Vanderbilt Health and Bertis establish collaboration for cancer drug discovery

Summary: Vanderbilt Health and a tech company called Bertis are teaming up to find new ways to treat cancer. In the past, scientists studied tumors by looking at a mashed-up sample of the tissue. The problem is that this "bulk" method destroys the natural layout of the cells, making it impossible to see how they interact.

To fix this, Vanderbilt is using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create highly detailed "maps" of tumors. These maps show exactly where the cancer cells, immune cells, and connecting tissues are located and how they talk to each other. Once the map is made, Bertis uses its own AI to study the proteins inside those specific areas.

Right now, the team is focusing on "HER2-low tumors," a tricky type of cancer that has historically been hard to treat. By combining Vanderbilt's cell-mapping technology with Bertis's protein-finding tools, researchers hope to discover new weak spots in the cancer and develop better, more precise medicines.

For more details, see Vanderbilt Health News at news.vumc.org/2026/03/03/vanderbilt-health-and-bertis-establish-collaboration-for-cancer-drug-discovery/ (opens in new tab)

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