Alpenglow Biosciences has penned a new, multiyear strategic agreement with Virdx to create the next generation of artificial-intelligence-powered tools aimed at better detecting prostate cancer.
Alpenglow, which uses AI for its 3D pathology services, will join forces with biophysics AI company Virdx, which is focused on MRI-based cancer detection, to “accelerate the development of tools that bridge radiology and pathology,” according to their partnership announcement Tuesday.
The initial focus of the team-up will be on creating a comprehensive 3D data set using light-sheet microscopy (LSM) to image full cross-sections of human prostate tissue.
This LSM data set “will serve as a high-resolution ground truth at an unprecedented scale to assess and enhance the performance of Virdx’s MRI-based prostate cancer diagnostics effort,” the companies said.
Financial details of the pact were not disclosed.
The pair will also rely on tech giant Nvidia's advanced computing technology to power their collaboration, including its graphics processing unit (GPU) technology. Using Nvidia's “GPU-enabled pipeline” to analyze mass amounts of 3D microscopy data will rapidly speed up the process, Alpenglow said, and will therefore enable it and Virdx to “partner on a large-scale clinical trial.”
The idea is to combine both companies’ strengths to go beyond current clinical imaging and potentially allow for quicker and more accurate diagnoses for a cancer that is expected to make up more than 313,000 cases in the U.S. this year, with more than 35,000 deaths. Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer in men in the U.S. behind skin cancer.
Virdx CEO Jacob Murray, M.D., expressed excitement about the agreement with Alpenglow in the announcement, saying, “Their innovative technology and fast-moving team help us generate the data that powers our biophysics AI engine for the next generation of MRI-based cancer diagnostic tools.”
Murray added, “The ground truth data we can generate together is essential to help us guide our diagnostic model development with the aim of ultimately improving the health and life of patients.”