NEW YORK – NanoString Technologies said on Thursday that it has inked a partnership with digital pathology software company Visiopharm to develop integrated workflows for novel biomarker and drug target discovery using spatial imaging and machine-learning technologies.
Under the collaboration, NanoString will synergize the GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler (DSP) workflows with Visiopharm’s AI-driven image analysis software, Oncotopix Discovery. NanoString said its new cloud informatics platform, the AtoMx Spatial Informatics Platform, will enhance the integration by providing scalable computing power.
Once integrated, researchers can deploy Visiopharm’s AI algorithms to analyze four-color fluorescent images generated on GeoMx as well as associated images using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Additionally, NanoString and Visiopharm will maintain file format compatibility to allow researchers to analyze GeoMx DSP whole-slide images with the Visiopharm software, providing access to pathologic and spatial analysis including cell counts, phenotype mapping, distance measures, and more, the companies said.
"[T]his strategic collaboration will allow us to offer our researchers new insights by combining the results from whole-slide image analysis and high-plex spatial molecular analysis," said John Gerace, NanoString’s chief commercial officer, in a statement.