Digital Pathology Blog

Scientists Create MRSA-Killing Nanotech Coating

Courtesy of smartertechnology

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a dangerous infection caused by an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph bacteria. Sometimes called a "super bug," MRSA can be life-threatening and is especially common in hospitalized patients who have undergone surgical procedures. As occurrences of the deadly infection are on the rise in hospitals, doctors and scientists are desperate for preventative measures. In an exciting breakthrough, a team of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has developed a nanoscale coating that safely and effectively kills MRSA bacteria upon contact.

The material, which is based on an enzyme found in nature, showed remarkable results in trial studies, in which latex paint was laced with it and painted onto a surface: 100 percent of MRSA bacteria were killed within 20 minutes of contact.

MRSA is especially dangerous because it is resistant to antibiotics. Currently, no standard treatment path exists (source: CDC).

"We're building on nature," said Jonathan S. Dordick, the Howard P. Isermann Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and director of Rensselaer's Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies, according to the university's statement. "Here we have a system where the surface contains an enzyme that is safe to handle, doesn't appear to lead to resistance, doesn't leach into the environment, and doesn't clog up with cell debris. The MRSA bacteria come in contact with the surface, and they're killed."

In the material, carbon nanotubes are combined with lysostaphin, a naturally occurring enzyme that non-MRSA strains of staph use to defend against the bacteria. The nanotube-enzyme mixture can be combined with many different types of surface coatings, such as paint.

"We asked ourselves: Were there examples in nature where enzymes can be exploited that have activity against bacteria?" Dordick said.

The nanoscale material pictured here is a mixture of carbon nanotubes and lysostaphin, a naturally occurring enzyme that fights MRSA (source: Rensselaer/Ravindra C.Pangule and Shyam Sundhar Bale).

The answer to this search was lysostaphin, which is produced by non-pathogenic strains of staph that are harmless to humans.

"It's very effective. If you put a tiny amount of lysostaphin in a solution with Staphylococcus aureus, you'll see the bacteria die almost immediately," said Ravi Kane, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer.

"Lysostaphin is exceptionally selective," Dordick said. "It doesn't work against other bacteria, and it is not toxic to human cells."

 

Next: Effective in Reaching Harmful Bacteria >>

http://www.smartertechnology.com/c/a/Technology-For-Change/Scientists-Create-MRSAKilling-Nanotech-Coating/?kc=STNL08312010STR1

Flagship Biosciences Creates Scientific Advisory Board

Scientific Advisory Board to help drive pathology innovation in preclinical toxicology and oncology clinical trials

'The Scientific Advisory Board is composed of both pathologists and scientists who are innovation leaders in the use of digital pathology analysis"

Flagstaff, AZ (PRWEB) August 27, 2010

Flagship Biosciences LLC, a provider of digital pathology services, has formed a Scientific Advisory Board composed of experienced leaders in the pharmaceutical industry. Flagship is a pathologist-owned company committed to improving the use ofdigital pathology and tissue assessment in pharmaceutical and medical device development. This team of remarkable individuals will help guide Flagship in the delivery of digital pathology services across discovery, preclinical, and clinical trials in pharmaceutical drug development.

“Flagship Biosciences is committed to using digital pathology techniques and innovations to provide quantitative tissue assessments in research, development and clinical arenas,” said Steve Potts, CEO of Flagship Biosciences. “We are working aggressively on improving applications specifically in preclinical toxicology and oncology clinical trials, two areas where traditional pathology is central to successful outcomes. We are honored to have this remarkable group of distinguished industry leaders to help Flagship better match new technology with current and emerging needs in pharmaceutical drug development. The discipline of pathology is vitally important in effective drug development, and digital pathology is a valuable tool in pathologists’ hands for delivering more quantitative efficacy and toxicology results. The Scientific Advisory Board is composed of both pathologists and scientists who are innovation leaders in the use of digital pathology analysis.”

The Scientific Advisory Board members represent two areas where Flagship focuses: oncology clinical trials and preclinical toxicologic pathology.

John C. Bloom, VMD, PhD. (co-chair) Dr. Bloom took early retirement after a distinguished career in translational medicine at Eli Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline. He developed the central laboratory model for the industry, and recruited and managed multiple teams of medical and veterinary pathologists serving the needs of clinical trials.

Joseph Krueger, Ph.D. (co-chair) Dr. Krueger is an emerging leader in development of oncology therapeutics in industry, and Senior Scientist at OSI Pharma (now Astellas). He has developed novel applications of digital pathology in early drug development and in patient stratification and oncology clinical trials.

