Cambridge,
Massachusetts, February 10, 2006 – – CompuCyte
Corporation today announced the full release of its iColor™
Fluoro-Chromatic Imaging Cytometer, allowing automated
quantitative analysis of research pathology specimens. The
latest product from CompuCyte is making its debut at the 95th
Annual Meeting of the US and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP)
in Atlanta, Georgia from February 13-15.
The iColor made its preliminary appearance in
2004 as a revolutionary concept in research pathology,
capitalizing on the availability of new reagent technologies to
identify and visualize specific molecular targets in tissue
specimens and coupling these advances with a quantitative
analysis of complex molecular processes at the individual cell
level. The iColor achieves this while supporting every component
of the pathologist’s traditional routine: excellent digital
images, the ability to analyze standard histopathology
specimens, and the option to interrupt the automated process at
any time if expert pathologist input is required.
The system employs
three lasers to simultaneously measure both fluorescent light
emitted by specimens stained with fluorescent dyes, and the
light absorbance resulting from the application of chromatic
stains to the same specimens. The ability to render laser
scan images that are “true color,” similar to those obtained
with brightfield microscopy, makes the iColor a perfect
analytical companion system for the research pathologist.
“Since its initial introduction, we have
validated our iColor concept in a number of collaborative
projects,” said Dr. Elena Holden, President and CEO of CompuCyte.
“We are particularly interested in the rapid progress being made
in understanding the molecular mechanisms of various cancers,
coupled with the introduction of novel therapeutic agents that
target these mechanisms. Monitoring drug action at the
molecular level has become an increasingly important component
of clinical trials, and iColor is proving to be an effective
means of accomplishing this.”
CompuCyte has worked in conjunction with
Asterand, plc (ATD:LSE) to validate the application of iColor
technology in numerous pathology applications. “As an example,
we recently developed a novel immunohistochemical technique that
allows us to use humanized therapeutic antibodies such as
Herceptin™ to stain human tissues with high sensitivity and
minimal background staining. In comparing this technique to
staining with an accepted Her2/neu polyclonal antibody, we found
what appeared to be significant differences that could affect
patient selection for treatment,” said Dr. James Eliason, Chief
Scientific Officer of Asterand. “iColor analysis provided
objective, quantitative results and revealed the dual nature of
the staining that was not readily evident by visual examination
alone.”
Dr. William Geddie,
Director of Immunohistochemistry at the hospitals of University
Health Network in Toronto, has been directing joint studies of
the iColor’s utility with CompuCyte and will be presenting the
results at the USCAP meeting. “Up to now, tissue
microarrays have typically been used to study one antigen at a
time. That can use up a lot of tissue from precious, impossible
to replicate microarrays, without an assurance that information
about co-localization and spatial relationship of antigen
expression can be obtained,” Dr. Geddie explained. “Now that we
have shown in preliminary studies that the iColor can isolate
and quantify different dyes in ‘double-labeled’
immunohistochemistry preparations, we can undertake multiplex
analysis of TMA's, making possible multi-color immunophenotyping
on a single section. This will provide more information in less
time, and with infinitely less work for the IHC laboratory.”
CompuCyte Corporation, a private company
headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a leader in the
development of cellular analysis instrumentation and custom
application and software development service for the life
sciences industries.
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