Empowering scientists to deliver faster personalized cancer care

Empowering scientists
to deliver faster personalized cancer care

Empowering scientists to deliver faster personalized cancer care

Empowering scientists
to deliver faster personalized cancer care

0 to 1 Product Design

0 to 1 Product Design

0 to 1 Product Design

Design Systems

Design Systems

Design Systems

13 months

13 months

13 months

Shipped

Shipped

Shipped

13 months

Shipped

Product Explora

A specialized biotech tool designed to accelerate cancer research. By unifying complex drug simulations and AI-driven cell modeling, Explora helps scientists identify personalized therapies for patients in record time.

Details

Web-based tool , IDE

surface

Founding Product Designer (individual designer)

project managed by Twist Open UX

CEO∙1 Product Manager∙1 Front-end Dev

team members

0 to 1 Product Strategy ∙ UX/UI ∙ Design System

scope

Problem Digital Chaos

Before Explora (the product), scientists juggled 9+ legacy tools and spreadsheets, causing high cognitive load and long manual tasks that created a productivity lag in cancer research.

Solution A Centralized IDE

I led the 0 to 1 design to unify fractured systems into a singular IDE, enabling scientists to conduct research within one platform.

Result Productivity Gains

I established the company’s first design system of ~80+ components. Product's first launch ensured 100% organization-wide adoption, reducing task time by 12.5% and saving nearly~$1.2M in annual productivity costs.

Impact

~$

1.2M

Recovered in
Productivity

Recovered in Productivity

Based on ~1 hr/day saved per user

100%

Organization
Wide Adoption

Organization Wide Adoption

From C-Suite to Research Scientists

9

1

Systems
Consolidated

Unified legacy chaos into a single IDE

CONTEXT

Cellworks is a biotech company focused on curing cancer.

and how do they do that? They built a machine learning model that simulates human cell behavior. By running FDA-approved drug simulations on it, they identify the most effective and personalised therapies for cancer patients' unique DNA.

and how do they do that? They built a machine learning model that simulates human cell behavior. By running FDA-approved drug simulations on it, they identify the most effective and personalised therapies for cancer patients' unique DNA.

Scientists worked on the bio-model to update it as per new research findings and engineers worked on refining the model to produce more accurate results.

Scientists worked on the bio-model to update it as per new research findings and engineers worked on refining the model to produce more accurate results.

PROBLEM

Scientists' & engineers' productivity was at an all-time low. Their tools & systems were slowing them down, delaying research.

Scientists & engineers were stuck juggling too many tools, delaying cancer patient care. This is what they were dealing with,

  • Waiting a long time for systems to process

  • Dealing with the cognitive strain due to tool-hopping

Scientists & engineers were stuck juggling too many tools, delaying cancer patient care. This is what they were dealing with,

  • Waiting a long time for systems to process

  • Dealing with the cognitive strain due to tool-hopping

GOALS + NORTH STAR

To design a unified R&D platform, from the ground up to accelerate the delivery of personalized cancer care.

Unify Systems: Consolidate 12+ legacy tools into one cohesive R&D platform to simplify complex workflows.

Unify Systems: Consolidate 12+ legacy tools into one cohesive R&D platform to simplify complex workflows.

Accelerate Research: Speed up cancer research by eliminating "tool-hopping" and reducing cognitive strain for scientists.

Accelerate Research: Speed up cancer research by eliminating "tool-hopping" and reducing cognitive strain for scientists.

Increase Throughput: Enable parallel experiments to fully leverage the platform's new asynchronous processing capabilities.

Increase Throughput: Enable parallel experiments to fully leverage the platform's new asynchronous processing capabilities.

Scale Growth: Establish a foundational design system to efficiently support future biotech applications and features.

Scale Growth: Establish a foundational design system to efficiently support future biotech applications and features.

PROCESS + KEY INSIGHTS

I conducted contextual inquiries and interviews with computational biologists, machine learning engineers, and leadership to map disjointed R&D workflows and visualize a unified research ecosystem.

Key Insight 1: Fragmented Ecosystem navigating a scattered ecosystem of 12+ legacy tools forced constant app-switching, which disrupted scientific focus and slowed research progress.

Key Insight 1: Fragmented Ecosystem navigating a scattered ecosystem of 12+ legacy tools forced constant app-switching, which disrupted scientific focus and slowed research progress.

Key Insight 2: Processing Bottleneck the legacy "one-task-at-a-time" system created a gap where expert staff had to sit idle while waiting for experiments to process, losing valuable research time.

Key Insight 2: Processing Bottleneck the legacy "one-task-at-a-time" system created a gap where expert staff had to sit idle while waiting for experiments to process, losing valuable research time.

Key Insight 3: Manual Insight Cycle relying on Excel exports and external tools to render data created a heavy lag between running an experiment and actually understanding the results.

Key Insight 3: Manual Insight Cycle relying on Excel exports and external tools to render data created a heavy lag between running an experiment and actually understanding the results.

SOLUTION

Explora, a scalable, systems-driven MVP consolidating legacy tools into a high-performance workspace that empowers scientists & engineers to conduct cancer research faster.

Explora, a scalable, systems-driven MVP consolidating legacy tools into a high-performance workspace that empowers scientists & engineers to conduct cancer research faster.

