Akoya Expands Spatial Biology Portfolio with Optimized PD-1/PD-L1 Panels for Melanoma and Lung Cancer

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Akoya Biosciences, Inc., The Spatial Biology Company™, today announced that it has launched two new multiplex immunofluorescence kits, expanding its portfolio of solutions for profiling immuno-oncology biomarkers in the tumor microenvironment. These kits focus on PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade in lung cancer and in melanoma. The MOTiF™ PD-1/PD-L1 panels were designed with guidance from key collaborators and were independently developed and analytically validated by Akoya. When coupled with Akoya’s automated workflow and industry leading software, these new panels provide basic and clinical researchers with a true end-to-end solution for multiplexed immunofluorescent tissue imaging.

Each kit includes six immunofluorescence markers, plus nuclear counterstain, to capture the critical cellular interactions associated with PD-1/PD-L1 immune suppression. These marker combinations represent the current standard of care for the growing number of biomarker-based clinical trials and translational research. Labeling samples with these kits, and imaging with the Vectra Polaris, provides a more complete view of the cellular interactions occurring in the tumor microenvironment associated with anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 therapies.

The kits are optimized for high throughput staining on commonly used autostainers and rapid scanning on the Vectra® Polaris™ multiplexed imaging system. The end-to-end workflow provides a simple, automated user experience for consistent and reliable results, including pre-configured image analysis algorithms for tumor segmentation and cellular phenotyping, with the inForm® Software package.

“These kits are a great step forward for the field because they standardize the culmination of a lot of development work, and make it easier for researchers to explore the tumor micro-environment across cohorts of patients with a high throughput automated workflow,” says Bernard Fox, PhD, Chief of Laboratory of Molecular and Tumor Immunology, Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Center. He continues “Multiplex immunofluorescence is proving invaluable to immuno-oncology research since it is the only effective and practical way to understand the biology occurring in the tumor microenvironment. These new panels from Akoya are a meaningful expansion of the power and utility of the Phenoptics platform and will make it easier for new researchers in this field to get results quickly.”

“Due to the rapidly growing demand for multiplex immunofluorescence-based analysis, Akoya is delivering the most powerful, fully automated and complete workflow for high-throughput studies,” said Terry Lo, President of Akoya. “These new panels are part of the complete Phenoptics platform providing the only validated end-to-end solution for quantitative multispectral imaging, while removing the researcher’s burden of developing validated biomarker panels.”

Details of the new products will be showcased at Akoya’s Symposium and exhibit hall booth (#330) at this week’s annual meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), taking place in National Harbor, MD. Registration for the Symposium can be found here. Further details on the new Opal MOTiF™ PD-1/PD-L1 Melanoma and Lung Cancer panels are available on Akoya’s website.

About Akoya Biosciences

Akoya Biosciences, The Spatial Biology Company™, offers the most comprehensive, end-to-end solutions for high-parameter tissue analysis from discovery through clinical and translational research, enabling the development of more precise therapies for immuno-oncology and other drug development applications. The company has two industry-leading platforms that empower investigators and researchers to gain a deeper understanding of complex diseases such as cancer, and other immune system or neurological disorders. The CODEX^® system is the only benchtop platform that can efficiently quantify more than 40 biomarkers and is ideally suited for biomarker discovery. The Phenoptics™ platform is the only end-to-end multiplexed immunofluorescence solution with the robustness and high throughput necessary for translational research and clinical trials. For more information, please visit https://www.akoyabio.com/.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191108005302/en/