News

November 14 2022

Ikonisys announces the launch of its instrument for high-volume customers, the Ikoniscope20max

Ikonisys announces the launch of the Ikoniscope20max, a new configuration of the recently-launched Ikoniscope20, that includes a high-volume slide loader.

The Ikoniscope20max allows laboratories to automatically process up to 160 FISH slides without any further human intervention. By way of example, the operator of a laboratory processing hundreds of slides per week could load the full rack of 160 slides on a Friday afternoon and start the scanning. On Monday morning they will find all those slides analyzed and reported.

This new configuration provides the same performance as the Ikoniscope20 both in terms of speed and accuracy of the results and the instrument has been shown to continue providing better performances if used in combination with Ikonisys optimized reagents.

This development follows the timeline presented by the management during the IPO, allowing the company to address a broader market consisting of laboratories that process a very large number of slides per week or that have specific needs in terms of timing.

Bill Kochiss, CTO of Ikonisys, said:“The Ikononiscope20max is a state-of-the-art instrument in its field and we’re very happy to be able to provide it to old and new customers that require a system with an automatic loader due to their high volumes. We’re very proud of the final result. During the development phase the main focus has been as always the quality of the scan and analysis, to ease pathologists’ important job as much as possible, but the fact that the system preserved its speed and its limited form factor it a great achievement for us and we are sure will be appreciated by our customers as well.”

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September 13 2022

Ikonisys announces the start of a Distribution Collaboration with BioVendor Laboratory Medicine for Distribution of the Ikoniscope20 System in the Eastern European Market

Ikonisys announces the start of its first distribution collaboration for the sale of the Ikoniscope20 Digital Fluorescence Microscope Solution in the Eastern European Market.

As announced during the IPO, the commercialization strategy of Ikonisys focuses on a direct / non-direct sales model, being direct with its own sales force in the United States and major European countries, and working with qualified distributors that have a strong market presence in the field of Molecular Pathology in their respective markets. The partnership with BioVendor will focus on their home-markets, Czech and Slovak Republics, at first, with the potential to extend the collaboration to Austria and the United Kingdom at a later time.

Following the execution of the distribution collaboration agreement, BioVendor will present the Ikoniscope20 System at the 55th Annual Cytogenetics and Genetic Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, on September 15 and 16 2022.

Jurgen Schipper, Chief Commercial Officer of Ikonisys said:“We are very happy to have entered into a partnership with BioVendor, a very reputable distributor and diagnostics manufacturer with strong market presence in the Eastern European and other European markets. This first assignment of a distributor confirms the feasibility of our business model and demonstrates our commercial traction. We are very confident that the collaboration with BioVendor will show significant impact on the utilization of the Ikoniscope20 System in molecular pathology labs in the Eastern European market. ”

Eva Svobodova, Business Director of BioVendor said:“We appreciate the trust and the opportunity given by Ikonisys. We are passionate in setting up new standards in IVD market. Together with Ikonisys we are able to offer a great and innovative solution for molecular pathologists. We are looking forward to extend our current solution based on professional knowledge of Ikonisys and BioVendor LM. ”

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July 26 2022

Ikonisys reinforces its strategic collaboration with Empire Genomics following excellent results of optimized reagents in detection of bladder cancer cells

Ikonisys announces the development of optimized FISH probes with Empire Genomics. This will provide Ikoniscope20 users with the best possible results in several different FISH tests. The optimized probes will be manufactured exclusively for Ikonisys and will only be sold for use on the Ikoniscope20 system in the North American market.

The company will offer the reagents to all future customers, providing a fully integrated technology platform that includes hardware, software and consumables.
“This collaboration allows the creation of a drop-in FISH testing solution for clinical labs,” said Michael Bianchi, Laboratory Director at Empire Genomics. “The probes are provided in an optimized dye/concentration mix to perform consistently using the Ikoniscope20. This provides another option for the field of automated FISH imaging and analysis that will be better for our clients in terms of performance and value.”

