First Ascent Biomedical is validating a live-cell testing platform that screens over 150 FDA-approved therapies against a patient’s tumor, generating individualized treatment insights in about 10 days.
Interview by Alyx Arnett
For decades, cancer care has followed “standard of care” protocols—treatments based on the best available science and clinical evidence. This approach has saved countless lives and continues to evolve, but it is built on averages: therapies designed for groups of patients rather than an individual’s unique biology.
Emerging technologies could change how cancer treatment is approached as advances in biology, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and drug development pave the way for more precise, affordable, and personalized cancer treatment.
One company working to bring this personalized approach into clinical practice is First Ascent Biomedical. The company is validating a live-cell testing platform in real-world clinical settings that can screen more than 150 US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved therapies and combinations in parallel on both liquid and solid tumors. Results—showing how a patient’s specific cancer responds—can be delivered in about 10 days. First Ascent has built a field hospital and is treating patients using this approach.
“The question now isn’t whether this approach works. It’s how quickly we can scale to bring it to as many patients, families, and communities as possible,” says Jim Foote, co-founder and CEO of First Ascent Biomedical. “That’s the opportunity in front of us, and it’s why we believe oncology is poised for transformation in a way that is scalable, affordable, and profoundly human.”
Foote spoke with CLP about the barriers to personalized oncology, how functional precision medicine is reshaping treatment decisions, and why scaling this approach could improve cancer care.
CLP: What challenges exist in scaling personalized cancer treatment across healthcare systems?
Foote: The main challenge is that healthcare has been built around the “standard of care.” Moving to true personalization requires rethinking workflows across hospitals, insurers, and regulators. Every patient’s tumor is different, but healthcare systems are designed for standardization and efficiency.
To make personalized treatment scalable, the industry needs it to be better proven, more effective than the standard of care, and delivered faster, cheaper, and more safely. First Ascent Biomedical’s published clinical evidence shows that refractory cancer patients benefit 83% better than a functional precision medicine protocol.
The next step is scaling it so every patient can benefit. That is what we have built at First Ascent, a CLIA-certified platform, allowing us to help any cancer patient, turning individualized validation into a reproducible, scalable process.
CLP: What role does leveraging AI, automation, and robotics play in improving how oncologists personalize therapy for cancer patients?
Foote: AI, automation, and robotics are the engines that make personalized cancer care scalable and affordable. What used to take us five hours can now be done in five minutes using robotics. Robotics and automation allow that testing to be done rapidly and reproducibly, while AI helps interpret the results, uncover patterns invisible to the human eye, and recommend the most effective options.
Cancer biology is incredibly complex, and testing hundreds of drugs against an individual patient’s tumor generates massive amounts of data. AI and cloud computing enable us to process that data faster and cheaper.
CLP: How does First Ascent Biomedical’s Functional Precision Medicine platform enhance the decision-making process for complex tumors?
Foote: Complex tumors are difficult because no two are alike, and we see that in the lab every day. Their response to treatment can be unpredictable. Traditional approaches rely on clinical guidelines built from averages, but those don’t always capture the biology of a specific patient’s cancer.
First Ascent’s Functional Precision Medicine platform changes that by testing a patient’s own tumor cells against hundreds of FDA-approved drugs and combinations in real time. Robotics and automation ensure the process is efficient and reproducible, while AI helps interpret the results and highlight the most promising options for the physician.
For oncologists, this provides a clear, evidence-based roadmap. Instead of guessing which therapy might work, they can see which treatments have already worked against that patient’s tumor in the lab. That enhances confidence, accelerates decision-making, and opens options for patients who may have exhausted the standard of care. It’s about giving physicians actionable data to make the most informed choices for their patients.
Refractory cancers are where oncologists have the fewest options and the highest uncertainty. Our platform provides a report combining drug response data from patient-derived cancer cells, genomics, and AI-driven tumor mapping. This helps clinicians identify the most promising therapies, uncover potential drug synergies, and avoid likely failures. For pharma, the same evidence supports biomarker development, trial enrichment, and cleaner regulatory submissions. In short, we move high-quality evidence earlier, where it can shape both patient care and portfolio decisions.
CLP: First Ascent integrates genomic and transcriptomic profiling into its platform. How does this improve cancer treatment accuracy?
Foote: Genomic and transcriptomic profiling give us a deeper window into the unique biology of each patient’s cancer. Genomics shows us the DNA blueprint, the mutations that may drive tumor growth, while transcriptomics reveals which of those genes are actually active and influencing the disease in real time.
When combined with functional drug testing, these approaches provide a much more accurate picture of what’s fueling a patient’s cancer and why it may or may not respond to certain therapies. This reduces the trial-and-error often accompanying treatment decisions and allows physicians to match therapies with greater precision.
At First Ascent Biomedical, we integrate these insights and layer them alongside live drug validation and AI-driven analysis. Together, they create a comprehensive view of the tumor and significantly improve the accuracy and confidence of treatment decisions.
CLP: First Scent exposes tumor cells to multiple therapies in the lab. How is this an advancement over standard protocols?
Foote: Standard protocols typically focus on one or two treatment options based on what has worked for most patients with a similar cancer type. While effective for some, this “average-based” approach doesn’t always reflect the unique biology of an individual’s tumor.
By exposing a patient’s tumor cells to multiple therapies in the lab, we can see how their cancer actually responds across a wide spectrum of FDA-approved drugs and combinations. This provides three key advantages: personalization, as the treatment plan is based on direct evidence from the patient’s own tumor, not just population averages; efficiency, as it helps avoid the trial-and-error process, reducing wasted time and money on therapies unlikely to work and reducing the toxic side effects from ineffective treatments; and expanded options, by uncovering effective therapies that wouldn’t be considered under standard protocols, giving patients more potential pathways forward.
CLP: How can pharmaceutical companies leverage patient-specific treatment data for drug development processes?
Foote: Patient-specific treatment data gives pharmaceutical companies a powerful new lens into how drugs actually perform against patient-derived tumors. Instead of relying solely on large, time-consuming trials, they can see in near real time which drugs or combinations show promise for specific patient subgroups.
This accelerates development in several ways: smarter trial design, by identifying the right patient populations to increase efficiency and success rates; new indications, as drugs created for one cancer type may prove effective in others, opening pathways for expansion; and combination strategies, as exposing tumor cells to multiple therapies highlights synergies that can inform novel drug pairings.
About Jim Foote: Jim Foote is the co-founder and CEO of First Ascent Biomedical, a biotech company aiming to improve cancer treatment with its AI-driven drug prediction platform. By integrating DNA/RNA sequencing, mutation analysis, and drug sensitivity testing, First Ascent can identify personalized therapies for all solid and liquid tumors.
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