David Eberhard, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Eberhard is an anatomic/molecular pathologist recognized for his leadership in oncology clinical trials. He is the Director of Clinical Trials Pathology Services at LabCorp’s Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology, where he joined after a distinguished career at Genentech and as an industry consultant. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and has been active in developing standardized approaches for molecular pathologic analyses of solid tumors in clinical trials.

Hadi Yaziji, M.D. Dr. Yaziji is President of Vitro Molecular, a physician-owned, high-quality anatomic pathology specialty laboratory. He is internationaly recognized for leadership in the fields of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) testing for pathology. He and other Members of the Standardization Ad-hoc Consensus Committee recently wrote the standards for the estrogen receptor testing in breast cancer by immunohistochemistry that is widely utilized within the industry.

Holger Lange, Ph.D. Dr. Lange was previously Director of Image Analysis at Aperio, where his team led the development of digital IHC, and received five FDA 510k clearances in three years, two of which involved digital read, a new approach in the industry. He is a leading expert in the use of image analysis in a regulated clinical environment.

Robert Dunstan, DVM, Ph.D., DACVP. Dr. Dunstan is Distinguished Investigator at Biogen-Idec, and well known in the industry for pioneering new uses of digital pathology in discovery and preclinical pathology.

Lewis B. Kinter, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., Fellow A.T.S. Dr. Kinter is currently Senior Director: Regulatory Toxicology and Head: Toxicological Operations, Safety Assessment (US) at AstraZeneca in Wilmington, PA. Dr. Kinter has been engaged in pharmaceutical research and development and comparative physiology/medicine for 30 years and is an expert in the areas of regulatory toxicology, safety pharmacology, and cardiovascular-renal function assessments in animals. Dr Kinter was until recently Chair of the PhRMA Preclinical Safety Leadership Committee (PSLC, formerly DruSafe), and is currently (2010) an inaugural member of the PhRMA Clinical and Preclinical Development Committee and International Consortium for Innovation and Quality in Pharmaceutical Development (IQ Consortium), and organizer and Chair of the Preclinical Safety Discussion Group

Jens R. Nyengaard, MD, DrMedSc. Dr. Nyengaard is Professor at the University of Aarhus in Denmark and President of the International Society for Stereology. He is a leader in the use of stereology in brain/kidney and other organs, and is working to advance the use of stereology as regular toxicologic and efficacy measurements in the pharmaceutical industry.

Jerry Hardisty, DVM. DACVP. Dr. Hardisty is the CEO of EPL a private, employee-owned company that is recognized nationally and internationally for its ability to meet the demands of the scientific community and the challenges of safety testing and toxicologic pathology.

Neal Goodwin, Ph.D. Dr Goodwin serves as the founding Program Director of JAX® Cancer Services based in Sacramento, CA that supports the global cancer drug development community. Notably, he recently spearheaded the establishment of the JAX-UC Davis Cancer Center Consortium which currently performs high-throughput human tumor engraftment and efficacy studies for the advancement of new personalized cancer therapeutics and diagnostics.

David Fairley. Mr. Fairly is Managing Director and Owner at Histologix, a European provider of GLP compliant histology and pathology services. He is well regarded for his leadership in therapeutic antibody cross-reactivity testing in human and animal tissue.

No one on the Flagship Scientific Advisory Board receives any compensation for their service in this capacity.

About Flagship Biosciences

Flagship Biosciences is a pathologist-owned company whose mission is to improve tissue assessment in pharmaceutical and medical device development. Flagship’s services include quantitative pathology assessment on-demand, low-cost digital pathology slide scanning, secure hosting, pathologist-supervised IHC and histology placement, and custom image analysis and companion diagnostics development. All of their services are reviewed and supervised by board-certified pathologists.

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/08/prweb4432514.htm

###

 

 

Surgeon vs. Pathologist - "I didn't want to bias you"

This is exactly why society needs the Internet and the tools to create your own movies.  Tim Berners-Lee predicted this himself.  With that being said, remember, "any similarities to real people or events are purely coincidental."

"I want to know the answer now." 

"...I always tell the residents how important pathology is...by the way I sent you an interesting mediastinal mass last week..." (to a GI pathologist) and the best ones:

"I didn't want to bias you", "the patient is in the recovery room" and "don't go home".

Anybody ever hear any of these from a surgeon requesting a frozen?

