Why Travera exists
Travera exposes your living tumor cells to a panel of up to 20 FDA-approved cancer drugs and measures, cell by cell, which ones trigger the mass changes that signal a drug is working. Because it tests real cells instead of just genes, it can guide therapy even when genomic testing finds no actionable mutation. Built for people with late-stage cancer weighing what to try next, it returns results to your oncologist within two days of sample collection.
Travera spun out of the Koch Institute at MIT, where co-founder Scott Manalis invented the Suspended Microchannel Resonator — a device sensitive enough to weigh a single cancer cell. His team discovered that dying cancer cells change mass within hours of meeting an effective drug. Kimmerling, a researcher in that lab, and fellow Koch Institute scientist Selim Olcum co-founded Travera to turn that discovery into a clinical test that gives late-stage patients a fast, functional way to find drugs their cancer still responds to.
- 1
Talk to your oncologist
You and your oncologist decide the test fits your situation; the physician contacts Travera's clinical support and places the order.
- 2
Collect a live sample
Travera ships a temperature-controlled kit. A fresh sample (biopsy, malignant fluid, blood, or bone marrow) goes straight into the kit and overnights to the lab.
- 3
Live cells meet real drugs
The lab isolates your living cancer cells and exposes them to up to 20 FDA-approved drugs, using MIT-invented single-cell mass sensors to detect which drugs make the cells begin to die.
- 4
Results in 2 days
Your oncologist receives a report ranking how your cells responded to each drug, with Travera clinical support available to discuss next steps.
Prefer the source? Travera's own site has more.
