Bring Down Cancer's Wall

Our mission is to improve patient outcomes by developing new medicines that target the tumor stroma, a complex barrier surrounding cancer that stops today’s medicines from working.

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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 the tumor stroma.

By targeting the tumor stroma we aim to improve patient lives in difficult to treat solid cancers.

The Tumor Stroma

Recent innovations in cancer therapies have had an enormous positive impact on patient prognosis. We now see long term survival, and even cures, in indications where this was previously deemed impossible. However, long term response in many solid tumors, such as breast, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers remains poor.

New analysis shows that those cancers which are least responsive to treatment typically have the highest stromal content. The tumor stroma is a dense barrier of extracellular matrix, cancer associated fibroblasts, and macrophages that surround the tumor. Long considered an inert barrier to therapy, new data is mounting that the matrix and these cells play an active role in treatment resistance and disease progression.

Armed with one of the world’s largest single cell RNA datasets and unique deep-learning tools for analyzing this data, Phenomic is positioned to develop the next wave of stroma targeted medicines that have the potential to transform cancer care for patients with challenging stroma rich tumors such as pancreatic, colorectal, lung, ovarian, and breast.

Our Platform

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 scTx 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 animal models. Critically, we can then, for example, understand how cancer cells hijack fibroblasts, a key cell type of the tumor stroma, and how these hijacked fibroblasts then shut down T-cells that are usually programmed to attack the cancer cells. We can also build a clear understanding of the selectivity of target expression across a broad range of tissues enabling development of truly tumor-specific molecules with the therapeutic windows needed for delivery of highly potent payloads.

Phenomic’s unique stromal models and experimental capabilities enable us to efficiently and accurately assess targets and, ultimately, therapies based on scTx insights.

We also draw on the expertise of our world-class advisory team, which boasts centuries of collective experience in developing approved cancer therapies and understanding stromal biology, to ensure our preclinical and clinical development strategy is optimized to bring innovative treatments to the patients who need them most as quickly as possible.

Team

Girish Aakalu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 Sumbramanya

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

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

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.

Lindsey Rice

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.

Lisa Billings

Lisa Billings

Biology

Lisa brings over 10 years of in vivo experience, the last 8 focusing on drug discovery. Prior to Phenomic, she worked in a variety of startup companies spanning antimicrobials to gene therapy. She is a licensed veterinary technician and holds a master’s degree from Worcester State University.

Javier Diaz

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

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

Gregor Lueg

Data Science

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.

Octavian Focsa

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.

Dylan Mendonca

Dylan Mendonca

Bioinformatics

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.

Elias Williams

Elias Williams

Bioinformatics

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.

Gagan Dhaliwal

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

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.

Advisors

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.

News

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.




Fierce Biotech: Boehringer bets $509M on Phenomic’s tumor-targeting tech, as AI biotech plans for busy year

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




Business Wire: Phenomic Enters into Strategic Research Collaboration with Astellas for Solid Tumor Cell Therapies

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.




Business Wire: Phenomic Enters Strategic Collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim to Discover Novel Targets for Stroma-Rich Cancer Therapies

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.




Endpoints: Jim Allison and Pam Sharma back a Canadian AI upstart seeking to solve the tumor stroma puzzle

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.




Business Wire: Phenomic AI Launches with $6 Million Financing and an AI/ML Platform for Targeting the Tumor Stroma

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.




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