MANILA, Philippines – Filipino-founded biotech firm InterVenn Biosciences on Friday, July 22, launched its Philippine office. Though the company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, the team that developed and maintains the proprietary AI technology that speeds up certain research processes for the company is made up mostly of Filipinos residing in the Philippines, including one of its founders, AI and blockchain expert Aldo Carrascoso. The company has about 150 Filipinos working in the Philippines, majority of whom are software developers, and who make up half of the company. Through the help of the company's advanced AI platform, the company is able to help its global groups of researchers and scientists significantly reduce the time it takes for some processes such as analysis of samples from months to seconds. It's through this meaningful application of AI that the firm has been able to make strides in the field since its founding in 2017, as well as strides in funding.

Ovarian cancer is difficult to diagnose, particularly in its early stages, when survival rates are much higher. Because there is no consistently reliable screening test to detect ovarian cancer, most women are diagnosed with the disease when it's in an advanced stage. However, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have developed a non-invasive diagnostic test using artificial intelligence for the accurate detection of true cases of early-stage disease. Results of their study were published online this week in the journal eLife. By combining next generation sequencing with artificial intelligence, researchers have created a novel blood test based on serum microRNAs--small, non-coding pieces of genetic material that help control where and when genes are activated--for the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.