Diagnostics · Cancer genomics
Isabl
A Memorial Sloan Kettering spin out that reads the whole tumor genome and transcriptome instead of a gene panel. The science is published and peer reviewed. The commercial test is not yet on the market.
Seventy six percent of nothing
At Memorial Sloan Kettering a research team ran 114 children, adolescents and young adults with solid tumors through the hospital’s standard molecular test, a targeted DNA panel called MSK-IMPACT. In 24% of them the panel found a biomarker that could point to a therapy. In the other 76% it found nothing that would inform treatment.
So the team sequenced everything instead: the tumor genome, the inherited genome, and the transcriptome. Integrating all three, they reported oncogenic findings in 54% more patients than standard of care.
The workflow mattered as much as the biology. Whole genome sequencing had a reputation for taking three to eight weeks. This one, once optimized, turned a biopsy into a report in 9 days.
The paper appeared in Nature Communications on May 18, 2022. The same day, TechCrunch ran a piece on the company three of its authors had already built around the method. It was called Isabl.
The other 99 percent
A panel reads a few hundred genes chosen because they recur. Good bet for common cancers, poor bet for everything else.
“These tests have been designed very carefully to look for the most common mutations, and they have revolutionized cancer diagnosis for patients with common cancers,” co-founder Elli Papaemmanuil told TechCrunch. The patients left out, she said, are the roughly one third with cancers rare enough that nobody built a panel for them. The company’s own framing is blunter: “Current approaches to sequencing have only been able to provide insight to 1% of the full genome”.
This is not a fringe position. In January 2024 Genomics England and NHS England reported on more than 13,000 cancer patients in the 100,000 Genomes Project and found whole genome data could guide care across more than 30 tumor types. The open question is not whether the extra signal exists. It is who pays to read it, and who is certified to report it.
Three founders and a name
Elli Papaemmanuil is a molecular geneticist who ran a leukemia genomics lab at MSK. Andrew Kung is a pediatric oncologist there. Juan Santiago Medina-Martinez was a bioinformatics engineer in Papaemmanuil’s lab, previously at Mayo Clinic and New York University, and is principal investigator on the company’s federal grant.
“You could see all these successes from panel testing, then all these patients who weren’t benefiting. But in my lab we had the tech and the know-how,” Papaemmanuil told TechCrunch.
Crunchbase dates the incubation at MSKCC to 2015 through 2019, with incorporation in January 2020 and Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 batch. The careers page explains the name: “Isabl is named for a loved one who lost her fight, serving as a reminder of the mission at hand.”
Four years of receipts, then quiet
The seed round, reported at $3 million and led by Two Sigma Ventures, closed by May 2022. Matthew Meyerson, a co-founder of Foundation Medicine, joined as chairman of the scientific advisory board. In April 2023 the National Cancer Institute awarded a direct to Phase II SBIR.
Then came the publication run. Through 2023 and 2024 the company posted case series and abstracts done with Weill Cornell Medicine on male breast cancer, adrenocortical carcinoma, gynecologic tumors and myeloid cancers. Its resources page labels each one either a “Collaboration between Weill Cornell Medicine and Isabl Inc.” or a pre spinout paper, which is useful self accounting.
The last item published to that site is dated February 29, 2024. The technology page, still live in September 2026, says “Isabl GxT will be available for RUO release in Q2 2024.” That quarter ended more than two years ago.
