Mohan Uttarwar

Co-Founder & CEO

Despite being in the news for a lot of positive reasons lately, India is also slowly gaining the ill-fame of being called the ‘Cancer Capital of the World’. Improper diet intake, sedentary lifestyles, increased exposure to pollution, climate change and tobacco & alcohol consumption among today’s youth are some of the primary factors that have led to the rise in cancer cases in the country today. If recent statistics are to go by, the number of cancer cases in India which stood at 1.46 million in 2022 is predicted to grow by 12.8 percent and reach 1.57 million by 2025. Considering such alarming conditions, a lot of research and innovation is currently happening in the oncology space across the world. As a result, many biotechnology companies are extensively leveraging latest techniques such as genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics and NGS to support pharma companies in their endeavor to better treat the deadly disease.

Among the myriad of many such companies, one company stands tall through its dedication to improve cancer management is One Cell Diagnostics. Based in US and India, the company was founded in 2021 by Mohan Uttarwar (CEO), Dr. Jayant Khandare (CSO), Dr. Gowhar Shafi (Chief Informatics Officer) and Aravindan Vasudevan (COO) with a vision to democratize precision oncology and make advanced oncology diagnosis easily accessible, actionable & affordable so that every oncologist in every hospital in every corner of the world practices Precision Oncology and no patient is left behind.

“Given the nature of cancer disease, it is very important to provide personalized treatment to each patient based on their molecular characterization. While genomics leads the first wave of precision oncology, science has evolved further & much deeper insights are needed for patient stratification through multi-omics – proteomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics – to provide better outcomes for patients. The latest advancements in biomarker analysis techniques using AI/ML help transform the field from the old paradigm – Diagnose > Treat > Hope-for-cure, to a totally new way – Screen > Predict > Prevent. It’s a whole different ball game now, where innovation at the intersection of deep single-cell science & cutting-edge technologies such as AI/ML, data analytics, LLM is making cancer a manageable disease which people can live with comfortably”, says Mohan, sharing insights on the current scenario for cancer treatment.

Laying the Foundation Stone

Mohan’s tryst with oncology began in the US where he observed that pathologists at even the world's best hospitals such as Stanford & UCSF manually used a microscope to analyze patient samples and count cells manually with a mechanical counter. Recognizing this lag in tech adoption by the healthcare industry, Mohan founded BioImagene, a pioneering digital pathology company, BioImagene (acquired by Roche) and subsequently OncoMDx (acquired by Core Diagnostics). During this time, he realized that cancer is as much a disease as, it is equally a data problem. That insight led to the incorporation of iNDX.Ai with a vision of connecting disconnected siloes of data and derive meaningful insights from it by leveraging AI/ML to help clinicians make better decision at the point-of-care. Also, carefully accessing the transition that was happening in the diagnostic oncology space, Onecell was founded with the vision of further revolutionizing the industry by bringing Silicon Valley innovation Indian patients’ bedside.

“As an innovation-driven organization, we have developed a proprietary technology that enables us to capture that one-in-a-billion circulating cancer cell from a 10 ml blood sample of the patient. By applying advanced AI-based algorithms, we then carefully analyze that isolated cancer cell, correlate the data with multidimensional, multimodal, multi-omics data and create a prediction report of metastasis to help oncologists make better decisions while treating the patients, especially the cancer survivors. This groundbreaking innovation of multi-omics biomarker analysis has also enabled oncologists to identify aspects of a patients that were otherwise difficult or even impossible to catch. Most importantly, our technology predicts the resistance, toxicity, side effects, which is also a common concern among cancer patients who need better quality of life”, says Mohan.

