I-Corps: Improved Skeletal Visualization Process for Developmental Toxicology and a Novel 3-D Histology Technology

当病人去做癌症活检时，医生会从病人身上取出一块组织，然后把它送到病理学家那里。病理学家从活检组织中取几片非常薄的切片，将它们放在显微镜载玻片上，染色并在显微镜下观察。病理学家根据这些薄片做出疾病的诊断。这种方法的问题是，这些薄片不能完整地说明活检的情况，也不能完整地说明疾病的情况。正因为如此，癌症经常被误诊，患者接受的治疗不足。这个I-Corps团队发明了一种名为Visikol的正在申请专利的化学配方，它能够使生物组织如活检透明，这样它们就可以整体成像，而不是薄片。利用Visikol的核心技术，该团队开发了许多生物成像平台，并打算将其授权给制药公司和合同研究组织（CRO）。该团队已经使用Visikol核心技术开发了生物成像平台，用于CRO对骨骼组织的可视化和病理学家对组织的三维组织学可视化。该团队使用Visikol技术开发了许多技术，但该项目的范围将是这两个生物成像平台。虽然这些平台目前已准备就绪，但该团队将直接与潜在客户合作，了解它们如何适应当前的流程，以便易于采用。该项目的主要目标是在6个月的时间内将这些技术平台中的每一个的使用许可证授予至少一家公司。在I-Corps计划期间，该集团将通过在毒理学贸易展协会和参加BIO国际合作会议的方式接触潜在客户。通过这些对话，该团队将建立材料转让协议，以在他们的实验室中展示我们平台的优势，并将这些试点研究转化为许可证。

When a patient goes in for a cancer biopsy, the doctor removes a piece of tissue from the patient and sends it to a pathologist. The pathologist takes a few very thin slices of this biopsy, places them on a glass microscope slides, stains them and visualizes them on a microscope. From these thin slices the pathologist makes the diagnosis of the disease. The problem with this approach is that these thin slices do not tell the full story of what is going on with the biopsy and do not give a complete picture of what is going on with the disease. Because of this, cancer is frequently misdiagnosed and patients receive inadequate treatment for their disease. This I-Corps team has invented a patent-pending chemical formula called Visikol that is able to render biological tissues like biopsies transparent so that they can be imaged in their entirety instead of thin slices. Using the Visikol core technology this team has developed numerous bio-imaging platforms which it intends to license to pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations (CROs). This team has already used the Visikol core technology to develop bio-imaging platforms for the visualization of skeletal tissues by CROs and for the 3-D histological visualization of tissues by pathologists. There are many technologies that this group has developed using the Visikol technology, but the scope of this project will be these two bio-imaging platforms. While these platforms are currently market-ready, this group will work directly with potential customers to understand how they will fit into their current processes so that they can be easily adopted. The primary goal for this project over a 6-month period of time is to license the use of each one of these technology platforms to at least one company. During the I-Corps program, the group will reach potential customers through having a table at the Society of Toxicology Trade Show and attending the BIO International partnering sessions. Through these conversations the team will setup material transfer agreements to demonstrate the advantages of our platforms in their labs and transition these pilot studies into licenses.