 

 

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6847761

 

Supplement 145: Whole Slide Microscopic Image IOD and SOP Classes

Here is the link to the Supplement 145 document:

ftp://medical.nema.org/MEDICAL/Dicom/Final/sup145_ft.pdf

It should be noted that not only will this provide a standard for vendors that manufacture slide scanners but also AP LIS vendors as well to interface with both the device as well as the PACS.

The next meeting in San Diego on 10/24/2010 (in conjunction with Pathology Visions) will have some LIS vendor representation and there will be presentations introducing DICOM, Supplements 122 and 145 and IHE Pathology.

medical.nema.org

 

86% of MDs use Google on the the Job

Courtesy of FiercePracticeMANAGMENT

It's not just patients who turn to Google or other search engines to research medical information. According to Google, 86 percent of doctors say they now use  Internet on the job. Of that group, the majority start at Google, which they use as a source to look for general information about diseases and drugs, writes pediatrician Dr. Rahul K. Parikh in a special piece for the Los Angeles Times.

"Having the Internet at my fingertips makes me a better doctor," he writes, "though I'll admit that sometimes it feels a bit like cheating on an exam." He provides the example of looking up "retinitis pigmentosa" on the fly while gathering a patient's medical history to quickly determine that annual vision checks would suffice for the patient.

When it comes to using the Internet to aid in diagnosis, however, quick, accurate answers may be harder to come by. In a 2006 study published in the British Medical Journal, for example, researchers had physicians read the histories of 26 tough cases published in the New England Journal of Medicine and attempt to make a diagnosis by entering search terms into Google. The physicians in the study arrived at the right diagnosis 58 percent of the time; Parikh got none correct when trying the experiment on his own.

Part of the reason for the difficulty is that search engine algorithms, which are trade secrets, use various, often unknown determinants in ranking results. Thus, the top links may be simply the most popular or well cited and not necessarily the most recent or valid. And according to at least one study, most searchers don't go deeper than five pages to answer a question.

"The solution for doctors [and everyone], I suspect, is best answered by taking note of that lack of transparency [of ranking algorithms] and by making it a professional priority to become search savvy," Parikh writes.

For example, Google's "advanced search" feature can shrink the size of a needle-searcher's information haystack, as can using quotation marks for exact phrases and excluding words by putting a minus sign in front of them. And physicians can find even more tricks by, of course, searching "tips to using Google."

To learn more:

- see the full article in the Los Angeles Times

 

http://www.fiercepracticemanagement.com/story/why-physicians-should-get-know-google/2010-08-24?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Another Milestone - DICOM Working Group 6 Approves Final Text of Supplement 145

Congratulations to all the members of DICOM Working Group (WG) 26.  Their final text of Supplement 145 for Whole Slide Imaging was approved by the necessary WG at DICOM.  The final document will be available shortly and will provide link for reference.

The group was chaired by Dr. Bruce Beckwith whose many efforts in this has led to a big step for digital pathology.

 

 

Overcoming Psychological Barriers to Adoption of Digital Pathology

This looks like an interesting Webinar offering from Aperio and who better to talk about it than Dr. Jared Schwartz who likely has talked to more pathologists and visited more residency programs than any other pathologist in the past couple of years in his former capacity as president of the College of American Pathologists. If you have heard Dr. Schwartz speak in the past you know that over the past several years he has been actively engaged with common practices in pathology looking at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in pathology. 

As with any new and/or disruptive technology, there are societal, fiscal, practical and psychological barriers to adoption.  As I understand it, when the need for change overcomes the resistance not to change, change occurs and there are likely as many reasons that are psychological as there are fiscal or practical (i.e. workflow related) for adoption of digital pathology.

Overcoming Psychological Barriers to Adoption of Digital Pathology

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

7 am PDT, 10 am EDT, 4 pm CET 

 OR

4 pm PDT, 7 pm EDT
(8:00 am JST / 9:00 am Australia EST September 22)  

Presenter:
Jared Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., Aperio

In this 60-minute, complimentary webinar, Dr. Schwartz will present digital pathology concepts, psychological barriers to adopting a new technique, and approaches to adopting this highly efficient technology.

Topics include:

• Why psychological barriers to novel technologies are normal and hard to overcome
• Hear why digital pathology is “novel” to many, but is not a high hurdle
• Learn about the advantages to digital pathology compared to current traditional methods
• Develop techniques to hurdle the barriers

To register for the 7 am PDT session, click here.
https://aperio.webex.com/aperio/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=487158412

To register for the 4 pm PDT session, click here.
https://aperio.webex.com/aperio/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=487446172

You may also register by visiting the Aperio Events page.

