HistoIndex expands AI-based digital pathology platform

31-Oct-2019 - Last updated on 31-Oct-2019 at 15:42 GMT

(Image: Getty/Jezperklauzen)

The Singapore-based company recently expanded its AI-based digital pathology platform to support preclinical discovery and drug development programs.

HistoIndex’s Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) technology is a stain-free method quantifies more than 450 parameters associated with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), including fibrosis, inflammation, ballooning, and steatosis, according to the company.

"While there are no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs today, there are currently multiple clinical trials to find a treatment for NASH,” said Dr. Gideon Ho, chief commercial officer, HistoIndex.

“Therefore, there is an urgent need to monitor therapeutic responses for positive outcomes in drug discovery, one of which is quantifying changes in NASH characteristics such as fibrosis, steatosis, lobular inflammation, and hepatocyte ballooning,” he told us.

“Here is where innovative technologies like HistoIndex's AI-based digital pathology platform can support pharmas and biotechs in their preclinical discovery as well as drug development program for NASH."

HistoIndex partners with pharma and biotech, contract research organizations (CROs), academia, and other research institutes, and is currently involved in multiple preclinical studies in addition to several ongoing NASH trials.

The company recently inked a collaboration with the A*STAR's Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) to validate in vivo and in vitro NASH models. It also is providing R&D services and smart imaging analysis to the CRO, WuXi Apptec.