Despite the prevalence of cancer, the vast majority of known cancers are rare and face the same type of treatment challenges as other rare diseases. David Hysong was diagnosed at the age of 27 with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare head and neck cancer, and that set him on the path to address the needs he saw in patients with these diseases. Hysong, founder and CEO of Shepherd Therapeutics, discusses his company’s use of AI to analyze individual patient’s tumor RNA, its efforts to match rare cancer patients to their best therapeutic options, and how it is using data captured from the transcriptome to develop new therapies for people with rare cancers.