You will receive a confirmation email upon registration with a web link that will lead you to the online event. Simply visit the link at the assigned time. The session is secure and easy to access. If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact the Aperio Events Team at events@aperio.com or 760.539.1192. 

Roche buys BioImagene

Many thanks to a blog reader for the news -- this goes beyond what we have been seeing recently - namely scanner companies and image analysis companies combining forces with IHC vendors.

Roche's purchase of BioImagene I think further validates the use of digital pathology for use in clinical practice - particularly in areas such as image analysis and predictive marker analysis.

More on this to follow in future posts.

Roche acquires BioImagene, a leading provider of digital pathology laboratory solutions

Acquisition further strengthens Roche’s global leadership in tissue-based cancer diagnostics and research

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that it has signed an agreement under which Ventana Medical Systems Inc., a member of the Roche Group, will acquire 100 percent of BioImagene, Inc., a privately held company based in Sunnyvale, California. The purchase price is approximately 100 million US dollars on a debt-free basis. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the coming weeks.

BioImagene is an innovative leader in the field of digital pathology workflow and analysis. Digital pathology is a suite of dynamic, image-based technologies that enable image capture, information management, image analysis and virtual sharing of patients’ tissue samples on glass slides.

“As part of the personalised healthcare approach, pathologists are increasingly involved in generating information with high impact on treatment decisions,” said Daniel O’Day, COO Roche Diagnostics. “The increasing complexity of new tests and technologies creates tremendous need for more sophisticated tools for tissue analysis and diagnosis. BioImagene products will complement and strengthen our current offering in image analysis and information management.”

“With its leadership position in pathology and its global reach, Ventana is the ideal partner for BioImagene,” commented Ajit Singh, CEO of BioImagene, Inc. “Ventana is already a leader in image analysis for breast cancer applications and has a wide range of market-leading diagnostics products used in hospitals and laboratories worldwide. In turn, BioImagene brings to Ventana additional capabilities for scanning and analysing tissue that are not possible in the glass-slide world.”

BioImagene’s products create high-resolution, whole-slide digital images from glass microscope slides. They also provide the software to view, analyze and manage tissue images using a computer, taking pathology beyond traditional microscope applications. In addition, their products improve workflow efficiency in image archiving and retrieval, remote case review, and turnaround time.

“Through this acquisition, Ventana is uniquely positioned to improve laboratory efficiency and help pathologists improve patient care,” said Hany Massarany, President of Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. “Our VIAS Image Analysis System was the first entry into the digital pathology market and is now the leading system for automated image analysis in breast cancer. With BioImagene’s current and future products we will be able to deliver an end-to-end solution from automated staining to comprehensive patient reports.”

About BioImagene, Inc.

BioImagene (http://www.bioimagene.com) is a leading provider of innovative and scalable digital pathology solutions. The company's total digital pathology solution is comprised of the Virtuoso™ digital pathology application software, iScan™ family of automated digital slide scanners, and a rich menu of Companion Algorithms™. BioImagene's innovative product line includes a unique image viewing input device called the iSlide™, and a high-performance pathology workstation called Crescendo™.

About Ventana Medical Systems, Inc./ Roche Tissue Diagnostics

Ventana develops, manufactures, and markets instrument/reagent systems that automate tissue preparation and slide staining in clinical histology and drug discovery laboratories worldwide. The Company's clinical systems are important tools used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. Ventana drug discovery systems are used to accelerate the discovery of new drug targets and evaluate the safety of new drug compounds. In addition, the Company offers premier workflow solutions designed to improve laboratory efficiency, providing safeguards to enhance the quality of healthcare. Ventana is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. For more information on Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. visit www.ventanamed.com.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche’s personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2009, Roche had over 80’000 employees worldwide and invested almost 10 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 49.1 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche.com.

 

i-PATH ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH iSOFT GROUP LTD

i-PATH ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH iSOFT GROUP LTD

i-Path have announced an agreement with iSOFT Group Ltd. which will significantly boost iSOFT’s ability to deliver modern digital pathology solutions to its existing customers and the wider pathology market.

iSOFT and i-Path are collaborating to bring innovative pathology solutions to market by adding i-Path’s pioneering web-based software platform as a module to iSOFT existing laboratory product suite. The aim is to deliver the solution using Software as a Service, giving customers the opportunity to access data when and where they need it and to scale the solution to meet the needs of their organization. 
The benefits of integrating digital pathology services into the LIMS system include, instant access to whole slide images and associated clinical data, the ability to digitally archive digital slides and the promotion of the role of the pathologist in MDT meetings ...

