Precision for Medicine (formerly ApoCell) has over 20 years of experience in quantitative IF image analysis using serial samples from both tumor and liquid biopsy samples to generate critical pharmacodynamic data to support the economical and rapid advancement of investigational therapies through regulatory approval.
Tumor Biopsy Quantitative Image Analysis
Precision for Medicine uses various platform technologies to quantify and localize multiple cellular phenotypes for measuring protein expression levels of cell signaling pathways and other cell specific biomarkers such as apoptosis. Our services include multiplex IF of genomic biomarkers including FISH and ISH within the same sample.
Our scientists have pioneered multiplex IF detection and quantitative image analysis in tumor biopsies to facilitate the advancement of anti-angiogenesis drugs (e.g., sunitinib) through regulatory approval. We utilize archival or fresh biopsies to generate data for patient stratification or serial tumor biopsies to generate powerful pharmacodynamic data to facilitate critical decision making through the drug development process.
Liquid Biopsy Quantitative Image Analysis of Rare Cells
We specialize in the use of liquid biopsies for capturing rare cells including CTCs, circulating endothelial cells (CECs), cancer stem cells (CSCs) and other targeted cell types in lieu of obtaining tumor biopsies from patients to monitor the pharmacodynamic effects of investigational therapies. In addition to our proprietary ApoStream platform for CTC capture, we use many cutting-edge technologies for sensitive, targeted enrichment of different rare cell subtypes for further downstream characterization.
Our powerful workflow solution for image analysis of liquid biopsies includes assay development and validation of multiplex IF staining using opal technology and multispectral image detection. We apply our proprietary cancer-specific panels to detect both epithelial and mesenchymal CTC subtypes. Cellular analysis is performed on each population using Inform and Halo patented software to visualize, analyze, quantify and phenotype rare cells including subcellular localization (nuclear vs cytoplasmic) of proteins at the single cell level.