Today's Edition
MAYS IBRAHIM (ABU DHABI)
One Hub71 startup is turning fruit flies into cancer-fighting allies, combining AI and genetic science to personalise cancer treatment in ways never seen before.
London-born Vivan Therapeutics is tapping into Abu Dhabi’s fast-growing innovation ecosystem to scale its precision oncology model globally.
The core of the company’s approach is its proprietary TuMatch software, which leverages a unique dataset along with AI and machine learning to help identify the best possible treatments for each cancer patient.
The platform creates “avatars” of cancer patients using fruit flies. These tiny organisms, known scientifically as Drosophila melanogaster, are engineered with the same genetic mutations found in a patient's tumour.
Once replicated, Vivan breeds hundreds of thousands of these genetically altered flies per patient to test thousands of drug combinations in rapid, high-throughput in vivo screenings.
One of the key advantages of the fruit fly as a model organism is its short life cycle and rapid proliferation, according to Nahuel Villegas, Chief Scientific Officer at Vivan Therapeutics.
“In a relatively short period, we can create half a million fruit fly avatars for each patient … this allows us to test a massive number of drugs,” said Villegas in a recent interview with Aletihad.
“Most of these fruit flies will die, except for the ones that receive the right drug or drug combination. That’s how we identify the optimal treatment.”
The results have already shown promise in clinical settings. In a trial at New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Centre, patients with difficult-to-treat cancers responded significantly better to therapies identified by TuMatch than to traditional treatments.
“In some cases, the treatment recommended by the fruit fly model was the only one the patient responded to,” Villegas said.
Vivan’s competitive edge lies not only in its innovative biological modelling but also in its massive proprietary dataset.
The company has created more than 50 million fruit fly avatars and tested thousands of therapies, yielding nearly 600 novel treatment options for specific tumour types, according to Villegas.
He explained that this dataset feeds its AI and machine learning models, which are now robust enough to offer instant treatment recommendations for new patients – sometimes without needing to create new fly models at all.
“In healthcare, most available data is biased or based on failed treatments,” Villegas said. “Our data is fresh, precise, and generated in-house. That’s what makes our AI truly effective.”
Hub71: A Gateway to Global Scaling
Vivan Therapeutics’ decision to join Abu Dhabi’s Hub71 was driven by its ambitions to scale globally and tap into new markets.
“The GCC has always been on our radar because some of our early investors are from the region,” said Villegas. “But Abu Dhabi stood out, especially because of Hub71.”
Since joining the government-backed tech ecosystem, the startup has received support far beyond capital and office space.
“Hub71 helped us understand the local landscape, from regulations to healthcare partnerships, and connected us with key stakeholders like the Department of Health,” said Villegas.
Now registered in Abu Dhabi, Vivan is gearing up to scale its platform worldwide.
“Abu Dhabi represents for us a place that connects the East and the West,” said Villegas. “And the work Hub71 is doing is putting Abu Dhabi on the map as a biotech center. From here, we are ready to reach the world.”