Mario Crovetto, CEO of Ikonisyssaid:“We are delighted with our collaboration with Empire Genomics that has already proven to be successful with the sale of the Ikoniscope20 and reagent combination to Comprehensive Urology. Now that we have proved the efficacy of our strategy to sell a fully integrated platform to our customers, our next goal is to expand our portfolio to other early detection tests such as breast and lung cancers. We are moving quickly in a fast-growing market with a clear customer need for full automation, integration and data interpretation capabilities, allowing for top-quality outcomes and high productivity enhancement for laboratories. This is what the Ikoniscope20 is designed for. We remain very active in FISH testing and are ready to address the high-growth CTC/Liquid Biopsy market with the same strategy of a comprehensive platform. ”

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June 22 2022

Ikonisys announces the first sale of the Ikoniscope20 solution including the newly added reagents to Comprehensive Urology

Ikonisys announces the first sale of an Ikoniscope20 digital fluorescence microscope solution together with its optimized reagents.

As announced during our IPO, the initial focus of our commercialization strategy for the United States is to convert current customers into Ikoniscope20 users. An active user of Ikonisys’ former Ikoniscope Gen1 platform up to today, Comprehensive Urology has decided to upgrade its system to the Ikoniscope20 and at the same time to utilize the optimized reagents provided by Ikonisys to perform its bladder cancer molecular diagnosis.

The Ikoniscope20 combined with Ikonisys’ FISH probes will automate early bladder cancer diagnosis, allowing Comprehensive Urology to perform several thousand tests per year.

Read the full press release

Watch an interview to our CFO on this news

 

May 24 2022

Ikonisys signs contract and initiates research activities with Politecnico di Milano, a world leading public scientific-technological university in the field of computer science and bioengineering

Ikonisys SA and the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering (DEIB) of Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), a world-class scientific institution engaged in cutting-edge research, training and technology transfer, announced the signing of a research contract and the initiation of a project to bear on the challenging problem of identifying specific cells in complex tissues through designing, training and deployment of a deep learning model able to detect them.

Prof. Giacomo Boracchi of the DEIB will lead the research bringing his expertise in image processing and machine learning. In particular, the approach will aim to recognize clinically relevant cells of specific types in darkfield images of lung tissue acquired from the Ikoniscope20. Segmentation of single cell nuclei is a frequent challenge of microscopy image processing, often being the first step of many quantitative data analysis pipelines.

The ongoing collaboration will allow Ikonisys to further enhance its advanced image analysis capabilities and to accelerate the development of the Ikoniscope AI project with the implementation of deep learning models and novel state-of-art techniques into the instrument’s workflow, leading to the development of new applications or enhancement of the existing ones, especially in the most challenging fields such as Circulating Tumor Cells.

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May 12 2022

IKONISYS PARTNERS WITH EVOSCIENCES LEASING TO SUPPORT THE COMMERCIAL EXPANSION IN EUROPE AND THE USA OF THE IKONISCOPE20

Ikonisys SA and Evosciences Leasing, announced today, that they have entered into a collaboration agreement to support the international market introduction and further expansion of Ikonisys’ novel and state-of-the-art platform technology, the Ikoniscope20 system, in the European and US markets.

This partnership with Evosciences will support the ramp-up of Ikonisys’ two-fold worldwide commercialization strategy, on one side expanding the United States customer base, starting from converting current customers to active Ikoniscope20 users, and, on the other, focusing on direct commercialization in Europe (Germany, France and Italy at first). Ikonisys targets respectively a total available market of 7,326 laboratories and 3,824 laboratories.

Manuela Habeker, VP Evosciences SAS and Managing Director of Evosciences Leasing GmbH stated:“We are happy to support Ikonisys and its international customers by providing flexible financing solutions for the installation of the Ikoniscope20 technology. Evosciences supports the procurement of this new and innovative technology with a financing program tailored to customers’ needs ”

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May 4 2022

Ikonisys has signed a financing agreement of up to €6m of aggregate nominal amount to continue the commercial roll-out map

Ikonisys SA today announces it has secured a financing program that could reach an aggregate nominal amount of €6 million with Negma Group, an institutional investment fund headquartered in Dubai, UAE, in the form of bonds convertible into new shares (“OCA”), with a par value of €2,500 each, with attached share subscription warrants (“BSA”, together referred to as “OCABSA”). This financing can be drawn down in several tranches for the next 2 years, without any obligation to do so.

The purpose of this funding program is to provide the Company with additional resources to accelerate its commercialization strategy in the United States and Europe, including additional marketing investments, new contacts with KOLs who will serve as reference laboratories, participation in conferences and the implementation of a distribution strategy with agreements for Spain, Portugal, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, and to continue the development of the Ikoniscope20.

