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UniCure: A multi-modal model for predicting personalized cancer therapy response
Zexi Chen1, Saisai Tian2, Jiazheng Pei3
1State Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; Department of Medical Oncology, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China; School of Mathematical Sciences and School of AI, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Abstract:
Predicting drug efficacy across diverse patient contexts remains a major challenge in oncology, as models trained on cancer cell lines often fail to capture patient-specific biology. Emerging biological foundation models and patient-derived technologies offer a promising solution. Here, we present UniCure, a multi-modal model that combines biological and chemical foundation models to predict drug-induced transcriptomic responses across diverse cell and tissue contexts, enabling individualized drug ranking. Trained on 1.9 million transcriptomic perturbation profiles spanning >22,000 compounds, 166 cell types, and 24 tissues, UniCure accurately predicts dose-dependent and combination responses and generalizes across bulk and single-cell data. We further fine-tune UniCure on 345 patient-derived tumor-like cluster (PTC) transcriptomic profiles and validate performance on 396 real-world clinical profiles, demonstrating effective patient-level prediction. The model supports response-based patient stratification and is experimentally validated in cell line and patient-derived models. Overall, UniCure provides a practical framework for translating preclinical data into personalized therapeutic strategies.