Advancing ML/AI-based technology in the study of liver diseases by furthering strategic partnerships using a stain-free digital pathology system.
SINGAPORE, April 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Virginia Commonwealth University's Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health has announced a partnership with Singapore-headquartered medtech company, Histoindex Pte Ltd.
To initiate this joint effort, HistoIndex has commissioned one of its Genesis® 200 Second Harmonic Generation/Two-Photon Excitation (SHG/TPE) imaging systems at VCU's Molecular Medicine Research Building. HistoIndex's imaging system and its Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence (ML/AI) is the world's first automated, fully quantitative, stain-free, multi-organ digital pathology platform. It is widely used in preclinical studies as well as clinical trials, especially in drug development to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
This partnership will work together with the United States Food and Drug Administration for the in-vitro diagnostic approval of the Genesis® SHG/TPE digital pathology platform as an assistive tool for the staging of fibrosis in NASH. The liver institute will serve as an international center for SHG/TPE life science research, imaging unstained tissues from multiple collaborators across the world, and applying the latest ML/AI-based technology on these images.
"SHG/TPE imaging represents an important addition to the digital pathology toolkit for assessment of liver disease. We are excited and keen to further leverage this in combination with emerging spatial transcriptomics and other technologies to better understand the evolution of liver disease and develop improved tools for disease assessment and precision therapeutics," said Arun J. Sanyal, M.D., professor of medicine and director of the VCU liver institute.
About HistoIndex (www.histoindex.com)
Founded in 2010, HistoIndex is the first in the world to provide stain-free, fully automated imaging solutions for visualizing and quantifying the morphological and architectural features of fibrosis in biological tissues. Using breakthrough biophotonic technology, digital pathology system coupled with ML/AI-based capability, HistoIndex provides products and services in the area of tissue research and diagnostics. HistoIndex equips researchers with reliable cutting-edge tools for their scientific work and clinicians with a stain-free, automated, consistent and high throughput imaging platform to assist in speedy and accurate diagnosis of fibrosis and cancer. Based on revolutionary imaging solutions, the products developed have opened doors to new medical standards that aids in diagnosis, benefit clinical research, speed up pharmaceutical drug and treatment development.
About the VCU Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease & Metabolic Health
(https://liverinstitute.medschool.vcu.edu/)
Founded in late 2021, the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health is building on the successful legacy of VCU's hepatology and liver transplant programs with the goal of becoming a global leader in liver-related research and metabolically driven disorders. Supported by a $104 million gift in February 2022, the largest publicly shared donation for liver research in U.S. history, the institute is driving scientific discoveries in clinical care and developing new treatments and diagnostics for patients with liver disease.
