WoW Woman in MedTech I Ishani Malhotra, founder and CEO of Carcinotech
Ishani Malhotra is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Carcinotech. She was recently recognised as one of 35 Rising Stars by Scottish Business Insider under 35, won the AccelerateHer 2022 Awards for Science and MedTech and won the Female Entrepreneur of the Year award at The Scottish SME Business Awards 2022. She has established significant international partnerships to advance Carcinotech’s vision of providing personalised drug testing platforms to help those suffering from cancer.
Carcinotech is a MedTech company with expertise in manufacturing 3D-printed living tumours using patient-derived biopsies, primary cells, immune cells, and cancer stem cells. Carcinotech’s advanced models provide a platform for rapid, ethical, sustainable, and accurate drug screening, and pre-clinical and personalised medicine testing. Carcinotech's vision is to be at the forefront of cancer drug testing and provide personalised medicine testing to each individual suffering from cancer to better their chance of treatment and survival.
Carcinotech’s Carcino3D™ models offer a platform for in vitro high-throughput, accurate and rapid drug discovery and screening for a novel, combinatorial and repurposed drugs. The models can be used for drug efficacy, drug pathway, and toxicity testing. They are bioengineered to de-risk cancer drug testing and pre-clinical trials offering translational data with respect to cancer heterogeneity and microenvironments.
Tell us about your background and projects so far.
Over 10 years ago, I positively diagnosed a young boy with leukaemia, I knew it would take years for an innovative treatment to get to market and he would not be able to access this treatment in his lifetime. The WHO estimates the total number of cancer cases will reach 22 million by 2030. That means millions of people will lose out on innovative cures because of inaccurate, expensive, and outdated techniques used in the manufacturing of drugs. I wanted to develop a technology that would directly address this problem so cancer drugs can get to market faster making innovative treatments available to all.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
We have developed patient-specific models for Brain, Lung, Breast, Colorectal and Ovarian cancers with characterised patient populations and mutational status. As well as the five cancers, Carcinotech can offer models of any solid tumours depending on your drug testing needs.
Our flexible technology allows us to develop models for any solid tumours. We continuously develop new cancer models including rare cancers.
Currently working with various pharma companies and CROs to develop printed tumours for drug testing.
How did you get into the industry?
I have nine years of experience in oncology and stem cell research with degrees from the University of Edinburgh and a Certificate of Achievement from Harvard Medical School.
I have worked in cancer diagnostics at hospitals and have a background in clinical trial project management which allowed me to see first-hand how the process of clinical trials works from start to finish. It takes about 10-15 years for a cancer drug to get to market. I knew then I wanted to use my oncology background to help tackle this problem within the industry.
How long have you been in the industry? What were the challenges of getting into the industry? Biggest obstacles and challenges.
One of the biggest challenges I have faced is the adoption of Carcinotech's technology within the pharma and CRO sector. Luckily, we are succeeding with traction and seeing more movement overall in this space.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
I am so proud of the progress my team and I are making at Carcinotech. I am also very proud of the awards that I have won due to both my work as an individual and that of my team. Awards include:
AccelerateHer 2022 award in the Science and MedTech category
One of the 35 Rising Stars by Scottish Business Insider under 35
The Scottish SME Business Awards 2022- Best Female Entrepreneur of the Year Winner
The Scottish Women’s Awards 2022- Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist
GHP International Life Sciences Awards 2022- Best 3D Printed Tumour MedTech Company winner
Is the #womanintech movement important to you and if yes, why?
The #WomaninTech movement is important as it helps highlight the key issues women are facing in the STEM industry. Women still face equality issues in the industry in terms of pay, senior positions and benefits. This movement helps highlight these issues, creating awareness which allows companies to take action and for women to be more confident in the field. Carcinotech is a strong believer in equality, diversity, and inclusion. Due to the movement, various start-up companies and SMEs are striving towards better, improved measures and Carcinotech is proud to have pledged to be one of them.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
Carcinotech is revolutionising cancer research tackling head-on several major challenges currently facing the cancer industry. These challenges require solutions and Carciotech’s technology represents how modern science is changing the face of the industry. The key trends include:
Automation is a leading trend in biotech and is seeing companies streamline a variety of operational processes to enhance research capabilities - Carcinotech has integrated automation into every step of our process. From cell culture to bioprinting, to drug testing. This allows us to have more accurate, rapid, and consistent processes for manufacturing and testing.
Personalised medicine testing – Precision medicine is a healthcare approach that utilises molecular information, and phenotypic and health data from patients to generate care insights to prevent and treat human disease resulting in improved health outcomes. In the oncology space, precision medicine uses specific information about a person’s tumour to help make a diagnosis, plan treatment, find out how well treatments are working, or make a prognosis.
At Carcinotech our technology offers surgeons and oncologists the opportunity to test treatment options, and drug responses and create treatment plans for each patient.
Rapid testing – modern drug testing technology is massively reducing the time taken in clinical trials saving time and resources and getting lifesaving treatments to market quicker. Traditional organoid models can take up to 90 days to be assay-ready, are less reproducible, and are incompatible with high-throughput systems. Carcinotech’s 3D-printed tumours solve this problem with rapid, consistent tumours in high-throughput formats. Each tumour is printed using our custom ECM which matches the original tumour environment. Our models encapsulate the heterogeneity of each patient’s tumour including their immune cells.
The move away from animal testing - At Carcinotech our technology offers defined animal-free conditions removing the requirement of animal testing for drug development. We work with humanised models, tackling head-on one of the biggest issues facing the pharmaceutical industry – the use of animal testing. With the passing of the FDA Modernization Act, our models provide a more ethical alternative to current pre-clinical testing methods.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
To be an entrepreneur, you have to be passionate about your ideas. The best way to go forward is to know that you're not going to be successful all the time. You will face challenges; you need to overcome them and be able to move forward. Resilience, confidence, and hard work are the three key points for anyone looking to start their own company in the MedTech industry or develop their career in the STEM field.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
Dr. Jennifer Doudna (developed CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technique)
Gertrude Belle Elion (developed a new way to design drugs which helped design treatments for various diseases)
Dr. Anneliese Sitarz (a pioneer in pediatric cancer research)
Find out more about Carcinotech on their website.
Follow Carcinotech on LinkedIn.
Connect with Ishani on LinkedIn.
This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.