The winners of Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced today, honoring clean technology, innovative corporate initiatives, brave new designs for cities and buildings, and other creative works that are supporting the growth of positive social innovation, tackling social inequality, climate change, and public health crises.

Strata Oncology’s Precision Indications for Approved Therapies (Strata PATH^TM) clinical trial received an honorable mention in the health category. Strata PATH is a prospective pan-tumor therapeutic trial designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of multiple FDA-approved cancer therapies in new, biomarker-guided patient populations. 

Strata PATH will enroll patients with advanced cancer, as well as patients with early-stage cancer who have evidence of micrometastatic disease after initial treatment. The company expects many of the patients with micrometastatic disease will be identified through the Strata Sentinel^TM trial, a 100,000-patient, prospective, observational, pan-solid tumor study of Strata Oncology’s highly sensitive, tumor-informed circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA)-based MRD test. Eligibility for several arms of Strata PATH is based on proprietary quantitative RNA algorithms Strata Oncology developed using its clinical molecular database that ties together real-world outcomes with genomic and transcriptomic data from tens of thousands of patients.

Now in its sixth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 39 winners, 350 finalists, and more than 600 honorable mentions—with climate, social justice, and AI and data among the most popular categories. A panel of eminent Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 2,997 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, health, social justice, and more. In addition, several new categories have been added this year including climate, nature, water, and workplace. The 2022 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Switzerland to Hong Kong to Australia.

Fast Company’s Summer 2022 issue (on newsstands May 10, 2022) will showcase some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and companies tackling global challenges. The issues highlight, among others, probiotics for coral reefs, easy-to-assemble kit homes for refugees or disaster survivors, a 3D printed vaccine patch, an electric truck, a system to heat homes from the waste heat of a name-brand factory, and prosecutor-initiated resentencing for overly long prison sentences.

“We are thrilled to have the Strata PATH trial named to Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas list, which each year recognizes groundbreaking projects and innovations that address our society’s biggest issues,” said Dan Rhodes, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Strata Oncology. “The Strata PATH clinical trial has the potential to enable superior patient outcomes through smarter treatment in both early- and late-stage disease. By leveraging our novel quantitative RNA algorithms, we are optimizing and expanding the use of cancer therapies across classes.

“We are consistently inspired by the novelty and creativity that people are applying to solve some of our society’s most pressing problems, from shelter to the climate crisis. Fast Company relishes its role in amplifying important, innovative work to address big challenges,” says David Lidsky, interim editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists have identified some of the most ingenious initiatives to launch since the start of 2021, which we hope will both have a meaningful impact and lead others to join in being part of the solution.”