First Ascent Biomedical

First Ascent Biomedical is a Miami-based biotech company founded in 2018 with a mission to advance individualized cancer treatment planning. The company develops functional precision medicine technologies that generate patient-specific treatment insights for both liquid and solid cancers, serving patients and caregivers, oncologists, and pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Its approach centers on testing a patient's own live tumor cells against a broad panel of therapies to identify which treatments are most likely to be effective for that individual.

At the core of First Ascent Biomedical's offering is the xDRIVE platform (Ex Vivo Drug Response Identification and Validation Engine), described as a first-in-kind oncology decision support system. The platform is capable of testing up to 150 or more FDA-approved therapies and combinations in parallel, with results delivered to the care team in an average of 10 days. The company reports that up to 83% of patients using the platform respond better than with doctors' choice or standard of care, and that patients have experienced 8.5 times longer progression-free survival. These outcomes are supported by scientific publications and collaborations with cancer treatment centers and academic medical institutions.

xDRIVE Platform Components

• Functional Drug Validation — assesses live cancer cell response to drugs outside the body (ex vivo testing)
• Genomic Sequencing — identifies molecular markers through DNA and RNA sequencing
• AI Cancer Weakness Mapping — uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to pinpoint likely effective treatments based on the unique characteristics of a patient's solid or liquid cancer

Applications by Audience

• Patients and Caregivers — works with the patient's care team to test and validate treatment options using the patient's own tumor cells, with results typically delivered in under two weeks; aimed at patients who have been told standard options are exhausted
• Physicians and Oncologists — provides patient-specific tumor response data and tailored treatment recommendations to support precision care when standard protocols fall short; validated through published studies with leading cancer centers, with an average 10-day turnaround
• Biopharma and Biotech (DxPP) — offers pharmaceutical companies a drug sensitivity testing and causal machine learning platform to support drug development, target identification, and biomarker discovery, with the aim of shortening early-stage development timelines and reducing investment

Founding and Leadership

• Jim Foote, MBA — Co-Founder and CEO; former Fortune 250 CIO/CISO who founded the company following the loss of his son to bone cancer
• Dr. Noah Berlow, PhD — Co-Founder and CTO; developed the AI/ML system originally applied to rare childhood cancers
• Dr. Diana Azzam, PhD — Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor; cancer researcher with expertise in functional precision medicine
• Andria Parks — Head of Commercial Operations, focused on making precision medicine accessible
• Lucas Musibay — AI/ML Engineer and Data Analyst specializing in computational biology, cloud computing, and bioinformatics
• Diana Jenner — Head of Patient Advocacy, supporting patients, caregivers, and foundations in navigating functional precision medicine

Advisory Board

• Bill Seibel, MBA — Chairman and Growth Advisor; Co-Founder, Cambridge
• Sue Schade, MBA — Health Industry Advisor; Principal at StarBridge Advisors
• Michael Apkon, MD — Physician and Healthcare Advisor; former CEO of Tufts Medical
• Scott Snyder — Innovation Advisor; Chief Innovation Officer at Eversana and Co-Founder at Mobiquity
• Chris Rich, MBA — Pharma Advisor; Board Member/Investor and former SVP of the GSK Wellness Unit
• Stephen Ferzoco, MD — Medical Advisor; Surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard

First Ascent Biomedical maintains publication and pharma partnerships with leading institutions and industry organizations, and continues to publish research on AI-driven functional precision medicine. The company is headquartered in Miami, Florida, and accepts patient applications directly through its website.