When Chakra Chennubhotla faced questions in cancer research that existing technologies couldn’t answer, he decided to help build new solutions. That decision ultimately led him to co-found PredxBio, a company at the forefront of AI-driven spatial biology.
Chennubhotla is currently an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Pittsburgh. He also serves as chief of AI and chief operating officer at PredxBio. The company’s mission is to empower pharmaceutical and biotech partners to accelerate drug discovery, optimize clinical trials and personalize therapeutic strategies using cutting-edge spatial analytics and imaging technologies.
While working as faculty at Pitt on a National Cancer Institute grant, Chennubhotla became intrigued by the emerging field of spatial biology, where scientists can visualize and measure proteins directly in tissue—capturing biological context in situ.
From academia to startup
“There were emerging platforms on the horizon that could image proteins directly in tissue,” recalled Chennubhotla. “That opened up deep questions: How do you really understand heterogeneity in cancer?”
In response, his team developed software to quantify spatial patterns of cells and biomarkers in tumors, helping to uncover the hidden complexity of cancer biology. When fellow researchers saw his work, they encouraged him to produce software for the biopharmaceutical market.
In 2019, his team applied for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation to launch what would eventually become PredxBio. By 2022, Chennubhotla and his team were partnering directly with leading pharmaceutical companies.
Transforming cancer research with spatial AI
One of the biggest challenges in oncology is predicting which patients will respond to specific treatments. PredxBio tackles this problem using explainable AI and spatial biomarker analysis, helping to guide patient selection in clinical trials and enabling the development of companion diagnostics.
“If you have a deeper understanding of the spatial relationships between biomarkers, which are proxies for biological pathways, you gain more power to infer the biology of the disease and predict its progression,” said Chennubhotla.
By analyzing millions of cells across tissue samples, PredxBio’s technology reveals patterns of response and resistance, helping pharmaceutical partners design smarter, more efficient clinical trials—particularly in phase 3 studies where selecting the right patients is critical.
The growing demand for bioimaging expertise
Looking ahead, Chennubhotla sees a surge in demand for experts who can work at the intersection of biology, imaging and computation.
“Whether it’s drug discovery or clinical trials, images are always part of the process,” he said. “A strong understanding of how to analyze biological images is becoming essential across the life sciences.”
Advice for aspiring bioimaging specialists
What skills are needed to succeed in this field?
“I think it’s really important that students have analytical and inference skills. Understanding the biology, and how biological signals come together in tissue, is critical.”
What advice would you give students interested in bioimaging analysis?
“Bioimage analysis is one part of computational biology. While you can do many projects in bioimage feature extraction, I would not lose sight of the big picture, which is to reveal pathways and networks underlying disease.”
What has been the most rewarding part of your career?
“I think any career you chose will remain a work in progress. Instead of focusing just on the highs or the lows, you must enjoy the journey.”