In December 2025 Papaemmanuil posted: “After 10 incredible years @mskcc it was time for a change. I have joined @genentech to lead Translational Medicine for Oncology.” Five weeks later a paper naming her as an Isabl employee appeared in Communications Medicine.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| FDA marketing status | No 510(k) clearance and no premarket approval on record as of Sep 22, 2026. | Public record |
| Breakthrough designation | Claimed by the company, repeated in the NIH grant abstract, reported by TechCrunch in 2022, dated to 2021 by Crunchbase. Unverifiable: the FDA “generally cannot publicly disclose whether a sponsor has submitted a Breakthrough Device designation request” before marketing authorization. A designation is review priority, not clearance. | Company-stated |
| Federal grant | NIH NCI SBIR R44CA281474, direct to Phase II. $1,041,487 in FY2023, $991,890 in FY2024. Project period Apr 1, 2023 to Mar 31, 2026. No FY2025 or FY2026 award in RePORTER. | Public record |
| Founding paper | Nature Communications, May 18, 2022. 114 patients, 9 day turnaround, 54% more patients with oncogenic findings than standard of care. Written before the spin out. An author correction for patient labeling errors followed on Sep 3, 2025. | Peer reviewed |
| Company era peer review | Communications Medicine, Jan 12, 2026. An Isabl classifier for homologous recombination deficiency, trained on 305 Weill Cornell samples, validated on 556, tested against commercial assays on 212 more. HRD in 21% of breast and 17% of gynecological tumors; 24% of positives had no BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. Disclosure: “Kevin Hadi, Max F. Levine, Gunes Gundem, Juan S. Medina-Martinez, Minal Patel and Elli Papaemmanuil are Isabl, Inc. employees.” | Peer reviewed |
| Analytical validation | ASH 2023 abstract on Isabl GxT Heme over 263 public samples: 100% of the recurrent structural variants and clonal copy number changes seen by cytogenetics, 93% sensitivity for point mutations and indels against 85% and 92% for the reference method. | Company abstract |
| Clinical trials | No registered study naming Isabl found on ClinicalTrials.gov. | Not found |
| Laboratory certification | No CLIA certificate or New York State permit found under the company name. The site sells a “WGTS SaaS”, software rather than a lab. | Not found |
| Intellectual property | The 2022 disclosure states that “a non-provisional patent application has been filed 17/629292 titled” systems and methods for cancer whole genome and transcriptome sequencing. No granted patent found. | Journal disclosure |
| Open source platform | Public on GitHub, described in BMC Bioinformatics in 2020. Terms: “isabl is free for academic and research use. For commercial use, please contact us.” Last updated Jul 14, 2026, by the MSK lab. | Public record |
| Customers or revenue | None disclosed anywhere found. | Not found |
Read plainly: the science holds up and keeps getting published, most recently with Weill Cornell in January 2026. The commercial object does not exist in any form a patient or a payer could buy. A laboratory developed test needs a certified laboratory to develop it in, and none has been found under Isabl’s name. A five person research grade team sits behind a shop window last updated in February 2024.
What to watch
- Whether year three of the NIH SBIR appears in RePORTER. Two years are recorded against a project running to March 31, 2026.
- A named laboratory partner. Without CLIA certification, Isabl needs someone else’s accredited lab to make GxT orderable.
- Any update to isabl.io past February 2024, starting with the RUO release date that has passed.
- Where Papaemmanuil’s attention sits. She has led Translational Medicine for Oncology at Genentech since 2025.
In their words
“These tests have been designed very carefully to look for the most common mutations, and they have revolutionized cancer diagnosis for patients with common cancers,”
Elli Papaemmanuil, co-founder and CEO, TechCrunch, 2022 · Independent
“there is no technical obstacle to making this solution available today. And we’ve demonstrated we can do it at scale,”
Elli Papaemmanuil, TechCrunch, 2022 · Independent
“A comprehensive analysis of the entire genome has advantages compared with traditional, targeted detection strategies for predicting homologous recombination deficiency,”
Juan Miguel Mosquera, MD, Weill Cornell Medicine, senior author, January 2026 · Independent
“Proud recipients of the FDA Breakthrough Device Designation, Isabl GxT technology is the most comprehensive genomic test in cancer with complete analysis of the entire tumor genome and transcriptome.”
Isabl home page, accessed September 22, 2026 · Company
“Isabl is named for a loved one who lost her fight, serving as a reminder of the mission at hand.”
Isabl careers page, accessed September 22, 2026 · Company
“After 10 incredible years @mskcc it was time for a change. I have joined @genentech to lead Translational Medicine for Oncology.”
Elli Papaemmanuil, co-founder, on X, December 6, 2025 · Founder post
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordNIH RePORTER, ISABL INC., R44CA281474
- Public recordBreakthrough Devices Program page
- Public recordFDA 510(k) and PMA databases
- Public recordSEC EDGAR company and full text search
- Peer reviewedFeasibility of whole genome and transcriptome profiling in pediatric cancers
- Peer reviewedWhole genome sequencing approach to assess homologous recombination deficiency
- Peer reviewedIsabl Platform, a digital biobank for multimodal patient data
- IndependentIsabl’s rapid whole-genome analysis opens the playbook
- IndependentWhole-Genome Sequencing May Optimize PARP Inhibitor Use
- IndependentMSK Starts Offering Pediatric Cancer Patients Whole-Genome Sequencing
- IndependentLandmark study supports whole genome sequencing in standard cancer care
- IndependentIsabl Inc. profile, founders and funding
- IndependentIsabl company record and investor list
- IndependentIsabl company and jobs pages, W20, team size 5
- CompanyIsabl home, technology, careers and contact pages
- CompanyIsabl resources index, latest item Feb 29, 2024
- Company abstractEnhancing Myeloid Cancer Genomic Profiling Using Isabl GxT Heme
- Founder postPost announcing the move to Genentech
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
