When a loved one is diagnosed with an untreatable cancer, science becomes a deeply personal urgency. That’s how Guska was born—a biotech startup founded by Gonzalo Moratorio and Pilar Moreno, researchers at the University of the Republic and the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo. The company recently signed an agreement with Marvik, one of Uruguay’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) firms, to jointly develop a generative platform for creating novel oncolytic viruses, that selectively attack tumor cells.
This alliance between biotechnology and artificial intelligence aims to speed up the development of targeted therapies for aggressive tumors that currently have no effective treatments, using tools that make the process faster and more scalable.
Founded in 2024, Guska specializes in developing viruses with oncolytic properties—meaning they infect and destroy tumor cells without harming healthy tissues. The company is currently working on two viruses that have shown efficacy in mice with lung and pancreatic cancer models, and more recently, in cell lines from brain tumors.
“What drives me most right now is rewriting the fate of the disease I’m facing. My work is not just a personal quest to live and enjoy life with my daughter, but also a deep commitment to science, and an unrelenting hope that our research will have an impact on all brain tumor patients,” said Gonzalo Moratorio.
The new AI platform will be developed by Guska’s team of researchers and strategic specialists, ensuring that scientific innovation is aligned with clinical and scalability needs. They will work hand in hand with Marvik’s engineers, data scientists, and AI experts. The goal is to create a generative AI system capable of designing new viruses tailored to specific clinical requirements.
For example, Guska CEO Nicolás Tambucho explains: “With this platform, you could input instructions such as designing a virus for pancreatic cancer at a specific stage, with a certain safety profile, along with other tumor-specific parameters, and receive candidate viruses in return. These will then be synthesized and tested in our labs, and those validated will advance toward potential therapies.”
“We want to create a paradigm shift in cancer treatment by developing a generative AI platform that accelerates the design of synthetic RNA oncolytic viruses, capable of attacking aggressive solid tumors with unprecedented precision,” he adds.
The agreement with Marvik—a Uruguayan company that has collaborated with prestigious international institutions—gives Guska access to technological capabilities that an early-stage startup could not develop on its own. “In essence, we’re doing, on a smaller scale, what big pharmaceutical companies do: partnering with an AI-specialized team to speed up the development of new treatments,” says Tambucho.
Marvik CEO Paula Martínez adds: “For us, this project represents the true potential of artificial intelligence—to accelerate scientific breakthroughs that can change lives. Collaborating with a team like Guska allows us to put our AI expertise at the service of a challenge that combines technological innovation with a profound human impact.”
Guska expects to have the first functional version of the platform ready within the next six months, positioning itself among a new generation of ‘TechBio’ companies that combine biotechnology and AI to develop therapies that were once unimaginable.