Mario Crovetto, CEO of Ikonisys, comments:“This transaction is motivated by our desire to maintain financial flexibility, in addition to other available sources of financing, in order to pursue the company's future developments in an efficient and agile manner. These will primarily concern the acceleration of the commercial strategy in the United States and Europe, with additional marketing investments, as well as the continued development of the Ikoniscope20 platform, in particular for CTC testing and the integration of AI technologies ”

“Negma is pleased to support Ikonisys, the most advanced cell based diagnostic company, which has designed and is now in the process of marketing the Ikoniscope, a medical device designed to deliver highly accurate and reliable detections of rare cells. We are confident that the Ikonisys team will successfully complete its next milestones of not only R&D but also commercialization in the very near future. The increasingly attractive European ecosystem has been a primary reason for the listing of Ikonisys, an originally American medtech, on Euronext Growth Paris. Ikonisys deserves much greater visibility than it currently receives, and we are certain the next few months of business development will change this. ” says Sophie Villedieu, Associate ECM of Negma Group.

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April 29 2022

Ikonisys publishes its Full-Year Financial Results for 2021 and provides an update on its latest developments

Ikonisys SA announced today its annual audited results for the year ending December 31, 2021, as approved by the Board of Directors on April 29, 2022 and provided an update on its recent developments

Mario Crovetto, CEO of Ikonisys, said:“2021 has been a pivotal year for our company. First of all, our successful IPO in July 2021 allowed us to list on Euronext Growth Paris, one of the most dynamic markets for biotechs and medtechs. This major milestone will help us to accelerate our development efforts aimed at becoming a global reference company in fully automated oncology molecular diagnostics. In parallel with the implementation of our commercial programs, as evidenced by the recruitment of two Sales Directors for the United States and France, we also strengthened our Ikoniscope20 technology platform through targeted R&D investments. In particular we are advancing in the very promising sector of CTC for early cancer detection and treatment monitoring. Moreover, we are integrating artificial intelligence into our platform in order to constantly improve performance and are pursuing technological excellence through best-in class partnerships with universities and laboratories. In conclusion 2021 and early 2022 represented a fundamental phase for Ikonisys. We laid the foundations for the future and we will capitalize on all these efforts in the years to come ”

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March 29 2022

Ikonisys announces its participation in the Investor Access forum

Ikonisys SA announces its participation in the Investor Access forum in Paris on April 4, 2022.

Alessandro Mauri, Chief Financial Officer of Ikonisys, will represent the company at this event.
Investor Access events bring together more than 150 companies to foster and maintain strong relationships with investors. This will be an opportunity for Ikonisys to meet new investors but also to meet again with investors met during the IPO.

Read the full press release

 

February 16 2022

The Ikoniscope20 preliminary results obtained with University of Connecticut School of Medicine (Neag Cancer Center of UConn) in detecting rare cells surpass the standards of test in immuno-oncology

Ikonisys SA today announced preliminary results of the sensitivity of the Ikoniscope20 to detect rare cells carried out in collaboration with the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Medicine.

The Ikoniscope20 can detect as many as one positive cell among each 250 tested cells from mice immunized with ovalbumin (protein found in chick eggs). This frequency of detection is comparable or higher than that obtained by flow cytometry (the standard tool used for such detection).
Moreover, the Ikoniscope20 was able to detect as few as 1 positive cell among each 1,000 tested cells from un-immunized mice (specific T cell is expected to be even lower than in immunized mice). In contrast, standard flow cytometry could not detect them at all.

Pramod Srivastava PhD MD, Director of the Neag Cancer Center:“The ability of the Ikoniscope20 to detect such rare cells should have a broad potential for applications in monitoring immune responses to cancers in experimental studies including monitoring of human cancer immuno-oncology trials, and is very exciting ”

Read the full press release

 

February 7 2022

IKONISYS ANNOUNCES THE SUCCESSFULL INSTALLATION OF THE IKONISCOPE20 AT TOMALAB, ONE OF THE LARGEST GENETIC LABORATORIES IN ITALY

Ikonisys SA today announced the successful sale and installation of the Ikoniscope20 at Toma Advanced Biomedical Assays Spa (Busto Arsizio, VA, Italy) and the continuation of the productive collaboration between the laboratory and the company. Since the installation, TomaLab has been successfully validating the Ikoniscope20 for routine FISH testing in oncology, using several applications that span from lung cancer (oncoFISH ALK) to bladder cancer (oncoFISH bladder).

