Roche - Bristol Myers Partnership Will Leverage PathAI's Platform

"The Bristol Myers Squibb and PathAI collaborations are among the first examples where AI technology and digital pathology applications are playing a role in developing treatments for patients. By using our NAVIFY Digital platform to interpret tissue based assays and AI algorithms, pathologists are better able to identify targeted therapy options, ultimately improving patient care."

Jill German, Head of Roche Diagnostics Pathology Customer Area

Today Roche announced a new collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb that will use cutting edge digital methods to improve interpretation of tissue-based assays. As part of the collaboration, Roche will integrate a novel algorithm developed by PathAI into its digital pathology workflow software. The AI-powered algorithm will be used to analyze clinical trial samples and generate biomarker data.?AI will enable very precise diagnoses that will lead to personalized treatment options for patients with solid tumors.

Roche is leveraging its partnership with PathAI (established in October 2021) in which Roche distributes PathAI's AI-powered technology through Roche's uPath enterprise cloud software. The PathAI collaboration brings together all of the components required to deliver an AI-based digital pathology medical device including assay, scanner, image management system, and image analysis algorithms.?The partnership provides a comprehensive menu of AI-powered digital pathology solutions to enable personalized medicine to people with multiple types of cancer and also supports biopharmaceutical partners such as Bristol Myers Squibb.

Benefits of AI Based Pathology Tools

• AI enables fast evaluation of pathology images that are difficult to interpret manually.
• AI uncovers aspects in images that are invisible to the human eye.
• AI analysis can extract many more features from slides than human pathologists can.
• AI can detect, characterize, and quantify tumor cells, normal cells, the boundaries between those cells.
• AI can detect the expression or prevalence of biomarkers.
• AI can assess spatial relationships to identify complex biological patterns that may be relevant to disease status or patient response.
• AI methods can analyze?multiple categories?(i.e. immune cells vs tumor cells) of spatial relationships simultaneously and rapidly.?
• AI techniques are more sensitive and accurate than read-outs from human pathologists.
• AI techniques are more consistent and reproducible and lower risk of human error.
• AI based image analysis leads to more precise diagnosis.
• AI helps pathologists determine which treatment options are best for individual cancer patients.
• AI algorithms can be deployed at a scale not possible with human pathologists.

"We are pleased to be part of this collaboration that is using leading edge technology to enable improved?patient outcomes. We believe that digital methods will bring significant improvements in standardization and interpretation of tissue-based assays. The ability to more deeply interrogate images will present opportunities to better understand disease biology, potentially leading to expanded and improved drug development options and ultimately highly effective patient selection strategies."

Sarah Hersey, VP, Translational Sciences and Diagnostics, Bristol Myers Squibb

Roche is the world's largest biotech company and the leading provider of pathology solutions, in vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and genomic profiling. In 2021, Roche launched the?Roche Digital Pathology Open Environment which allows software developers around the world to distribute their digital products through Roche’s uPath software, offering a broader set of diagnostic tools for pathologists. Roche’s Open Environment provides greater access to innovative imaging tools for laboratories and healthcare providers for both research and clinical use.

Bristol Myers Squibb is one of the world's largest pharma companies and manufactures medicines for cancer,?HIV,?cardiovascular disease,?diabetes,?hepatitis,?rheumatoid arthritis, and?psychiatric disorders. The company is using exploratory biomarker analyses to understand disease, disease variability, and mechanisms of drugs to identify which patients are most likely to benefit from specific medicines. The company has deep technical expertise in emerging areas such as digital pathology. The company has established the infrastructure to handle, process, and analyze digital images and is driving the development of cutting-edge AI-based techniques for automated image analysis.

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Copyright ? 2022 Margaretta Colangelo. All Rights Reserved.

This article was written by?Margaretta Colangelo.?Margaretta is Co-founder of Jthereum. She serves on the advisory board of the AI Precision Health Institute at the University of Hawai?i?Cancer Center. She's based in San Francisco?

Twitter?@realmargaretta