Guska and Marvik: A deal combining biotechnology and AI to fight cancer
This alliance between biotechnology and artificial intelligence aims to accelerate the development of new therapies aimed at combating aggressive tumors that currently lack effective treatments, using tools that allow it to be done more quickly, scalable, and precise.
When a loved one is diagnosed with cancer and the treatment options are limited, science becomes a personal urgency. This is how Guska, a biotech startup was born, created by Gonzalo Moratorio and Pilar Moreno, researchers at the University of the Republic and the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo. Recently, they have signed an agreement with Marvik, one of Uruguay's leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies, to work on the development of a generative platform for new oncolytic viruses, that is, viruses that selectively attack tumor cells without harming healthy cells and tissues.
This alliance between biotechnology and artificial intelligence aims to accelerate the development of new therapies to combat aggressive tumors that currently lack effective treatments, using tools that allow doing so more quickly, scalably, and precisely.
Founded in 2024, Guska is working on two viruses, with patented attenuation technologies, that have shown efficacy in mice in models of lung and pancreatic cancer, and recently in brain tumor cell lines. With the new platform, they could significantly increase the number of viruses, and thus, the potential therapies towards different types of tumors.
"What drives me most at this moment is to rewrite the destiny of the disease I suffer from. My work is not only a personal quest to know and enjoy life with my daughter, but also a deep commitment to science, and the incessant desire for our research to impact all patients with brain tumors," said Gonzalo Moratorio, co-founder of Guska.
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The development of the new AI platform will be led by researchers and key strategic profiles from Guska, such as Antonio Bordería, who will contribute to aligning the scientific development with clinical and scalability needs, working alongside the team of engineers, data scientists, and AI specialists at Marvik. Following this agreement, work will commence on a generative AI-based platform, capable of designing new viruses according to specific clinical indications.
As an example, Nicolás Tambucho, CEO of Guska, explains that this platform will allow the entry of instructions for the design of a specific virus against pancreatic cancer or another tumor, at a certain stage of advancement, with a certain safety profile for the virus, and other more specific indications of the target tumor; and so obtain as a result viral candidates that will be synthesized and analyzed by our scientists in laboratory tests, and those that are validated to continue, will advance towards possible therapies.
Paula Martinez, CEO of Marvik, emphasized: "For us, this project represents the true potential of artificial intelligence: accelerating scientific discoveries that can change lives. Collaborating with a team like Guska allows us to put our AI expertise at the service of a challenge that combines technological innovation and a huge human impact."