The partnership is a concrete milestone for the marketing strategy and demonstrates the ability of the sales organization to achieve the objective of rapid growth of Ikoniscope20 installations: TomaLab will act as a reference laboratory for Ikonisys, allowing interested stakeholders and prospects to review the instrument and its capabilities.

Dr. Tshering Dorji, Head of Pathology, TomaLab, commented, “We are highly impressed by the Ikoniscope20 and pleased to continue our collaboration with Ikonisys. The instrument’s compact size allowed us to install it flawlessly in our facility and the high throughput of this new FISH analyzer is very impressive. Combined with the high quality of the scanned images reported and the easy-to-use remote connection, the instrument continues to play a very important role in our daily workflow for the patient care.”

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February 1 2022

IKONISYS SA ANNOUNCES THE APPOINTMENT OF GABRIEL PLAN AS FRANCE SALES DIRECTOR

Ikonisys SA today is very pleased to announce that diagnostic industry expert Gabriel Plan joins the company as Ikonisys’ Sales Director for the French market. Gabriel’s responsibilities will encompass accelerating Ikoniscope20 sales in France and other French speaking parts of Europe by acquiring new customers, prominent KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) and additional reference labs.

Gabriel brings over ten years of sales and marketing experience to Ikonisys, entirely spent in the molecular diagnostics sector. Gabriel gained commercial expertise especially at MP Biochemicals, a global supplier and manufacturer of life science, biochemicals and diagnostic products. He started there as sales representative, later moved to marketing, and then for several years was head of sales of diagnostics for Western Europe. Gabriel has a master’s degree in molecular diagnostics and business management from the University of Paris-Sud XI.

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January 26 2022

Ikonisys announces the initation of coverage of its stock by Sphene Capital

Ikonisys SA today announced the initiation of commissioned research coverage of its title by Sphene Capital, with a study entitled “Restart of a technology leader in laboratory automation”. The Sphene Capital study presents a target price of €7.70 per share1 with an investment recommendation to “buy”.

Click here to access the document which is also available on the company’s investor website:

See analysts' coverage

 

November 18 2021

(PRESS ARTICLE) Ikonisys is featured on 360DX in the article: "Ikonisys Launches Next Generation of CTC Detection, Analysis Platform: Expands US Presence"

The article presents Ikonisys' recent achievements and future expansion plans with the launch of Ikoniscope20.

It offers an interesting insight on our company and on the potentiality of our next-gen instrument Ikoniscope20. In addition it presents the point of view of one of our most valuable customers, describing how they were able to roughly double the lab's slide analysis capacity thank to the Ikoniscope.

Read the full article

 

October 29 2021

Ikonisys publishes its half-year financial results for 2021 and provides an update on its developments since its IPO

Ikonisys SA today announced its financial results for the first half of the year ending June 30, 2021 and provided an update on its business and development prospects.

Mario Crovetto, CEO of Ikonisys, said: “The first half of 2021 was marked by completion of the development of Ikoniscope20 and by preparation of our initial public offering, which then took place in July. As a result of this operation, we strengthened our financial capabilities and were able to accelerate our development through recruitment of a sales manager for the United States. These efforts will continue in order to strengthen our teams also in Europe and to support the commercialization of the latest generation ikoniscope20 platform. Our platform offers diagnostic tests based on fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technology, primarily in the oncology segment of molecular diagnostics, a large market in which we aim to become one of the leading suppliers worldwide. This ambition is supported by the differentiating characteristics of our fully automated solution, which is capable of detecting rare cells with high reliability. Our strong technological features allow us to target also the promising market of circulating tumor cells (CTC) analysis through liquid biopsy, a breakthrough in the diagnostic field. These promising commercial prospects, combined with the strengthening of our sales force and the continuation of our R&D efforts, in particular concerning the integration of advanced AI technologies in our platform, ideally position Ikonisys for further development.”

Read the full press release

 

September 30 2021

IKONISYS WELCOMES US SALES DIRECTOR, ACCELERATING ITS GROWTH AND EXPANSION PLANS IN THE USA

Ikonisys is very pleased to announce that diagnostic industry veteran, Manny Iglesias, joins as Ikonisys’ Sales Director for the US market. Manny’s responsibilities will encompass accelerating Ikoniscope20 sales by strengthening Ikonisys’ presence and acquiring new customers, expanding in new geographies, and contributing to the company’s marketing and business strategies.

