4baseCare: Using Advanced Genomic Solutions & Next-Gen Digital Technology to Revolutionize Precision Oncology!

Genomics is playing an incredible role in actuating a paradigm shift in the mannerism of oncology care, treatments, and researches. The coalescence of the next-generation sequencing and advanced technologies is helping us understand the behaviour, diversities, and complexities of oncology which is on the other hand enabling healthcare providers to expedite and improve the process of diagnosis and extend meticulous treatment. The causes of cancer differ from person to person, the use of genomics can empower physicians to not only perceive and interpret the actual cause but also unearth how it may progress and respond to medication.

Despite the potential advantages, genomics in healthcare is subjected to certain challenges and limitations in India. Limited genetic data, clinical data, and inadequate medical record management are some of the current issues affecting the full-fledged integration of genomics in Indian medicine.

4baseCare-a precision oncology company aims to mitigate this gap in India’s Cancer Care and accelerate the wide-scale adoption of genomics techniques in formulating medicine for oncology treatment. Backed by Illumina- the world’s leading firm that develops next-generation sequencing machines, the company is personalizing cancer care using two solutions: Advanced Genomics and Next-Gen Digital Health.

This startup is incubated by BBC and IBAB, partners with Wipro and is pioneering unique, patient-centric solutions with the end in view to build the largest database of comprehensive, longitudinal clinical and genomic information from the myriad and under-presented populations.

4BaseCare is the brainchild of Kshitij D. Rishi and Hitesh Goswami. They have a strong background in genomics and cancer research and share the common goal of leveraging the potential of new-fangled technologies and Genomic solutions to revolutionize Precision Oncology in Asia. Their idea took shape under the mentorship of a robust team of cancer researchers, bioinformaticians, data scientists and genomic professionals. They have formulated two persuasive solutions that can be categorized as

• Genomics

4BaseCare performs the DNA and RNA sequencing to generate high-quality somatic and germline molecular data thus empowering physicians to make data-driven personalized treatment decisions for their cancer patients. Further classified as:

• OncoBuddy

A 360-degree digital healthcare platform that aims at building a unified and Patient-centric ecosystem to provide holistic support to patients in their fight against cancer. Its AI-powered medical record management plays a key role in assisting the clinical decision making and simplifies patient-doctor interactions.

In the year 2019, 4BaseCare was selected for the 10th funding cycle of the Illumina Accelerator Program. That very year, the startup also won the Elevate 2019 program- an initiative by the Government of Karnataka and Dept of IT&BT, and secured a grant of Rs. 35 lakh. It also bagged about $2m in a pre-series A round led by Mount Judi Ventures, growX ventures, Season Two Ventures, First In Ventures, and a few strategic angel investors. It intends to avail this fund to expand the genomic tests portfolio and extend its geographical presence across Asia.

The company has a strong research focus and had recently partnered with ACTREC-Tata Memorial Centre for building an AI-based clinical interpretation platform called ClinOme.  4baseCare has launched TarGT Indiegene, World’s first Indian population-specific cancer gene panel developed by comprehensively profiling the whole exome (DNA) and transcriptome (RNA) of tumor tissues from 1500+ cancer patients across India.  The startups claims to have built the largest resource of mutational signatures identified in cancer patients in India. They have identified mutations in 1044 unique genes across 28 cancer types with mutational landscape covering SNVs, CNVs, InDels, and Gene Fusions. The research was done in collaboration with academic and medical researchers from ACTREC-TMC, AIIMS, Shankara Hospital, St John’s Research Institute, Yenepoya Medical College, Gangaram Hospital, Fortis Hospital (Bangalore), and The Yellow Ribbon Cancer clinic.