Belfast, Northern Ireland-based digital pathology company PathXL has launched TissueMark, a new software product that analyzes the detailed structural patterns in tissue samples and marks the boundaries of potentially cancerous sections for more detailed analysis. Company representatives say TissueMark will help accelerate cancer research and discovery, reduce time in drug development, and identify new markers of the disease.
To date, the process of marking tissue samples has been carried out manually, with sections being hand-marked by pathologists on slides. An expert pathologist can mark approximately 100 samples per day. According to PathXL spokespersons, TissueMark can do the same work in greater detail in ten minutes. They stress that TissueMark can truncate the diagnostic process and mark slides with a level of precision that cannot be achieved in manual intervention, and that TissueMark analysis can be carried out remotely, enabling more effective collaboration among centers of excellence.
Des Speed, CEO of PathXL, says, “Manual marking is a relatively slow process that can create significant backlogs. By removing the bottleneck and delivering greater levels of accuracy, we can help accelerate drug development and the detection and analysis of cancerous tissue. It is now widely accepted that identifying the molecular signature in individual tumors is vital to the development and selection of targeted therapies. Technologies such as TissueMark that are now emerging enable scientists to achieve this. Equipping pathologists with our technology will lead to faster, better diagnosis and the potential to make significant savings in time and resources.” Learn more about TissueMark at the PathXL website, which includes a brief video.