Manny brings over 30 years of sales and leadership experience to Ikonisys, mostly spent in the diagnostics sector.  Manny already knows Ikonisys and the Ikoniscope well, having been the top-selling representative during the launch of the first-generation instrument. Manny gained expertise developing and leading high-performance sales teams in North and Central America at Dako, Leica Microsystems and CSI Laboratories. Additionally, he has a proficiency in process improvement, change management, automation and systems integration, developed during consulting experiences with top firms including Accenture, Schneider Electric and Johnson & Johnson. He is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and holds an MBA from the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.

“Manny is an outstanding addition to our Ikonisys team, as he brings a deep blend of both human skills and technical knowledge in the diagnostics industry” said Jurgen Schipper, Chief Commercial Officer of Ikonisys. “As Ikonisys continues its rapid growth and focuses across the United States and Europe, Manny’s sales leadership and extensive background in building strong customers relationships will accelerate Ikonisys’ growth.” continued Jurgen Schipper.”

“I am honored to be part of this new development phase for Ikonisys and help to build on the solid foundation developed over the last years.  Ikonisys is perfectly positioned to help laboratories transform their business with automation and digitalization for higher diagnostic confidence and throughput, in order to compete in the modern environment” stated Manny Iglesias, Sales Director, US.

Read the full press release

 

September 6 2021

Initial Results of a Study, in Collaboration With the UConn School of Medicine, Highlight the Potential of Ikonisys’ Cell-based Diagnostic Platform in Immuno-oncology

The initial results of a study to demonstrate the capability of the Ikoniscope20 rare cell detection platform to enumerate specific populations of CD8 T cells. Such antigen-specific CD8 T cells are extremely rare, and are a perfect proof of demonstration of the ability to detect rare cells in general, and circulating tumor cells in particular. Antigen-specific T cells play a central role in immunity to cancers and infectious agents (such as viruses), through their capacity to kill malignant cells upon recognition by T-cell receptor of specific antigenic peptides presented on the surface of target cells. In this study, the two teams were able to identify about 80 antigen-specific T cells in a background of over a million blood cells by high-speed scanning for the presence of cells positive for fluorescently labelled MHC I-peptide complexes that bind to a T cell antigen-receptor. The study was carried out in collaboration with the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Medicine.

Prof. Pramod K. Srivastava, Director of the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center (who also serves on the Board of ALIKO), commented, “Detection and enumeration of cancer antigen-specific T cells in a reliable and reproducible manner is always challenging. These early results shall serve as a foundation of the use of this technology in monitoring immune responses to cancers in pre-clinical as well as clinical studies.”

Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, Chief Scientific Officer of Ikonisys, added, “We are honored to be working with a leading medical center to demonstrate the potential of the Ikonisys platform in the detection and quantification of specific populations of clinically relevant cells in immuno-oncology. The study further validates the value of the Ikonisys platform for the detection and analysis of specific populations of rare cells present in complex specimens, an approach likely to have particular value in the current era of personalized and predictive medicine.”

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May 2021

Ikonisys & Dr Ehsan Ghorani of Imperial College London Partner to Advance Diagnostic Capabilities through Better Microscopy utilizing Novel Technology

London/UK, New Haven, CT/USA & Milan/Italy – May 26, 2021 – Ikonisys Inc., a cell-based diagnostic company located in New Haven, Connecticut, USA and Milan, Italy and Dr Ehsan Ghorani of Imperial College, London announced today a partnership agreement to utilize the technological capabilities of the Ikoniscope20 Diagnostic Platform in two major areas: The monitoring of tumor cells in the circulating blood and other bodily fluids, as an aid in the clinical management of specific cancers and the incorporation of automated reading of cellular morphology to improve upon existing clinical diagnosis of common medical conditions; including infectious diseases, cardiovascular and connective tissue disorders.

Dr. Ehsan Ghorani of Imperial College, London, commented, "We are keen to begin using the Ikoniscope® platform. Together with Ikonisys, we aim to take this opportunity to utilize our combined expertise to both improve on clinical diagnosis of common medical conditions and to utilize the platform’s rare cell detection capabilities to deliver optimal care management to cancer patients.”

Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, Chief Scientific Officer of Ikonisys, added, “We are proud to cooperate with a leading medical center in developing innovative approaches for the diagnosis of disease and the monitoring and management of cancers. This partnership offers the opportunity to further clinically validates our Ikoniscope® technology and coincides with the launch of our second-generation system. The cooperation also enables us to further expand Ikonisys’ product portfolio into areas such as infectious disease and strengthens our commitment in the world of oncology and the clinical application of circulating tumour cell analysis, to continuously improve patient treatment.”

About Dr Ehsan Ghorani MD PhD: Dr Ehsan Ghorani is an immunologist and senior registrar in Medical Oncology. He is currently a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellow in the lab of Sergio Quezada at the UCL Cancer Institute. He is widely published and his research has, in particular, contributed to the mechanistic understanding of cancer immune evasion and sensitivity, resulting in globally practice-changing advances in patient management.

 

July 2020

Ikonisys, Inc and Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Connecticut enganged in a Collaboration Agreement to further validate the Ikonisys automated fluorescence microscopy platform for the detection, enumeration and analysis of rare cells.

Ikonisys, Inc and Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Connecticut wish to undertake activities to further validate the Ikonisys automated fluorescence microscopy platform for the detection, enumeration and analysis of rare cells. The ability of the platform to detect and quantify specific populations of cells, based on the presence of specific combinations of markers has clinical potential in a number of areas. In particular, the work will evaluate the clinical potential of rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in cancer patients, Additionally, the collaboration will evaluate the potential of the Ikonisys platform in the detection and quantification of specific populations of cells in immuno-oncology and infectious disease.

Collaborative Activities
The collaborating parties will engage in activities regarding the application of the Ikonisys platform for the detection and analysis of specific populations of rare cells present in complex specimens, an approach is likely to have particular value in the current era of personalized and predictive medicine. The activities will utilize the latest version of the Ikonisys automated fluorescence microscope; the Ikoniscope20. The recently introduced Ikoniscope 20 represents a significant advance from the original Ikoniscope, integrating the advances that have been made in optical, mechanical, and IT technologies. The platform also features updated application software, improving both the speed and sensitivity of cell detection and analysis.


Rare Cell Detection and Analysis
Ikonisys and Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Connecticut are pursuing collaborative research in order to evaluate Ikonisys’ automated fluorescence microscopy platform for enumeration and analysis of rare cells. In this multi-part effort, Drs.Kilpatrick (Ikonisys) and others (NCCC) are identifying rare T cells (that recognize a given MHC-peptide complex) in mice immunized with a specific antigen. The approach is utilizing the ability of the Ikonisys platform to analyse large numbers of cells (more than a million per slide) for the enumeration of rare cells based on the presence of a specific combination of markers. This effort will allow us to precisely quantitate the limits of detection of the Ikonisys' platform. The learning from these studies shall be used not only to detect rare circulating cancer cells in cancer patients but also other types of potentially clinically useful rare cells in human circulation.

 

November 2019

Ikonisys & Sheba Medical Center-ARC

Partner to Detect & Target Cancer with Novel Technology

Tel Aviv/Israel, New Haven, CT/USA & Milan/Italy - November 14, 2019 – Sheba Medical Center, the largest hospital in the Middle East, which is based in metro Tel Aviv, Israel, and Ikonisys Inc., a cell-based diagnostic company located in New Haven, Connecticut, USA and Milan, Italy, announced today the signing of a partnership agreement for the development of novel proprietary Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) tests, targeting specific cancers. The tests and applications will be aimed at a variety of potential clinical purposes, including treatment monitoring (the detection of disease recurrence) and companion diagnostics. Ikonisys will play an integral role within Sheba's ARC innovation hub, which is accelerating and redesigning global healthcare through collaboration.

Prof. Iris Barshack, Head of the Institute of Pathology at Sheba Medical Center, commented, "We are excited to begin using the Ikoniscope® system provided by Ikonisys. Together, we aim to improve the detection of disease recurrence and clinically validate applications for various types of cancers while contributing to Sheba Medical Center’s mission to deliver excellent, highly innovative comprehensive diagnoses and care management to patients.”

Michael Kilpatrick, Chief Scientific Officer of Ikonisys, added, “We are proud to cooperate with one of the world's leading medical centers in developing innovative tests for the diagnosis and monitoring of cancers. This partnership validates our proprietary Ikoniscope® technology and coincides with the launch of our second-generation system. The cooperation also enables us to further expand Ikonisys’ product portfolio, strengthening our commitment in the world of CTCs to continuously improve cancer treatment.”

