PathXL is part of Marie Curie FP7 award winning consortium to develop image analysis in prostate cancer

PathXL announced today the signing of a partnership with other key industrial and academic partners to develop image analysis in prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK accounting for nearly a quarter of all new male cancer diagnosis. Globally almost one million men were diagnosed with the disease in 2010.

The consortium of industrial and academic partners has been successful in winning a major European Marie Curie FP7 award to develop image analysis in prostate cancer. Leading academic partners in the group include Queens University Belfast, University College Dublin, Lund University Sweden and the Human Protein Atlas Sweden.

Industrial partners PathXL and OncoMark will be working to bring novel prostate biomarker imaging algorithms, tumour identification, quantitative IHC and image search techniques to the market. The development of new technologies and biomarkers as part of this research programme could make a significant difference in our understanding and treatment of prostate cancer.

PathXL specialises in web-based software and workflows for Digital Pathology. Its PathXL™ Manager product provides a robust, secure and open web-based platform to enable digital pathology users across all fields to manage, view and collaborate around virtual slides easily and efficiently. PathXL will use its whole slide imaging technology and skill set to support the tissue imaging requirements of the FP7 research programme.

OncoMark specialises in the development and application of biomarker panels, particularly supporting oncology drug development. A major focus of the company is to provide the link from –omnic level discovery to validation via the use of multiplex antibody-based assays and high throughput tissue microarray screening. For this FP7 research programme OncoMark’s expertise in biomarker discovery for companion diagnostics and stratified medicine will be applied.

Professor Peter Hamilton, Chief Scientific Advisor at PathXL explains;

“Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK and Ireland. Winning the European Marie Curie FP7 award represents a great opportunity for PathXL to engage with leading academic and industrial organisations to develop novel approaches in prostate cancer diagnosis and therapy. This could make an enormous difference to drug discovery, stratified medicine and patient outcomes.”