Lunaphore and Massachusetts General Hospital partner on spatial biology-based cancer diagnostics

Life sciences company Lunaphore (Lausanne, Switzerland) will collaborate with the Pathology Department at Massachusetts General Hospital to create an in vitro diagnostic (IVD) to evaluate the sensitivity of solid tumors to poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors.

Lunaphore’s chip technology can extract spatial proteomic and genomic data from tumors.

The project will first focus on ovarian, breast and prostate cancers.

PARP inhibitors work by preventing cancer cells from repairing damaged DNA.

COMET 6-plex on breast cancer. Image courtesy of Lunaphore.

“The DNA repair pathway called homologous recombination is of clinical interest as tumors with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) have been found to be sensitive to PARP inhibitors,” said Diego G. Dupouy, chief technology officer of Lunaphore, in a statement. “However, current methods of identifying HRD in tumors have been varie…

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Could AI predict COVID-19 without testing?

Researchers in England and Massachusetts have developed an artificial intelligence diagnostic that can predict the likelihood of someone having COVID-19 based on symptoms.

King’s College London, Massachusetts General Hospital and health science company Zoe have developed an AI model that uses data from the COVID Symptom Study app to help predict COVID-19 infection. It compares symptoms and the results of traditional COVID tests to help populations that have limited access to testing.

According to the researchers, more than 3.3 million people around the world have downloaded the app and are reporting daily health status.

The researchers have analyzed data from 2.5 million people in the U.S. and the U.K who have regularly been logging their health in the app. About one-third of the people logged COVID-19 related symptoms. Of the one-third, 18,374 have had a coronavirus test and 7,178 tested positive.

Symptoms associated with COVID-19 were anal…

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