NEW YORK – Akoya Biosciences said today that it has partnered with Precision for Medicine (formerly ApoCell) to develop liquid biopsy and tissue biomarker assays using Akoya's Vectra Polaris system.
As part of the collaboration, the team will combine the Vectra Polaris system with Precision for Medicine's ApoStream technology, using both tumor biopsies and liquid biopsies to generate data needed for assessing drug efficacy and validation of companion diagnostics.
Akoya said its Vectra Polaris system, part of its Phenoptics 2.0 platform, integrates high-throughput, seven-color multispectral imaging with whole-slide scanning in a digital pathology workflow to support quantification and analysis of tissue sections detected with the firm's Opal detection kits.
"Together, these technologies will enable accelerated drug development through detection of biomarkers in liquid biopsies," Precision for Medicine senior VP Darren Davis said in a statement. "These tools have enabled our scientists to better understand the biological correlation of circulating metastatic cancer cells with cancer cells present in tumor tissue."
Financial details of the agreement were undisclosed.
"The Vectra Polaris imaging system offers an innovative approach to assessing immunotherapy candidates in translational and clinical research," Cliff Hoyt, Akoya VP of translational and scientific affairs, said in a statement.