Read More

i-PATH LAUNCHES TMA TOOLBOX FOR ONLINE BIOMARKER DISCOVERY

i-Path has announced the launch of its newest product, the TMA Toolbox. TMA Toolbox boosts i-Path’s existing portfolio of digital pathology software services to the research market which includes the development of image analysis algorithms and digital archiving of biomarker tissue samples.

Breaking new ground in the pathology research market, i-Path’s TMA Toolbox is the only Software as a Service (SaaS) tissue microarray solution. The toolbox, an online application allowing web-based management and scoring of tissue microarrays, makes TMA experiments: quick to set up and run, convenient to access, easily scalable and secure. TMA Toolbox is currently being used for projects to identify predictive biomarkers for non-small cell carcinoma of the lung and melanomas ...

Read More

Philips News from European Newsletter

Courtesy of theEngineer:

17 August 2010 | By Siobhan Wagner 

Philips has announced plans for commercialising a digital technology that will ease the workload of pathologists detecting cancer in tissue cells.

The company revealed it will be introducing digital pathology systems for sale in the US in October. This follows an announcement by the company in July that it will be partnering with Dako, a Danish specialist in tissue-based cancer diagnostics, to integrate its image analysis technology into Philips’s future digital pathology systems.

Currently pathologists use microscopes to examine tissue sections mounted on glass slides and treated with different stains. The staining enhances the contrast between cellular and molecular components such as nuclei or specific proteins.

Glass slide in prototype slide scanner

Accurate interpretation of the results is critical to the diagnosis and staging of each individual patient’s disease and requires a great deal of skill and experience.

Philips believes digitising the images that pathologists normally view through a microscope may enable the introduction of objective and quantitative image analysis tools.

‘The issue with pathology itself is reproducibility. It’s a very qualitative profession,’ said Guido Du Pree, vice-president of marketing for digital pathology at Philips. ‘By going digital and using image analysis algorithms you can increase the reproducibility.’

Du Pree said Philips’s fast pathology slide scanner can scan standard slides at a speed of one slide every 50 seconds.

‘The speed of scanning is one of the reasons why digital pathology today is only used in research and education environments and not for clinical purposes,’ he added. ‘The systems today are too slow and cannot handle the average workload of a pathology lab.’

Philips’s system also incorporates digital image archive and analysis software for feature recognition and quantification.

The company said it will initially focus on leveraging Dako’s image analysis software for tissue-based breast cancer diagnosis using its compounds for staining specific proteins associated with the disease.

With success in this area, Philips and Dako will explore the possibility of extending the collaboration to include image analysis software for diagnosing prostate and colon cancers.

Du Pree said the technology will ease the workload of pathologists and also improve communication with doctors who care for patients eagerly awaiting the results of a biopsy.

‘The work in a pathologist department involves a lot of referrals and today that is all sent over physically by courier or mail,’ he added. ‘By going digital it will be much faster and much easier.’

Du Pree said the company will initially be marketing its systems in the US because of the sheer number of commercial laboratories demanding the technology.

‘We’re a Dutch company with strong angles in the European market so next year we will look to launch in Europe,’ he added

Digital uptake

Over the last several years the NHS’s National Programme for IT has seen radiology departments throughout health trusts in England trade in traditional film images for digital ones.

The technology, known as Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS), allows doctors to download X-rays and other images onto their computer screen. As of December 2007 PACS were rolled out throughout every health trust in England, and there is increasing uptake of the systems throughout Scotland and Wales.

However, pathology departments, not just in the UK but elsewhere throughout the world, have yet to catch up with the digital revolution.

One of the main reasons for this is the technical hurdles presented by the size of the images that need to be acquired in pathology.

The digital images that would be acquired by microscopes in the pathology department are much larger than CT files and can be difficult to manage and analyse.

Medical imaging specialists throughout the world have been working on the problem with commercial products waiting to be rolled out. 

Du Pree estimated there would be an increasing demand for digital pathology in the coming years.

‘With the ageing population we will have more and more patients and cancer is typical of elderly people,’ he said. ‘Next to that there will be a greater demand on pathology departments because of developments in what can be tested. This means more work for the same amount of pathologists. Therefore, there is a huge need for efficiency.’

Read more: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/news/news-analysis/philips-to-commercialise-digital-pathology-technology/1004414.article#ixzz0wv9J87Ok