About Interstellar
Learn about our mission, the verse model, and the team behind our life sciences work.
Our Story
Interstellar is built on a simple idea: shared infrastructure should make every new tool faster to build, not slower. We call it the "verse" model, a horizontal layer of reusable tools and frameworks that vertical, domain-specific products build on top of. DrugVerse, our first vertical, brings that model to drug discovery: dbparser and covid19dbcand for working with drug data, periscope2 for interfaces, and Coverse, our universal semantic browser, tying it together. The same architecture is built to extend to other life sciences domains as we grow.
We believe in deterministic results before AI, ground truth before narrative, and open science wherever it can responsibly live in the open.
What We Do
Interstellar is a research-focused technology company dedicated to accelerating R&D in the life sciences. We do this in two ways.
Open source tools. We are the authors and maintainers of dbparser (rOpenSci-reviewed, JOSS-published, cited in 10+ peer-reviewed studies) and periscope2, a production Shiny framework. Together with covid19dbcand, they form the foundation for rapid, production-grade bioinformatics application development.
R&D partnership. We bring our tools and expertise to our clients' toughest data challenges, working both directly and in partnership with organisations around the world, building the custom infrastructure they need to succeed.
We are building Coverse, a platform using knowledge graphs and explainable AI to help research teams rapidly identify new uses for existing drugs, with predictions they can trust and interrogate rather than a black box. We are seeking innovative pilot partners in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors to help shape the future of accelerated R&D.
Mission, Vision, and the Name
Mission. Give research teams the infrastructure to spend their time on science, not on rebuilding tools.
Vision. A shared foundation broad enough that every new life sciences domain we enter starts faster than the last.
The name. The name reflects how we think about the work: a "verse" is a self-contained universe of tools built around one domain, DrugVerse for drug discovery and more to follow, all built on shared, horizontal infrastructure. Interstellar is what connects them.
rOpenSci review #347
dbparser passed independent peer review
CRAN Epidemiology Task View
covid19dbcand is listed alongside leading epidemiology packages
dbparser
Distributed on CRAN
periscope2
Distributed on CRAN
covid19dbcand
Distributed on CRAN
Meet Our Team
Eng. Mohamed Ali
Chief Technology Officer
A data analysis engineer in the R open source community, and Co-Founder and CTO at Interstellar. He holds an MSc in Applied Data Science and Big Data from DSTI, and has spent much of his career building durable, production-grade bioinformatics infrastructure that bridges raw data and actionable scientific insight. Author of dbparser, periscope2, and Coverse, and a credited author of canvasXpress for R and Python, he develops training material for the Egyptian R community.
Eng. Mennahtullah Mabrouk
Chief Operating Officer
A computer scientist and bioinformatics engineer, and Chief Operating Officer at Interstellar, working across R, Shiny, and Python Streamlit, and a credited author of the canvasXpress Python library. She has published two IEEE papers applying deep learning to fMRI, covering the detection of schizophrenia and of autism spectrum disorder, and placed 18th globally in the SAS Curiosity Cup 2025. Beyond the work she is a content creator, running a YouTube channel and an Arabic-language podcast.
Dr. Nada Mamdouh
Finance Manager
With over 18 years of experience in higher education, Nada brings a strong academic foundation and broad teaching experience, both in computer science. Her career also includes early work as a web developer on federal government projects, and founding her own enterprise. Beyond academia she takes an active role in her city's social initiatives, including founding Warrior Fight Academy, a community sports club supporting physical health and fitness for local residents.