Can you tell us more about Oncobit and the reasons you decided to found it?
Two of my co-founders are professors at the University and University Hospital of Zurich and experienced first-hand the limitations linked to cancer monitoring. So Oncobit was really founded out of an unmet need.
What are some of the key challenges you faced when transitioning from academia to entrepreneurship and the MedTech industry, and how did you overcome them?
To be honest I believe academia has prepared me quite well for my entrepreneurial journey at Oncobit in a lot of ways. The up’s and down’s of start-up life are somewhat similar to what I experienced as a researcher: you need perseverance, a high resilience, and you need to be open to learning something new.
The topics you are exposed to in a MedTech startup are of course quite different, and especially regulatory was a completely novel field for me. But as long as long as you are willing to dive into these new fields and you have people around you that you trust, it’s all manageable. For me, also the decision-making process was very different. In academia, you are trained to be a perfectionist and to only take a decision once you gathered all imaginable information. In a start-up, the pace is much faster, which I actually love, and you have limited resources. This means you need to be inventive, pragmatic, and comfortable with taking decisions with limited information.
Personalized cancer care is at the heart of Oncobit’s mission. Can you explain how your precision monitoring assays work and their impact on patient outcomes?
Our solution, oncobit PM (for personalized monitoring) is based on the detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the blood, and the fact that many cancer patients have DNA alterations (mutations) at similar locations. We can detect these cancer alterations with very sensitive techniques, namely digital PCR, which is essentially a parallelisation of a regular PCR and therefore more sensitive and quantitative.
Our product consists of a kit that runs on existing digital PCR infrastructure in laboratories and hospitals, and that detects the specific cancer alteration we know the patient has from tests that were previously performed. Once the digital PCR data has been generated, it is uploaded into our secure cloud infrastructure, and the second component of our product comes into play: an analysis and interpretation software that was parametrized with healthy and patient data and enables a robust and standardised reporting of results no matter where the test is performed.
With our monitoring solution, we can observe if the patient is responding to treatment (in this case the tumor DNA and therefore the cancer alterations in the blood decrease), or if patients needs a different treatment (in this case the tumor DNA remains high or even increases). Because our solution allows us to monitor the cancer quite tightly, we aim to provide an optimized, more data-driven therapy management to adjust treatments earlier, reduce overtreatment and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
How does Oncobit’s approach differ from conventional cancer monitoring methods, and what specific advantages does it offer to patients and healthcare providers?
The current standard of care to monitor cancer is still usually based on imaging (and sometimes non-specific blood markers). While imaging allows a localisation of the cancer, it also involves radiation exposure and is only performed every 3-6 months. Additionally, imaging is sometimes difficult to interpret and can be false positive or negative.
Cancer monitoring via circulating tumor DNA is minimally invasive and highly specific. Several products have been developed that examine the entire tumor DNA by sequencing but these are usually not very cost and time-efficient and have lower sensitivity than PCR-based products that focus on specific DNA alterations. Sequencing solutions are therefore mostly used for a thorough characterisation of tumor DNA prior to treatment, while PCR-based products enable tight monitoring of cancer.
Currently, our product is the only IVDR certified (regulatory approved) solution for the monitoring of melanoma. A second, very important differentiator is our analysis and interpretation software, allowing a robust and standardised results reporting which is critical when implementing such solutions in the clinic, and for which we have also filed an international patent. With our solution, we enable hospitals to perform the test in a very cost and time efficient manner to monitor the patient’s cancer in a minimally invasive and real-time manner to quickly adapt the therapy management when needed.
What drives you?
What drives me is the need for continuous challenge and learning. I thrive when faced with new problems that push me to expand my knowledge and skills. Additionally, I need to see my work making a difference to feel fully committed. The prospect of contributing to improved healthcare outcomes is extremely gratifying, and I can’t think of a better motivation than knowing my efforts will make a real difference in patients’ lives. This combination of intellectual stimulation and meaningful impact is what drives my passion and dedication.
Cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide. How do you envision Oncobit’s technology contributing to global cancer treatment and management efforts?
We have seen tremendous advances in the treatment of cancer, and new therapies continually being introduced. Additionally, novel developments in diagnosing cancer have emerged, which are critical for the early and correct treatment of patients. Consequently, the likelihood of a cancer diagnosis being fatal has decreased drastically over the past few decades.
And yet surprisingly little progress has been made in the monitoring of cancer – during but also after treatment. To me this is a little paradox, because the earlier we know that the patient needs a (different) treatment or no longer needs a treatment, the better. By contributing to a tighter and more data-driven therapy management, we aim to further improve cancer care.
Can you describe a particularly memorable case or success story where Oncobit’s technology significantly improved a patient’s treatment journey?
While cancer monitoring via circulating tumor DNA is picking up steam in many cancer types, there is one particular subtype of melanoma, uveal melanoma, for which the development of novel monitoring solutions is even more critical. Current monitoring solutions including imaging don’t work for this cancer type, and patients as well as physicians are in the dark if a treatment is working. We are completing several studies demonstrating the superiority of our solution in monitoring uveal melanoma, and our test is now starting to be used in clinical routine.
Collaboration seems crucial in your field. How do Oncobit’s partnerships with institutions like the University Hospital Zurich and ETH Zurich enhance your research and development efforts?
Yes – collaborations are absolutely critical, and we work very closely together with clinicians and hospitals to understand their needs. I believe this is the only way we can develop meaningful products for oncologists and ultimately for patients. Additionally, we of course rely on clinical samples to assess our products and to define clinical use cases. While our first partnership was with the University Hospital of Zurich, we are now collaborating with oncologists in Europe, the US and Australia to generate sufficient clinical data for a broad medical acceptance and to secure health insurance reimbursement.
Who or what has shaped who you are?
I have often been told that I am a scientist through and through and I strongly believe in the benefits of science for humanity. My parents have always encouraged my interest in science, and I have been fortunate to have many role models throughout my career, who have supported me and shown me the potential of science.
During my academic career, I mostly tried to understand the underlying mechanisms of disease, but my research has typically been far from being useful for the patient. In fact, a major reason that led me to entrepreneurship was to develop a product that has a direct benefit to patients, and I am grateful that I can have a direct impact on improving patient care with my work.
What are the most significant milestones Oncobit has achieved since its founding, and what are your future goals for the company?
As mentioned above navigating the regulatory requirements was one of the biggest learnings we all had to go through as a team at Oncobit and we are immensely proud that we have an ISO13485 certified quality management system since more than 2 years and that we have achieved IVDR certification for our monitoring platform, with an initial regulatory approval for the monitoring of melanoma.
We are currently involved in many clinical studies to define the clinical use cases of our melanoma monitoring solutions, for a broad clinical acceptance and to secure health insurance reimbursement. At the same time, we have started to expand our platform to additional indications (e.g. colorectal cancer), and to utilize the synergies that arise with our melanoma products.
As a leader in a cutting-edge MedTech company, what advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs and researchers looking to make a meaningful impact in the healthcare industry?
Most importantly, you need to love and be passionate about what you do and have a high resilience to ensure that you can pursue your goals with perseverance. And you need a support system: in Zurich we are fortunate to have a fantastic Startup ecosystems and the interactions with Startup supporters, coaches and fellow CEOs are absolutely critical to learn from, exchange idea and sometimes just to vent. Talk to as many people as possible, don’t get discouraged by setbacks, which are normal, and just take one step at a time.