Pittsburgh-based Realyze Intelligence is part of a small group of startups that have been named to the CancerX Startup Accelerator that is part of the Biden administration's Cancer Moonshot initiative.
Realyze Intelligence, which was founded in 2020 by Aaron Brauser and Dr. Gilan El Saadawi, employs artificial intelligence to match people with cancer to clinical trials. It's a portfolio company of UPMC Enterprises, the venture capital division of UPMC.
The company uses large language models, data and AI to quickly summarize electronic health records data to quickly find prospective patients for clinical trials, which not only potentially help the patients in them but also help speed the development of treatments and care. But oncology clinical trials are more complex than ever with the rise of precision medicine and more potential patients are needed to get clinical trials off the ground and completed, Realyze Intelligence said.
"By using clinical records to match the right patient with the right trial, we can enhance study outcomes," said Brauser, who is president and CEO.
El Saadawi is a pathologist who is also an assistant professor and director of medical vocabulary at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC. Brauser is a longtime software executive and had been VP of solutions management at M*Modal.
The announcement of the first cohort was made Monday afternoon at digital health conference ViVE in Los Angeles. The CancerX Startup Accelerator selected 16 firms including Realyze Intelligence.
"The CancerX initiative is going to have a huge impact on our oncology partners and we're excited and honored to be among the first companies to join the CancerX Accelerator program," Brauser said in a statement.
Realyze Intelligence has been a member of the cohort of a cancer-focused joint venture of the Creative Destruction Lab and Canadian Cancer Society from October 2023 to the May 2024. It also has worked with the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center on research, among other initiatives.
