Personalized Treatment Recommendations for Gastro-Intestinal Cancers
Featuring: Laura Towart, PhD, Nahuel Villegas, PhD
In short
Laura Towart and Nahuel Villegas from Vivan Therapeutics explain how fruit fly 'avatars' engineered with a patient's specific tumor mutations can screen thousands of drug combinations to find personalized treatment options — including non-cancer drugs — for GI and other cancers. Their AI tool, TuMatch, can now generate rapid treatment recommendations using data from those experiments without rebuilding the fly model each time. One case study showed a colorectal cancer patient with nine genetic alterations achieving 11 months of stable disease on a novel combination identified through this approach.
- •If you have GI cancer, a brain tumor, or a rare cancer with few options, ask your oncologist whether personalized drug screening — including animal model or AI-based approaches — is worth exploring for your situation.
- •Time matters: the fruit fly avatar process takes about six months, so this works best if you pursue it early after diagnosis rather than after standard treatments have already been exhausted.
- •The full personalized screening service costs $25,000; a treatment recommendation using the AI model costs $5,859 — both out of pocket, so ask about financial considerations before committing.
- •You can contact Laura Towart (laura@vivantx.com) or Nahuel Villegas (nahuel@vivantx.com) directly to discuss whether Vivan Therapeutics' services fit your cancer type and stage.
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Identifying Personalized Treatment Recommendations for Gastro-Intestinal Cancers“ Brad Power February 12, 2025 “We have our own variant-calling software, which identifies the genetic alterations that are driving that patient's unique cancer. We can select up to twenty genetic alterations. We engineer them in fruit flies. We use fruit flies as an avatar.
We do this for many reasons, but one of the most important is that the flies are so malleable, and we’re able to engineer a significant number of alterations to make these truly complex tumors in an animal. Then we expand the fly population to hundreds of thousands of animals, and we use this, what we call an ‘avatar army’, for screening thousands of drugs and drug combinations.
So, at the outset, we’ve screened everything that's ever been approved by the FDA alone, and then in combinations, and then we see combinations that will rescue the fly, and then we make a human treatment recommendation.
Meeting Summary
Cancer is extremely complex. It is driven by multiple genetic mutations. Current treatments often target only a single mutation, which can lead to resistance as cancer evolves. Personalized medicine is improving treatment effectiveness with tools like genomic profiling, but we still have a long way to go to fully tailor treatments to the genetic complexity of each patient.
This is one of the reasons you see high failure rates and resistance to the "standard of care" therapies, and why it is essential to assess your tumor and identify your unique, complex tumor network. Each tumor signature may respond to a different therapy. Laura Towart and Nahuel Villegas are uniquely qualified to lead a discussion about how you can more fully personalize your cancer treatment.
Laura Towart is the founder and CEO of Vivan Therapeutics, a company with a ground breaking personalized approach to cancer and rare disease developed at Mt Sinai Medical Center. Laura became passionate about personalized medicine during her PhD studies at Weill Cornell Graduate School for Medical Sciences/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Since then she has been actively involved in translational advances in medicine.
In 2008 she co-founded Celmatix, and helped build a next- generation women’s health company leveraging big-data and genomics. Laura has a strong personal link to colon cancer as it sadly claimed her mother and grandmother and affected other family members and friends. She is committed to the identification of new therapies that are tailored to each patient and advocates for patients and their access to these therapies. Dr.
Nahuel Villegas is the Chief Scientific Officer of Vivan Therapeutics. He has a background in genetics, stem cells, and cancer biology. He obtained his PhD in biological sciences from the University of La Plata (Argentina).
Afterwards, he trained in embryonic stem cells and developmental biology at the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine (University of Edinburgh, UK), and in cancer research at the Institute for Neuroscience (CSIC-University Miguel Hernandez, Spain). Dr.
Villegas has broad expertise modeling human tumorigenic processes in “Identifying Personalized Treatment Recommendations for Gastro-Intestinal Cancers“ the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to study druggable conserved oncogenic targets.
His work bridges basic and translational science, combining cancer genetic analysis with in vivo high- throughput drug discovery strategies aimed at finding novel pharmacological anticancer cocktails for personalized therapy. The mission of Vivan Therapeutics is to offer patients personalized cancer treatment options.
They coordinate sequencing of your tumor biopsy and blood sample and their variant calling software identifies your unique constellation. They then use their TuMatch software, which leverages their proprietary data set and AI/machine learning, to enable rapid, personalized cancer treatment guidance.
They assist you with treatment direction from identifying the most effective standard of care options, identifying potential clinical trial options, and providing novel options when standard of care is no longer effective. Why might you want to pursue innovative tests, such as animal models, to personalize your cancer treatment?
•Identify unique drug combinations tailored to your specific tumor genetic profile
•Find potential treatments beyond standard care, including non-cancer drugs that might be effective
•Screen thousands of drug combinations to find the most promising therapies
•Reduce toxic side effects by finding more targeted, precise treatment approaches How can you use data from animals and AI models to identify drugs for your unique cancer?