BRANDING

Logo inspired by the intertwining of the DNA strands, the unique makeup of a human. The 'X' in 'Explora' replaces the letter.

DESIGN 1/3

The Split-Workspace Grid
enabling parallel reasoning

This feature allows scientists to position the model viewer and code editor side-by-side, enabling them to examine complex protein properties while simultaneously writing modeling code. By unifying these previously separate applications into a single interface, it directly supports the insight that researchers reason in parallel and require high-density workspaces to maintain their scientific flow.

This feature allows scientists to position the model viewer and code editor side-by-side, enabling them to examine complex protein properties while simultaneously writing modeling code. By unifying these previously separate applications into a single interface, it directly supports the insight that researchers reason in parallel and require high-density workspaces to maintain their scientific flow.

DESIGN 2/3

The Plotter
accelerating insights by visual synthesis

The Plotter allows researchers to load multiple simulation models and visually overlay results in a single, integrated environment. By replacing cognitively heavy Excel exports with at-a-glance comparisons, it solves the "Manual Data Fatigue" insight and empowers scientists to iterate on drug developments faster.

The Plotter allows researchers to load multiple simulation models and visually overlay results in a single, integrated environment. By replacing cognitively heavy Excel exports with at-a-glance comparisons, it solves the "Manual Data Fatigue" insight and empowers scientists to iterate on drug developments faster.

DESIGN 3/3

The Progress Bar & View Selector
eliminating research downtime

I designed a system to handle the transition from a synchronous to an asynchronous back-end. While the View Selector allows scientists to switch fluidly between active applications during a simulation, the Ongoing Tasks panel provides a global, bird's-eye view of experiment progress. Together, these features transformed a legacy 'one-task-at-a-time' bottleneck into a high-throughput environment where scientists can simulate and monitor multiple experiments in parallel.

I designed a system to handle the transition from a synchronous to an asynchronous back-end. While the View Selector allows scientists to switch fluidly between active applications during a simulation, the Ongoing Tasks panel provides a global, bird's-eye view of experiment progress. Together, these features transformed a legacy 'one-task-at-a-time' bottleneck into a high-throughput environment where scientists can simulate and monitor multiple experiments in parallel.

A scientist always has a bird's view of the progress of his experiment simulations.

A scientist always has a bird's view of the progress of his experiment simulations.

A scientist can write a drug experiment code while looking at the model to run it on.

A scientist can write a drug experiment code while looking at the model to run it on.

REFLECTIONS

Need for a Deep Domain Understanding: To design for experts, you have to understand their world. By diving into bio-modeling science, I moved from just "translating requirements" to becoming a co-innovator who made complex data more actionable.

Learning the Art of Prioritization: Working as a solo designer taught me how to prioritize. I built a lean, 80-component foundation instead of a bloated system, allowing us to hit a tight launch deadline while keeping the platform scalable.

Designing to reduce Cognitive Load: Combining fragmented tools was about psychology, not just tech. By creating a "one-stop" workspace, I reduced the cognitive strain of tool-hopping, helping scientists stay focused on their research instead of their software.

WHAT I WOULD DO NEXT..

Introduce an AI-powered chat assistant

Biotech is one of the fastest growing areas where AI is being used extensively for research. Leveraging it, I'd focus on introducing an AI-powered chat assistant primarily focused on automating many of the daily tasks.

Experiment a little with the homepage design

Here is a conceptual user interface that I designed as an answer to the question: what would a conversational homepage looks like?

Explora's smart scientists and engineers lived happily every after

fin.

email

résumé

hey there, dear internet surfer.
thank you for dropping by my
shack to check out my life's work.
since you're reading this let me
share a secret that i believe in; that
humans are capable of creating out- of-the
-world sublime things especially when they come together. let's chat to explore the magic we can create.© Sanvithi Saya 2026.
All rights& wrongs reserved ✦

© sanvithi saya 2026. all rights (and wrongs) reserved ✦ human-generated work ✦ created in san francisco & bangalore

email

résumé

hey there, dear internet surfer.
thank you for dropping by my
shack to check out my life's work.
since you're reading this let me
share a secret that i believe in; that
humans are capable of creating out- of-the
-world sublime things especially when they come together. let's chat to explore the magic we can create.© Sanvithi Saya 2026.
All rights& wrongs reserved ✦

© sanvithi saya 2026. all rights (and wrongs) reserved
human-generated work ✦ created in san francisco & bangalore

email

résumé

hey there, dear internet surfer.
thank you for dropping by my
shack to check out my life's work.
since you're reading this let me
share a secret that i believe in; that
humans are capable of creating out- of-the
-world sublime things especially when they come together. let's chat to explore the magic we can create.© Sanvithi Saya 2026.
All rights& wrongs reserved ✦

© sanvithi saya 2026. all rights (and wrongs) reserved ✦ human-generated work ✦ created in san francisco & bangalore

email

résumé

hey there, dear internet surfer.
thank you for dropping by my
shack to check out my life's work.
since you're reading this let me
share a secret that i believe in; that
humans are capable of creating out- of-the
-world sublime things especially when they come together. let's chat to explore the magic we can create.© Sanvithi Saya 2026.
All rights& wrongs reserved ✦

© sanvithi saya 2026. all rights (and wrongs) reserved ✦ human-generated work ✦ created in san francisco & bangalore

tap me