CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- CompuCyte Corporation today announced the full release of its iColor(TM) 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 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(TM) 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 TMAs, 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.
CompuCyte Corporation
CONTACT: Kate Hilburn, Director of Communications and Administration,+1-617-577-4535, khilburn@compucyte.com
Web site: http://www.compucyte.com/
