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Akoya Biosciences, PathAI Collaborating on Predictive Biomarkers for Cancer Immunotherapies

NEW YORK – Akoya Biosciences and PathAI said on Monday that they have formed a collaboration to identify and validate biomarkers for predicting patient response to cancer immunotherapies.

Under the partnership, the companies will combine Marlborough, Massachusetts-based Akoya's Phenoptics spatial biology platform and its Advanced Biopharma Solutions (ABS) service offerings with Boston-based PathAI's artificial intelligence tools to identify predictive biomarkers for use by their biopharma customers.

Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Akoya received CLIA certification for its ABS laboratory last month, which it said would allow it to support later-stage clinical trials with its biopharma partners and advance its spatial imaging platform toward clinical use.

"The combined power of spatial phenotyping and high-throughput datasets from Akoya and PathAI’s algorithms can accelerate the discovery of spatial phenotypic signatures in the tumor microenvironment," PathAI CEO Andy Beck said in a statement. "This could streamline drug development to identify patients with a high likelihood of responding to immunotherapies."

"This collaboration takes Akoya’s ABS offering to the next level by providing biopharma partners with a comprehensive offering that integrates the most advanced technologies and know-how in the field of spatial biomarkers and digital pathology," said Akoya CEO Brian McKelligon. "The combination of our Phenoptics platform and PathAI’s AI-powered technology has the potential to transform biomarker use in clinical trials and ultimately impact cancer care."

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