CSIRO innovation fund backs AI startup aiming to speed up hep C, cancer treatment

Two Australian robotics engineers and a medical doctor have won backing from the CSIRO's innovation fund for a plan to use predictive analytics and machine learning to speed up treatments for prostate cancer and hepatitis C. After boot strapping for seven years, Australian healthcare data startup Prospection on Tuesday announced it had raised $10 million from the CSIRO's innovation fund, Main Sequence Ventures, and Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures. Co-founders Eric Chung and Ricky Chen met on a university team programming robots to play soccer using artificial intelligence and then teamed up with medical specialist Dr Peter Cronin who Mr Chung met while studying for his MBA. "When we were programming robots we were using AI techniques to help robots recognise what a soccer ball looks like," Mr Chung said. "Now we use artificial intelligence to see if there is a prostate cancer patient how can we get to them before they become really serious."