The history of Cure51 and our Rosalind Study is deeply connected to the vision and ambition of our two co-founders, Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow. Since launching our company in 2022, they have built one of Europe’s most distinctive TechBio platforms, centered on a bold scientific thesis: understanding why certain exceptional Cancer patients survive against all odds.
Rather than focusing exclusively on why Cancer progresses, Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow chose to reverse the paradigm. They asked a different question that could reshape oncology research:
Why do some patients survive highly lethal Cancers for many years?
This is the story of Cure51 and the entrepreneurial journey of Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow.
The Creation of Cure51 in 2022
Cure51 was founded in March 2022 in Paris, France by Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow. From the beginning, the company was designed as a TechBio discovery platform combining biology, clinical research and advanced computational analysis.
The founding hypothesis was both simple and revolutionary: there already are rare but extraordinary Cancer survivors. If their biology can be decoded, it may reveal mechanisms capable of benefiting many more patients.
These exceptional patients became central to Cure51’s mission. Often referred to as “Outliers”, these individuals have survived aggressive Cancers far beyond medical expectations.
By structuring the company around this idea, Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow positioned Cure51 as a platform built to uncover survival biology, rather than merely study disease progression.
Nicolas Wolikow: Leadership and Entrepreneurial Direction
As co-founder and CEO, Nicolas Wolikow has led Cure51’s strategic and operational development since its inception.
His role has included:
Defining the company’s long-term ambition
Structuring early-stage financing
Building institutional credibility
Recruiting key talents
Positioning Cure51 internationally
Under Nicolas Wolikow’s leadership, Cure51 adopted a global outlook from its earliest days. Rather than focusing on one hospital or one national cohort, the company was designed to create an international oncology research network capable of identifying and analyzing exceptional Cancer survivors from all over the world.
This required a combination of strategic clarity, scientific discipline and coordination across complex healthcare systems. Nicolas Wolikow has consistently emphasized speed of execution, strong governance and scientific rigor, principles that continue to guide the company’s expansion.
Simon Istolainen: Strategy and the Scientific Network
Simon Istolainen, co-founder and chief strategy & scientific network officer, has played a critical role in shaping Cure51’s collaborative architecture.
While Nicolas Wolikow structured the executive and strategic backbone of the company, Simon Istolainen focused on:
Building partnerships with leading oncology centers
Structuring the international research network
Aligning clinicians around the Outlier thesis
Designing Cure51’s research programs
One of Simon Istolainen’s early priorities was to ensure that Cure51 would act as a coordinating hub, connecting clinicians, molecular biologists, computational experts and data scientists.
This network-based model is now one of Cure51’s defining strengths.
Building an International Oncology Network
Shortly after its creation, Cure51 established collaborations with major European Cancer institutions, including:
Gustave Roussy (France)
Centre Léon Bérard (France)
Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany)
Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology Barcelona (Spain)
European Institute of Oncology Milan (Italy)
Through these partnerships, Cure51 gained access to deeply characterized patient cohorts, particularly long-term survivors of Cancers typically associated with poor prognosis.
The founders’ objective was clear: build one of the first structured, international cohorts focused specifically on exceptional Cancer survival.
Under the coordination of Simon Istolainen and the executive leadership of Nicolas Wolikow, this network became the foundation for Cure51’s data-driven research platform.
The Outlier Model: A Shift in Cancer Research
Traditional oncology research often concentrates on mechanisms of failure, such as tumor growth, resistance pathways, relapse and metastasis.
Cure51 takes a different approach.
Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow structured the company around the hypothesis that long-term survivors hold critical biological clues. By analyzing tumor samples, immune responses, genomic profiles and clinical histories of these patients, Cure51 seeks to identify:
Protective biological mechanisms
Unique immune signatures
Genetic patterns associated with survival
Microenvironment factors supporting tumor control
The company focuses particularly on highly lethal Cancers, including pancreatic Cancer, glioblastoma and aggressive lung Cancers.
This inversion of perspective, studying survival rather than failure, is at the heart of Cure51’s scientific identity.
A TechBio Platform Combining Biology and Computation
Cure51 defines itself as a TechBio company because it operates at the intersection of:
Clinical oncology
Molecular biology
Multi-omics analysis
Artificial intelligence
High-performance computational infrastructure
Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow recognized early that Cancer biology generates massive, multidimensional datasets. Extracting meaningful survival signals requires computational power and advanced data integration.
Cure51 integrates genomic, transcriptomic, spatial and clinical data into a unified analytical framework. This platform model allows the company to identify patterns within individual patients and to detect cross-cohort survival signatures.
By structuring Cure51 as a discovery engine rather than a single-asset biotech, Nicolas Wolikow and Simon Istolainen created a scalable innovation model.
Funding and Acceleration
In 2024, Cure51 secured a €15 million seed financing round, marking a major milestone in its development.
This funding enabled:
Expansion of the Outlier cohort
Strengthening of computational infrastructure
Recruitment of additional scientific expertise
Acceleration of multi-omics research programs
For Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow, this milestone represented validation of their founding thesis. Investors recognized the originality of the Outlier model and the potential impact of survival-based discovery.
The financing also positioned Cure51 as a serious European TechBio player with international ambitions.
Long-Term Vision: Transforming Oncology through Survival Biology
From the outset, Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow articulated a bold ambition: to contribute meaningfully to changing Cancer outcomes within the coming decade.
Their long-term vision takes academic insight to the next level, and aims to:
Identify novel therapeutic targets
Enable new drug development programs
Improve long-term survival rates
Reshape oncology research frameworks
The founders consistently emphasize that understanding nature’s rare successes may unlock scalable solutions for broader patient populations. Rather than viewing exceptional survivors as anomalies, Cure51 treats them as strategic biological guides.
The Broader Impact of Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow
The emergence of Cure51 and the Rosalind Study reflects a larger evolution within European biotech:
Platform-based innovation models
Data-centric oncology strategies
Cross-border scientific collaboration
Integration of AI into drug discovery
By building Cure51 as a networked discovery platform, Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow avoided the limitations of single-asset biotech companies. Instead, they designed a system capable of generating multiple discoveries over time.
Their approach aligns with the future direction of biomedical research: collaborative, computational and survival-focused.
The History of Cure51 Is Still Unfolding
Founded in 2022 by Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow, Cure51 has already:
Established partnerships with leading oncology centers
Structured an international Outlier-focused cohort
Built a scalable TechBio platform
Secured major early-stage financing
Positioned itself within Europe’s emerging biotech ecosystem
Yet the most important chapters remain ahead, as one central question continues to drive the company: what can exceptional Cancer survivors teach us about curing Cancer?
As our company keeps growing, the leadership of Simon Istolainen and Nicolas Wolikow remains central to its direction, guiding scientific exploration, expanding partnerships and shaping a new way to think about oncology.
Updated: February 24, 2026
