July 22, 2025
3 min watch
Healio spoke with First Ascent Biomedical co-founder and CEO Jim Foote, MBA, about each their platform and their expertise throughout the CancerX Accelerator.
Key takeaways:
- First Ascent Biomedical’s platform matches sufferers with most cancers to customized remedy inside 10 days.
- The corporate was awarded the Individuals’s Selection Award throughout the CancerX Accelerator Showcase.
A purposeful precision drugs platform intends to streamline most cancers remedy by matching sufferers towards a battery of FDA-approved medication to ship an individualized remedy plan inside 10 days.
First Ascent Biomedical — based mostly in Miami — strives to offer most cancers remedy plans “as private as a fingerprint,” in keeping with Jim Foote, MBA, the corporate’s co-founder and CEO.
“[With our] cell-enrichment know-how, we will take a biopsy and enrich it to the purpose that we will check tons of of FDA-approved medication to determine which work and, extra importantly, which don’t for the person,” Foote informed Healio. “We assist sufferers as we speak by testing tons of of FDA-approved medication towards their biopsy, however we truly assist sufferers of tomorrow by working with pharmaceutical firms to speed up new medication, new makes use of for current medication or new drug combos into the market.”
First Ascent Biomedical was certainly one of simply 14 startups chosen for the 2025 CancerX Accelerator cohort, a bunch of revolutionary digital well being and synthetic intelligence startups centered on addressing crucial challenges in oncology. This system is hosted by Moffitt Most cancers Heart and launched in collaboration with the Workplace of the Nationwide Coordinator for Well being Data Expertise and the Workplace of the Assistant Secretary for Well being.
The CancerX Accelerator program gives collaborating startups with entry to business champions, skilled mentors and a variety of help, from product suggestions and pilot alternatives to potential business agreements.
“CancerX is a tremendous alternative as a result of it brings collectively all the pieces that’s necessary to our firm,” Foote stated. “It’s not simply docs, it’s not simply pharmaceutical firms, it’s not simply sufferers, it’s not simply affected person advocates; it’s everyone coming collectively as an ecosystem. We are able to’t do it alone: It’s a crew sport that takes collaboration between pharmaceutical firms, docs, sufferers and startups like ours.”
First Ascent’s purposeful precision oncology platform gives a revolutionary strategy to customized most cancers care, an achievement additionally acknowledged by in style vote from clinicians, researchers and affected person advocates who awarded the corporate the Individuals’s Selection Award throughout the 2025 CancerX Accelerator Showcase in Boston.
On this video, Foote shares insights into why he needed to take part within the CancerX Accelerator, the alternatives it has already supplied to him and the corporate, and the way collaboration resembling these open new avenues for most cancers treatment.
Because the official media associate of the CancerX 2025 Accelerator cohort, Healio will showcase key breakthroughs and achievements by means of unique interviews with this yr’s startups in addition to alumni teams from the 2024 program.
Purposes for the 2026 CancerX Accelerator cohort will open Sept. 2, 2025, completely for CancerX members, with public purposes opening Sept. 9, 2025. Be part of the CancerX neighborhood right here.
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For extra data:
Jim Foote, MBA, might be reached on LinkedIn right here.
