Cancer is smart. Yes, you read that right.

The disease isn’t intelligent in the traditional sense — but cancer cells are adaptable, ‘learning’ from their environment and constantly evolving to improve survival. While targeted therapy can be effective at first, this evolution means that treatment resistance and disease progression remain a challenge.

To effectively combat cancer — to both detect it sooner and develop the most impactful, dynamic therapies — we need to be able to understand it. This means tracking the progression of each and every cancerous cell.

How top marketers are winning against digital-only disruptors by bringing location to the cloud.

Researchers at Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine (RCIGM) and its partners, including Fabric Genomics, have today published in Science Translational Medicine a new study documenting the process to diagnose rare genetic diseases in record time. This new method speeds answers to physicians and allows increased use of genome sequencing as a first-line diagnostic test for critically ill babies.

Mighty Capital, whose founder and managing partner is SC Moatti, has its first liquidity event. SC tells Women’s PE Briefs that the firm sold a small portion of its first investment, Amplitude.

Following earlier LabCorp strategic investment, Mission Bio single cell-sequencing technology will be used by LabCorp to support clinical trials, along with the evaluation of potential applications in clinical diagnostics and companion diagnostics development.

HYP3R is leading the transformation of location marketing to deliver experiences that are delightful and effective. HYP3R’s innovations in location marketing cloud help top marketers acquire and engage high-value customers in the real world through digital experiences that are surprisingly human. At the core of HYP3R is a unique dataset of hundreds of millions of the highest value consumers in the world that gives an edge to the leaders in travel and retail. HYP3R, one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco. Learn more at https://hyp3r.com or follow @HYP3R on Twitter.

The stock market turmoil of December 2018 reminds us to never take anything for granted. Still, good investment opportunities exist if you know where to look. My expectation is that 2019 will see significant private equity and venture capital activity thanks to multiple economic factors including a solid M&A appetite.

Mission Bio delivers targeted single-cell genomics solutions for high-impact applications with Tapestri, the Precision Genomics Platform. Tapestri is the industry’s first targeted single-cell DNA sequencing platform, enabling precise detection of heterogeneity in disease progression and treatment response. Application areas include blood cancers, solid tumors, and genome editing validation. The platform includes an instrument, consumables, and analysis software, which integrate seamlessly with existing NGS workflows. With Tapestri, researchers have a highly sensitive, targeted, and customizable solution to move precision medicine forward.

For Skates, 2018 was an especially momentous year. “I turned 30, we raised a Series D and I got engaged this year,” he said. “That’s going to be hard to top.”