Integrating healthcare with tech for the greater good

ALDO CARRASCOSO

- JUSTINE PUNZAL AN

Technology and innovation have always come hand in hand. When fueled by a moral purpose, the bond yields results capable of changing industries and generations.

InterVenn Biosciences CEO Aldo Carrascoso had his mindset on one thing when he and his team developed VOCAL: he wanted to provide fast and accessible treatment to cancer patients.

VOCAL is a first-of-its-kind glycoproteomics-based ovarian cancer liquid biopsy diagnostic that helps physicians determine whether a tumor in a woman's pelvic region is malignant or not. The Filipino entrepreneur and his co-founding partners, Dr. Carlito Lebrilla Ph.D. and Dr. Carolyn Bertozzi Ph.D. generated the solution driven by the challenges faced by Carrascoso's family in the past.

The work that we do at Intervenn is highly personal. I lost my mother and two close relatives to breast cancer many years ago, Carrascoso said. I was frustrated with the lack of choices in the so-called standards-of-care, not to mention the lack of understanding of solutions outside that of the genomic realm, as my family does not have any of the known genomic markers. Carrascoso's InterVenn has been developing various solutions for cancer using the powerful combination of next-generation artificial intelligence and high-throughput glycoproteomic, glycolipodomic, and glycotranscriptomic analysis.