A story in today’s Simi Valley Acorn tells about the success of a former Grace Brethren schools student in developing a new tool to treat cancer. A portion of the story about Joshua Schwochert appears below. Click here to read the complete story. Grace Brethren schools are ministries of Grace Church, a Charis Fellowship congregation in Simi Valley, Calif. (Jordan Bakker, senior pastor).
Simi Valley man may have new tool to treat cancer
Joshua Schwochert is a local kid who made good.
Schwochert, who grew up in Simi Valley and attended Grace Brethren schools, is the co-founder of a biotech startup that just received a $6 million round of funding for its oncology program from ARTIS Ventures and other investors.
Schwochert, chief science officer, and his best friend, Cameron Pye CEO, formed Santa Cruz-based Unnatural Products Inc. in 2017.
The two met in graduate school nine years ago and became best friends.
“Josh and I were both in the Ph.D. program at UCSC (University of California, Santa Cruz),” Pye said. “We had an ‘aha!’ moment, a sea change in our understanding to combine artificial intelligence plus chemistry know-how. We had just enough hubris to think we could do it ourselves.”
Schwochert is behind the chemistry and Pye is behind the machine learning, Pye explained.
Their company uses a combination of artificial intelligence and chemistry to change the way science is addressing and treating disease. For now, they are focusing on oncology, but the future could hold promise in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, Pye said.
Click here to read the complete story.