Lunaphore announces successful installation of COMET™ PA platform at Providence to advance cancer immuno-oncology research

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – April 21, 2022 – 5:00 pm (CEST) | 8:00 am (PDT)– Lunaphore, a Swiss life sciences company developing technology to enable spatial biology in every laboratory, today announced the installation of its COMET™ PA instrument at the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, a division of Providence Cancer Institute, in Portland, Oregon, USA. The installation of COMET™ PA will allow Providence researchers to gain a comprehensive understanding of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment in order to develop machine learning algorithms for tumor classification across various tissue types.

Spatial biology enables researchers to study the spatial distribution of biomarkers, which can lead to more precise diagnostic tests. Tools like COMET™ can help researchers to understand the precise localization of immune cells and their sociology within the tumor microenvironment. This should improve clinical aspects of the immunotherapy approaches by improving patient stratification and paving the way towards a precision medicine mindset.

The Providence research project will be led by Brian Piening, Ph.D., Assistant Member, Cancer Immunogenomics Laboratory, and Carlo Bifulco, M.D., Member and Medical Director, Translational Molecular Pathology and Molecular Genomics, and Scientific Advisory Board Member at Lunaphore.

“Spatial molecular characterization of the tumor-immune microenvironment is the next frontier in gaining insight into immunotherapeutic success or failure and will lead to the development of better microenvironment-informed treatment strategies,” said Dr. Piening at Providence.

The COMET™ PA platform is a fully automated sequential multiplex instrument, able to carry out staining and imaging, producing high-quality data without human intervention. With superior tissue profiling capabilities, the system enables high-throughput, multiplex analysis while allowing laboratories to use standard off-the-shelf reagents. The access to spatial information through COMET™ PA allows for a dramatic improvement in the understanding of disease pathology in areas such as immuno-oncology, neuroscience, and infectious diseases.

“This installation marks yet another milestone of success in our overarching goal to accelerate spatial biology adoption in labs throughout the world, enabling researchers to enter into a new frontier of biological understanding and biomarker development,” said Ata Tuna Ciftlik, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Lunaphore. “Together, COMET™ can provide deeper insights into the properties of cancers that make them responsive to targeted therapies, which can ultimately help pair patients with cancer with the right treatment.”

To learn more about the COMET™ PA platform, please visit: https://lunaphore.com/products/comet/

To learn more about Lunaphore, please visit: https://lunaphore.com/

About Lunaphore

Lunaphore Technologies S.A. is a Swiss company born in 2014 with the vision of enabling spatial biology in every laboratory. Lunaphore has developed a game-changing chip technology which can extract spatial proteomic and genomic data from tumors and transform any simple assay into multiplex spatial biology without complexity. Lunaphore empowers researchers to push the boundaries of research to ultimately develop the next generation personalized therapies. For further information on Lunaphore and its products, please visit www.lunaphore.com.

About Providence

Providence Cancer Institute of Oregon offers the latest in cancer services, including diagnostic, treatment, prevention, education, support and internationally renowned research. Providence is home to the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, a world-class research facility located within the Robert W. Franz Cancer Center in Portland, Oregon, and is a recognized leader in the field of cancer immunotherapy since 1993. Visit providenceoregon.org/cancer to learn more.

For further information contact:

Irene Tamayo

Lunaphore Corporate Communications

Email: [email protected]