The circulating tumor cells detection test possesses the ability to detect, quantify, and analyze tumor cells in the blood of cancer patients. With application in determining disease status, rate of disease progression and predicting the likely efficacy of a particular therapy or treatment, CTC analysis has great potential to transform the cancer diagnostic landscape. However, it has been limited so far by the difficulty in finding these extremely rare cells, that can be as few as 10 out of millions in a typical 10ml blood sample. The automated scanning and analysis capabilities of the Ikoniscope® platform allow the efficient screening of a much larger number of cells than would be possible by manual analysis, allowing the identification and enumeration of CTCs in the blood of cancer patients with high sensitivity and specificity.

Sheba's research team, led by Prof. Iris Barshack, will identify and propose biomarker panels for specific cancers of particular interest that will be evaluated as potential new Ikoniscope® CTC tests. All available clinical data will be collected for the patient samples being tested, including, for example, other available liquid biopsy data. This will allow evaluation of the potential complementary nature of cell-based CTC tests, such as performed on the Ikoniscope®, for characterization of individual tumor cells, compared to circulating DNA-based tests that provide global tumor genotype information.

Download the press release (305.2 KB)

April 2019

Ikonisys has signed an agreement with Hub Innovazione Trentino (HIT), Bruno Kessler Foundation, Department of Industrial Engineering of University of Trento and Trentino Sviluppo in order to collaborate on the development of a novel instrument.

The various parties will bring their contribution, granting expertise in all areas of industrial engineering, including mechatronics, materials engineering, electronic and micro-electronic systems, as well as outstanding software engineering.

This agreement is part of Ikonisys' strategy to continue to develop state-of-art diagnostics instruments, always looking at innovative solutions to bring to the market.

March 2018

A collaboration agreement was signed between Ikonisys, ImpactLab, Milan, Italy and Prof. Bruno Vincenzi, Oncology Department, University Campus Bio-Medico, Rome, Italy. The agreement will facilitate the application of Ikonisys’ rare-cell analysis technology to the detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in sarcoma. Detection of CTCs has been proposed to have clinical significance as a prognostic or predictive marker in sarcoma and, as a measure of metastatic potential, could provide a way to target a patient population more likely to benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy.

February 2018

Ikonisys has initiated a collaboration with Prof. Dr. Olga Golubnitschaja of the European Association for Predictive, Preventive & Personalised Medicine. The main concept of the collaborative project, which will involve partners in both the USA and Europe, is to create an innovative breast cancer predictive and diagnostic approach particularly useful for young women whose needs are not covered by currently existing screening programmes. The intention is to combine the elements of established expertise for the proof of principle model of new medical services to be offered to the populations. The project will highlight the potential clinical utility of the Ikonisys CTC detection technology in this patient population.

November 2017

Ikonisys has joined the European Association for Predictive, Preventive & Personalised Medicine as an Institutional Member. The EPMA was founded in 2009 to cover particular deficits in medical sciences and healthcare. The main objective of the EPMA is to promote the paradigm change from delayed reactive medical services to evidence-based Predictive, Preventive & Personalised Medicine (PPPM) as an integrated science and healthcare practice. As an Institutional Member, Ikonisys will have the opportunity to contribute to this rapidly emerging field by virtue of the company’s rare cell analysis platform.

September 2017

Ikonisys presented “Detection and Analysis of Circulating Tumour Cells in Small Cell Lung Cancer Utilizing a Flexible Rare Cell Scanning Platform” at the EPMA World Congress 2017 'Predictive, Preventive & Personalised Medicine'. The presentation outlined the application of the Ikonisys platform to detection and analysis of circulating tumour cells. The Abstract of the presentation was published in the EPMA journal (Kilpatrick MW, Kershnar ER, Borgerding RH, Robson P, Sivakamasundari V. EPMA J 2017; 8 (Suppl 1):S9-S10).

June 2017

The result of a collaboration between Ikonisys and Dr. Upendra Hegde, UConn Health, Connecticut, USA, was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Determination of the potential of detecting 3q gain as a valuable biomarker in the management of patients with HPV associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma). The work demonstrated the ability of the Ikonisys platform to detect gain of the chromosomal 3q locus in cytological brushings from patients undergoing treatment for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, with the potential to have clinical utility in the management of such patients.