Indica Labs’ HALO Software Used as Quantitative Analysis Platform in Ground Breaking Melanoma Drug Study Published in Nature
New Mexico, USA 12/2/2014 – Indica Labs announced today that its HALO™ image analysis platform was used to quantify predictive biomarkers in a ground breaking study of the melanoma drug, pembrolizumab.
Pembrolizumab is an immunotherapy drug that works by blocking PD-1, a protein which prevents T cells from attacking melanoma cells. Approximately one in three patients with aggressive melanoma will respond to pembrolizumab. In this study, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center members Drs. Paul Tumeh and Antoni Ribas, investigated why some patients respond while others do not respond to drug treatment.
To gain insight into the response mechanisms, spatiotemporal expression levels of immune-related markers were quantified in pre- and post-treatment biopsies using the HALO platform. Quantitative analysis from 46 UCLA patients was used to develop a discriminatory model to predict treatment outcomes. Subsequently, the model successfully predicted response in 13 of 15 patients treated with pembrolizumab in Paris, France. The results of the study were published in the November issue of Nature.
“The research performed at UCLA highlights how quantitative biomarker analysis can accurately inform patient selection, so that doctors are better able to predict response to treatment,” said Kate Lillard Tunstall, Chief Scientific Officer of Indica Labs, “We are excited and proud that HALO has been used successfully in this study.”
Steven Hashagen, Indica CEO added, “This study demonstrates the importance of image analysis in translational medicine. Increasingly, high profile studies such as this one are leveraging the vast amount of quantitative data that our HALO platform generates. We are pleased that HALO is playing instrumental role in such important research.”
About Indica Labs, Inc.
Indica Labs provides software for quantitative evaluation of pathology images. Indica’s HALOTM image analysis platform provides a unique combination of precision, performance, scalability, and usability. Indica’s broad range of industry leading tissue-specific image analysis algorithms can be used in a variety of truly integrated digital pathology environments, allowing pharmaceutical, healthcare, and research organizations worldwide to apply high-throughput image quantification in areas such as neuroscience, metabolism, oncology, toxicological pathology, and more. For more information, please visit http://indicalab.com or contact info@indicalab.com