•A testing service based on an animal model of your cancer can replicate your tumor and test the effectiveness of different drugs in vivo. There are different animal models, we use fruit flies to model the patient tumor, which offer several advantages over mice, zebrafish and other animal models, creating a personalized, living representation (“twin”, “avatar”) of your disease. This “avatar” can allow systematic drug screening across thousands of drug combinations, especially novel drug combinations, including non- cancer drugs that might be effective.
•Since the platform collects and analyzes data from mil millions of animals and thousands of drugs and drug combinations, AI&ML techniques can be implemented to generate accurate predictions leading to more efficient personalized treatment recommendations. What are the key challenges in accessing and integrating animal model services into your cancer care?
•Time: It takes six months to build an animal model. Many patients approach us when they have already run out of therapeutic alternatives and it is already too late to identify a personalized treatment on time, due to the time-consuming process of building and screening avatars. “Identifying Personalized Treatment Recommendations for Gastro-Intestinal Cancers“
•Cost: It costs $20,000+ to generate the fully tailored therapies, even though much cheaper than other strategies, still could be a barrier for some patients.
•Regulatory: Conservative medical review boards make it difficult to approve personalized treatments from novel tests.
•Clinical trial limitations : Traditional clinical trial designs struggle with personalized, one-of-a-kind treatments, making it hard to validate efficacy. Who should consider this approach of animal models and AI?
•You have GI cancer: colorectal, pancreatic, etc.
•You have a brain tumor
•You have a rare cancer with no standard treatment options.
•Standard of care, traditional treatments have been ineffective.
•You have been recently diagnosed, allowing time for modeling and screening.
•You are cancer free, but the rate of recurrence of your tumor type is high.
•Your cancer is not extremely aggressive, allowing time for modeling and screening.
•You are searching for novel drug combinations, including non-cancer drugs that might be effective. How can you learn more about animal models and AI for personalizing your treatment?
•Attend patient-focused webinars and conferences discussing personalized cancer treatments using animal models and AI
•Explore the Vivan website, review their published case studies, particularly those from Mount Sinai Medical Center
•Contact Laura Towart (laura@vivantx.com) or Nahuel Villegas (nahuel@vivantx.com) to schedule a consultation and discuss the process for accessing Vivan Therapeutics' services
•See other discussions we have had on animal models (organoids) and personalizing your cancer treatments:
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•“Identifying the Most Effective Treatment on the Tumor Rather than Trying It Out on the Patient” yel Chatterjee, SEngine)
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•The information and opinions expressed on this website or platform, or during discussions and presentations (both verbal and written) are not intended as health care recommendations or medical advice by Cancer Patient Lab, its principals, presenters, participants, or representatives for any medical treatment, product, or course of action. You should always consult a doctor about your specific situation before pursuing any health care program, treatment, product or other course of action that might affect your health. “Identifying Personalized Treatment Recommendations for Gastro-Intestinal Cancers“ “Identifying Personalized Treatment Recommendations for Gastro-Intestinal Cancers“ Meeting Notes KEYWORDS Precision medicine, cancer treatment, personalized therapy, fruit flies, machine learning, tumor sequencing, genetic alterations, drug screening, oncology, patient care, clinical trials, AI models, genetic profiling, novel combinations, patient outcomes. SPEAKERS Laura Towart (48%), Nahuel Villegas (28%), Brad Power (14%), Bill Paseman (5%), Video (3%), Tony Magliocco (1%), Yara Alrokh (1%), Hilary Elkin (1%) CHAT CONTRIBUTORS Hilary Elkin, Allen Morris, David Plunkett, Yara Alrokh, Zakaria, Bill Paseman SUMMARY Brad Power introduced Laura Towart and Nahuel Villegas from Vivan Therapeutics, who discussed their precision medicine methodology for cancer treatment. Vivan Therapeutics uses machine learning and a large proprietary dataset of tumor signatures to identify personalized cancer treatments. They create fruit fly avatars to screen drug combinations, testing thousands of therapies. A case study highlighted a patient with colorectal cancer who responded well to a novel combination of trametinib and a bisphosphonate, extending life very significantly, with stable disease for 11 months. The service costs $25,000 for personalized drug screening and $5,859 for treatment recommendations. They have modeled 45 patients, mostly with colorectal and pancreatic cancers. As a case report, a patient with nine genetic alterations responded well to a novel combination of a MEK inhibitor and a bisphosphonate. Target and nontarget lesions displayed a strong response and remained stable for 11 months. OUTLINE Introductions
•Laura Towart introduced herself as the founder and CEO of Vivan Therapeutics, which uses technology developed at Mount Sinai Medical Center.
•Their technology was licensed in partnership with Mount Sinai in 2019 and has been expanded upon for personalized medicine, particularly in canc cancer.
•Nahuel Villegas is an expert in cancer genomics, and he has developed models used for high-throughput screening. Development of a Unique Data Set and Predictive Model “Identifying Personalized Treatment Recommendations for Gastro-Intestinal Cancers“
•A video introduction was played, explaining the software's ability to provide personalized cancer treatment recommendations using machine learning and a large proprietary data set of tumor signatures.
•Nahuel Villegas explained the process of generating the unique data set, which involves working with patients and their oncologists to coordinate tumor and blood sequencing.
