Intermountain Healthcare spotlights precision medicine with startup
The company will use a sequencing test developed by the health system to find and target individual mutations within cancer tumors.
Ingo Chakravarty, a 26-year senior healthcare executive, will lead Navican as president and CEO.
Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare has launched Navican Genomics, a research and testing startup to speed progress in precision medicine.
The new company's mission is to help physicians at Intermountain and around the world identify personalized options to treat and prevent cancer by combining targeted therapies with rapid improvements in technology and research. The idea is to make precision medicine a viable solution for everyone with cancer.
Navican will employ sequencing tests developed at Intermountain Healthcare that determine exactly which gene mutations are causing the cancer. It makes for more precise drug treatment, thereby avoiding many side effects, such as those from standard chemotherapy.
"Navican gives new hope to patients and their families," Lincoln Nadauld, MD, executive director of Precision Genomics at Intermountain Healthcare, and Navican advisor, said in a statement.
[Also: Intermountain Healthcare names new chief executive officer]
Ingo Chakravarty, a 26-year senior healthcare executive, will lead Navican as president and CEO.
Chakravarty will be responsible for leading a team that works with physicians, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare leaders to find treatments and clinical trial options patients wouldn't have had access to in the past. Navican will also work to advance research and education to influence how the industry can collectively use insights to find new discoveries and sustainable solutions.
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