Lunaphore announces the installation of the COMET™ platform in Singapore to advance novel antibody-mediated immunotherapies

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – September 15, 2022 – 5:00 pm (CEST) – Lunaphore, a Swiss life sciences company developing technology to enable spatial biology in every laboratory, today announced the installation of their COMET™ platform at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), in Singapore. The platform will be used to help with the evaluation of immuno-oncology-related antibodies and protein expression panels in cancer profiling, contributing towards the development of novel immunotherapies and personalized therapies.

“We are thrilled to expand the use of COMET™ in Singapore, marking a milestone of success in our overarching goal to accelerate spatial biology adoption worldwide,” said Ata Tuna Ciftlik, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Lunaphore. “The research of Dr. Joe Yeon’s team will help advance cancer profiling and could profoundly impact predicting individual response to specific immunotherapy treatments.”

Immune cells are involved in tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis. Understanding the interactions between various cells within the tumor microenvironment (TME) is essential to investigate from a molecular standpoint and understand the processes that underlie the immune response to treatment. Checkpoint proteins are key players in tumor progression, functioning as gatekeepers for the elimination of cancer cells. Therefore, immunotherapy based on checkpoint blockade has delivered promising results in addressing several types of cancer. Regardless of the field’s potential, the number of patients that benefit from immunotherapy remains modest. IMCB’s research project makes use of multiplex immunohistochemistry (IHC) technology as part of its efforts to profile cancer tissues across major cancer types such as lung, breast, liver, and head and neck cancers by studying key immuno-oncology biomarkers. Uncovering crucial aspects of TME biology will aid the development of more targeted therapeutic approaches.

With highly reproducible tissue profiling capabilities, the system enables simultaneous analysis of 40 different spatial markers per tissue slide without user intervention. Leveraging Lunaphore’s sequential immunofluorescence (seqIF™) approach, which integrates repeated cycles of staining, imaging, and gentle, elution-based antibody removal steps, COMET™ allows unmatched reproducibility, producing robust, high-quality data. The selected 40-plex images and data will be deposited into the Immunoatlas developed by IMCB. The access to spatial information through COMET™ will open new avenues for research and advance understanding of the TME, enhancing the way towards biomarker discovery and translation for clinical practice.

 

To learn more about the COMET™ 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 that 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 COMET™

COMET™ is a fully automated, sequential immunofluorescence (seqIF™) instrument, able to perform hyperplex staining and imaging, producing high-quality data in a robust and reproducible manner. With superior tissue profiling capabilities, the system allows multiplex analysis of up to 40 different spatial markers per tissue slide without human intervention. COMET™ has a wide range of research applications, allowing for a dramatic improvement in the understanding of disease pathology in areas such as immuno-oncology, neuroscience, and infectious diseases. To learn more about the COMET™ platform, please visit: https://lunaphore.com/products/comet/

 

 

 

 

For further information contact:

 

Irene Tamayo

Lunaphore Corporate Communications

Email: [email protected]