TISSUE SCIENCES
Automated tissue dissection: its role in personalised medicine
Automating tissue dissection would appear to hold the key to personalised medicine becoming a reality. Here, Pathology in Practice has been given an early look at a new Xyall solution for the molecular pathology laboratory.
Worldwide there are likely to be 27.5 million new cases of cancer each year by 2040. According to Cancer Research UK, the incidence of cancer in this country ranks higher than 90% of the world and is two-thirds higher than the rest of Europe.1
Molecular diagnostics appears to hold the key to tackling this hidden epidemic. Demand for novel diagnostic tests is escalating with the arrival of high- throughput analysis methods such as
next-generation sequencing technology. However, the sensitivity and specificity of the emerging molecular diagnostic tests depend on the quality of the sample, in particular on the number and purity of tumour cells in the sample, especially where the biomarker is expressed only in tumour cells. It also depends on the ability to dissect selected areas from tumour tissue – a process called macro- dissection. It is here we come to the potential
flaw in the race towards personalised medicine. Sample selection for molecular analysis presents numerous challenges for the pathologist and the laboratory. Tissue dissection remains a manual, subjective process – tedious, labour-intensive, with limited precision and carries the risk of contamination and human error. Poor quality control, variability and lack of traceability are other pitfalls.
Novel technology addresses missing link
Novel technology to automate tissue dissection – with the ability to integrate into routine laboratory workflow – offers a compelling way forward. This will become a reality with the forthcoming launch from Xyall of the benchtop Tissector Table Top (TT) designed for hospital- based molecular pathology laboratories. It combines a high degree of precision and reproducibility in a fully integrated solution, with the capacity to run up to 30 dissection slides an hour and a design that eliminates the risk of cross contamination. The company already has its pioneering, high-throughput (80 slides an hour) industrial system fully operational in the USA at one of the world’s largest commercial molecular diagnostic laboratories. “If we are to get smarter about beating
Tissector Table Top TT.
WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM SEPTEMBER 2022
cancer, we need to change the way we handle test samples,” said Guido du Pree, CEO of Netherlands-based Xyall. The molecular pathology company was established in 2018 to spearhead the development of new technologies specifically to address the ‘missing link’. Mr du Pree and co-founder Hans van Wijngaarden were part of the original emerging business team at Philips, responsible for developing the company’s global digital pathology offering.
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