Diverse Portfolio of Products & Solutions

Onecell clearly understands that the tools required to diagnose a cancer patient varies significantly based on the stage of their disease - right from early detection to post therapy monitoring. Thus, the company offers a suite of products that include OncoIndx (Genomic Test), OncoDiscover (CTC Blood Test), OncoMonitor (Longitudinal Monitoring Test), OncoPredikt (Genomic Signature Prediction), OncoRisk (Germline Test), and OncoTarget (organ specific Tailored Genomic Test). Its flagship product OncoPredikt Prime is the best-in-class Liquid Biopsy test. With a comprehensive 1080

gene custom panel that identifies key genomic signatures, it helps oncologists to find the right treatment such as immunotherapy, targeted therapy, PARP inhibitor therapy and others for each patient.

While NGS is becoming the gold standard, it is also expensive. Specifically for Indian Patients who mostly pay out of pocket, cost is the biggest concern. But the good news: Innovation-for-affordability is in the DNA of the founding team. To make it affordable for all masses, Onecell has developed a breakthrough family of products called OncoPredikt that uses AI/ML to predict genomic biomarkers from Histo-pathology images and reduces the price of the test by an order of magnitude. Additionally, pathologists can scan the cancerous tissue section images and derive molecular biomarker information within a few minutes. Some of the key benefits that it offers to the patients include quick turnaround time for test results, cost-effective and easy access to patient data for pathologists.

Further, Onecell has developed a novel application called iCare, an AI-integrated precision Oncology Console for clinicians to interpret complex genomic data, access rich database of reference literature and make critical clinical decisions at the point of care. A key feature of iCare is ‘DrG’, which is a LLM based genomic co-pilot that acts as an amazing assistant for oncologists who are new to Precision Medicine. “Onecell’s iCore/iDiscover is a very comprehensive, AI based multi-omics biomarker discovery platform for accelerating translational research and managing biopharma clinical trial as well as Investigator Initiated clinical trials (IIT). It is pressure tested by giants like AbbVie who manages over 30+ clinical trials production data from sites around the world. CROs and biopharma companies can significantly accelerate their drug discovery and development process”, says Dr. Gowhar.

Standing a Class Apart

As a technology driven organization with a strict ‘No Compromise’ attitude towards quality, One Cell aspires to facilitate better cancer management for patients through cutting-edge scientific innovation. Some of the key factors that have positioned it a notch higher than the rest of the companies in the market are the five core values that it imbibes – Client-centricity, Innovation, Integrity, Agility and Collaboration. The company not only provides highly efficient solutions that are integrated with AI/ML, but also adapts its operations and technologies as per the changing business requirements and market expectations to ensure that every patient's needs and demands are catered for.

“Our primary focus has always been to assist biotech and pharma companies accelerate their research and early-stage clinical trials. In traditional immuno-oncology, while we have to wait for two months to know if the tumor has shrunk post therapy, our technology is able to detect proteins such as PD-L1 or PD-L2 on the surface of the circulating tumor cells within just a few days and assess if the therapy is working on not in the most accurate manner. This has been a very strong differentiator for us in the US market, where the pharma and biotech companies have a need for speed”, explains Dr. Jayant.

Adding on, Aravindan says, “Onecell leaves no stone unturned to ensure that both patients and the healthcare professionals get nothing short of the best. Thus, the company strictly adheres to a host of globally accepted certifications & accreditation such as 21 CFR Part-11 compliance, GDPR, GXP (in both US & Europe), HIPAA and more. Additionally, it is currently also in the process of getting accredited from CAP (College of American Pathology) and CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments)”. Furthermore, One Cell has also setup a not-for-profit organization called Precision Oncology Foundation (Profound) to promote the educational aspect of Precision Oncology and ensure that even the poor cancer patients can avail these advanced treatments without having to shell-out massive sums of monies.

Explaining the future roadmap for Onecell, Mohan says, “We want to democratize precision oncology by making it more accessible, actionable, and affordable. Our goal is to reach-out to at least 1000 oncologists and impact the lives of at least a million cancer patients from at least 100 different hospitals across the country. The entire team at Onecell is working very hard both on science and technology fronts to achieve this mission”.