move into beyond the T cell … they’ve seen some of the data from some of their colleagues at MD Anderson, and they really felt like this was something that was worth being involved in.” The financing was led by CTI and joined by AV8, Luminous and Viva BioInnovator. Current investors Garage Capital, Hike and Cantos also joined the round.
Phenomic AI, a biotech using AI/ML to reveal drug targets that emerge from cell-cell interactions and drive novel antibody drug discovery for challenging diseases, today announced the official launch of the company with US$6 million seed financing. The financing was led by CTI Life Sciences Fund and joined by AV8 Ventures, Luminous Ventures, and Viva BioInnovator. Current investors, Garage Capital, Hike Ventures, and Cantos Ventures, also joined the round. The proceeds of the financing will support preclinical studies for two validated cancer drug targets discovered with the company’s platform as well as discover and advance additional drug targets into the company’s pipeline. Phenomic AI also announced the appointments of Dr. Michael (Mike) Briskin, as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), and Nobel Laureate James (Jim) P. Allison, Ph.D. and Padmanee (Pam) Sharma, M.D., Ph.D., to the company’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), bringing significant expertise in immunotherapy discovery and development.