First Ascent Biomedical Wins CancerX 2025 People's Choice Award

When over 1,000 people cast their votes for the most impactful innovation from the 2025 Accelerator cohort, one company stood out: First Ascent Biomedical. Their groundbreaking approach to personalized cancer treatment earned them the prestigious People's Choice Award at the program's graduation showcase.

First Ascent Biomedical is revolutionizing cancer care for patients whose cancer has returned—a population that faces some of the most challenging treatment decisions. Their solution combines three powerful technologies: functional drug testing, genomics, and artificial intelligence to design individualized treatment plans in just one week.

The company's proprietary technology rapidly grows tumor samples, including the crucial chemo-resistant cells that often drive treatment failure. This enables testing of hundreds of FDA-approved drugs to measure how both cell populations respond—creating the essential dataset that powers their AI engine. The process begins with patient biopsies, then tests these samples against hundreds of potential drug treatments while proprietary AI algorithms analyze and match the results with the most effective drugs for each specific patient.

"First Ascent exemplifies the digital innovation in oncology that CancerX is committed to advancing—where cutting-edge technology meets biological insights to create truly personalized cancer care solutions," said Kamal Jethwani, CancerX lead. "Their approach transforms what was once a trial-and-error process into a precision-guided strategy."

The People's Choice Award reflects public recognition of solutions that combine innovation potential, real-world impact, scalability, and compelling storytelling. With over 1,000 votes cast in the open public voting process, First Ascent's potential to transform cancer treatment at the intersection of biology and technology clearly resonated with voters.

As First Ascent Biomedical moves forward from the accelerator program, they carry with them not just an award, but validation that their approach to addressing some of cancer care's most challenging cases represents the future of personalized medicine.

CancerX is proud to have First Ascent Biomedical as part of our 2025 cohort, representing the caliber of innovation and impact we strive to support through our accelerator program.

Learn more about First Ascent Biomedical and their groundbreaking work.

Read more about the CancerX Accelerator and how we're transforming cancer care through innovation here.