•The variant calling software identifies genetic alterations driving the patient's unique cancer, and up to 20 genetic alterations are engineered in fruit flies.
•Fruit flies are used as avatars to screen thousands of drugs and drug combinations, with the goal of identifying effective human treatment recommendations.
•The technology has been used at Mount Sinai, with published case studies showing remarkable success in patients with no remaining treatment options. Case Studies and Personalized Treatment Recommendations
•The TuMatch software provides oncologists and patients with a report containing treatment directions, potential clinical studies, and novel drug combinations.
•Identifying novel combinations of targeted agents and non-cancer drugs makes treatment more personalized, less toxic, and more effective. Applications of this Approach
•Bill Paseman asked about the applicability of the technology to kidney cancer and the mechanism of failure when treatments do not work.
•Laura and Nahuel explained that the technology can be applied to solid tumors, including kidney cancer, but they have not yet modeled kidney cancer patients. Challenges and Future Directions
•There are challenges of creating tumors in fruit flies and testing combinations that are not toxic to the flies.
•The process needs deep genomic sequencing.
•The cost of the personal discovery process is high.
•Many patients die before receiving treatment recommendations due to the time- consuming process of building and screening avatars.
•Laura mentions efforts to work with organizations like Cancer Commons to file decentralized IRB trials and provide concierge services to help patients access treatments.
•The discussion also covers the importance of validating predictions in larger data sets an and the potential for collaboration with other companies in the space. Final Remarks and Contact Information “Identifying Personalized Treatment Recommendations for Gastro-Intestinal Cancers“
•Brad Power thanks Laura and Nahuel for their presentation and encourages participants to reach out if they are interested in learning more about the services offered by Vivan Therapeutics.
•Laura and Nahuel provide their contact information and express their willingness to spend time working through potential options for patients or their loved ones. “Identifying Personalized Treatment Recommendations for Gastro-Intestinal Cancers“
Full transcript
[This transcript has been edited for clarity and flow. ] Brad Power This is the Cancer Patient Lab. We’re honored to have with us Nahuel Villegas, who’s coming to us from Abu Dhabi, and Laura Towart from London. They’re with Vivan Therapeutics, and they’ll be describing the methodology they’ve developed for precision medicine. Just a few housekeeping things before we get started. First of all, this is for information purposes only.
This is not medical advice. We try to arm patients and caregivers with information they can take to their medical team. org , where there's a Donate button. Laura Towart 1:14 Thank you everyone for joining, and for your interest in learning more about what we do at Vivan Therapeutics. I'm going to start off with a brief introduction of myself and the company. I'm Laura Towart. I'm the founder and CEO of Vivan Therapeutics.
We've been working with technology originally developed at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. We licensed this technology in “Identifying Personalized Treatment Recommendations for Gastro-Intestinal Cancers“ partnership with Mount Sinai in 2019. Since then, we've been building and expanding upon this technology and its applications across personalized medicine – particularly cancer.
Villegas Nahuel is an expert in cancer genomics ( def: one of several omic branches of biological study, concentrates on the structure, function, and inheritance of an organism’s genome or its entire set of genetic material ). We are working with specific models used to model patients' cancers and for high throughput screening.
I'll play a short video introduction about the technology: Video 2:24 Introducing TuMatch software: rapid, personalized cancer treatment recommendations. Tumors are complex, composed of unique genetic signatures or constellations.
Each constellation may respond to a different therapy, and Vivan TuMatch software utilizes machine learning coupled with a large proprietary data set of tumor signatures matched with the treatment response to identify the most effective therapy for each.
Vivan Therapeutics offers the most personalized cancer treatment direction service possible, using a genomics-based drug screening technology developed at and in partnership with Mount Sinai Medical Center. The process begins when an oncologist refers a patient and provides a biopsy and blood sample for sequencing. Vivan’s TuMatch software scans the tumor sequence and identifies the genetic variants that characterize the tumor.
Utilizing artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data gathered from thousands of tumor profiles, we identify a personalized treatment recommendation based on your unique cancer profile. Unlike any other provider, we may identify novel combinations of targeted agents and also non-cancer drugs that make treatment highly personalized, less toxic and more effective.
All therapeutic recommendations and dosing information will be provided in one TuMatch report shared with the patient and oncologist for review. Laura Towart 3:53 I'd like to back up and share how we generated the unique data set we have, that we've been developing for some time. “Identifying Personalized Treatment Recommendations for Gastro-Intestinal Cancers“ We work with patients and their oncologists. Patients usually have their tumor biopsy.
If they haven't already had a biopsy sample, we coordinate the sequencing of the tumor and also of the patient's blood. Then, we have our own variant-calling software, which identifies the genetic alterations driving that patient's unique cancer. We engineer them in fruit flies and use them as an avatar.
We do this for many reasons, but one of the most important is that the flies are so malleable, we’re able to engineer a significant number of alterations to make these truly complex tumors in an animal. We use an “avatar army”, for screening thousands of drugs and drug combinations. At the outset, we’ve screened everything that's ever been approved by the FDA alone, and in combinations.
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