Lunaphore presents new data developed on its universal end-to-end solution in collaboration with leading research institutes at the AACR Annual Meeting 2023

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – April 14, 2023 – 4:00 pm (CEST) – Lunaphore, a Swiss life sciences company developing technology to enable spatial biology in every laboratory, today announced new data presented in seven posters at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023 highlighting the COMET™ portfolio’s wide range of research applications and broad clinical potential. These presentations follow the company’s recent announcement of the full expansion of its product offering to provide a universal, end-to-end spatial biology solution, answering the needs of the scientific community from early discovery to late-stage translational and clinical research.

“On the heels of several big milestones for Lunaphore, namely the launch of our comprehensive and future-ready COMET™ product suite, we are very pleased to share a large amount of diverse data at this year’s AACR Annual Meeting,” said Ata Tuna Ciftlik, CEO at Lunaphore. “We’re also thrilled to participate in several collaborative poster presentations, which underscore how we are working with researchers as they use COMET™, rapidly getting up to speed and producing a powerful and large amount of data.”

Two posters focus on Lunaphore’s optimized Immuno-Oncology Core Panel, including:

• A poster titled Validation of a novel multiplex immuno-fluorescence panel for the spatial analysis of the tumor microenvironment demonstrates the robustness of the validated IO Core Panel across multiple COMET™ instruments, tissue banks, and tissue types with highly specific and reproducible results. The data presented in this poster show the robustness and reproducibility of this tool as well as how its reliability compared to traditional methods. This study also shows that marker detection with standard indirect immunofluorescence on the COMET™ instrument allows for rapid expansion and customization of the panel, including additional primary antibodies, which can help answer the needs of individual IO researchers asking unique scientific questions.
• A poster shared in collaboration with the Institute of Neurology (Edinger Institute), University Hospital, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, outlines the use of the IO Core Panel in different types of brain metastases (BM), titled Spatial analysis of the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in brain cancer applying a novel multiplex immunofluorescence panel. This new study demonstrates a successful application of the IO Core Panel on BM samples combined with additional markers of interest using the flagship COMET™ platform.

 

Additional presentations underscoring the unmatched capabilities of COMET™ in IO research are shared, as is debut data on HORIZON™, a user-friendly software for image analysis designed and tailored for COMET™ hyperplex images.

• For a poster called Automated multiplex immunofluorescence workflow to interrogate the cellular composition of the tumor microenvironment, researchers utilized Lunaphore’s multiplex sequential immunofluorescence (seqIF™) solution portfolio that combines automated hyperplex execution with image data extraction through HORIZON™ to perform single-cell analysis of the spatial composition of the TME in breast cancer. seqIF™ was performed on COMET™ on breast tissue microarray. The resulting images were further analyzed using HORIZON™ and an in-house developed single-cell analysis pipeline. The study showcases an innovative, automated workflow that eases the adoption of multiplex imaging to explore TME composition at single-cell resolution: slide in, data out.
• Additionally, following the announcement of a co-marketing partnership with Abcam, the two companies present data in a poster titled Automated multiplex immunofluorescence enables single cell analysis of tumor stroma. The study details the creation of a panel of 22 markers for use on COMET™, including the core panel and antibodies from abcam. The findings set the stage for any tumor stroma analysis as COMET™ enables the detailed study of the biology of TME components without requiring lengthy customization processes of the reagent and highlights the heterogeneity of tumor stroma across different tissue types.

 

Finally, the COMET™ technology that Lunaphore’s end-to-end solution for spatial biology research is built upon was showcased in two posters:

• Spatial dynamics of cytotoxic T Lymphocyte exhaustion in reactive and tumoral tissue focuses on cytotoxic T -cell characterization using COMET™, concluding that the spatial location of inflammatory cells plays a critical role in understanding their functional behavior. Thanks to the COMET™ workflow, it is now possible to analyze this at scale. These technologies will be crucial in investigating the tissue dynamics of possible theranostic markers and development of subsequent clinical trials. This research was conducted in collaboration with the University Hospital Leuven, KU Leuven, Belgium.
• Research conducted in collaboration with Navinci Diagnostics, Sweden, Automation of proximity ligation immunoassay for PD-L1/PD-1 detection in the tumor microenvironment using microfluidic-based system, looks at the use of a proximity ligation assay (PLA) on Lunaphore’s instruments to detect cell-to-cell interactions and protein-to-ligand binding. Researchers evaluated, implemented, and optimized the assays on COMET™ to reduce labor time and cost for the end users. In the next phase, the potential of this assay to be benchmarked as a diagnostic tool in clinical praxis will be thoroughly tested and validated on diagnostic tissue samples from healthy and tumoral tissue types. NSCLC patient cohorts. Researchers believe this approach will enable spatial and functional studies of the interface between the tumor and the immune system and provide necessary information about signaling pathway activation in situ, the latest representing a novel state-of-the-art in tissue diagnostics.

 

Lunaphore will also hold a spotlight theater with Dr. Hinda J. Najem, Northwestern University, on April 17 at 3 pm EDT, highlighting a universal and comprehensive panel profiling the central nervous system microenvironment facilitated by COMET™.

Furthermore, the company will host a dinner reception during AACR on April 17 at 6:30 pm EDT, delving into the future of spatial biology with invaluable insights from top-notch spatial biology experts, Dr. Denis Schapiro, Heidelberg University Hospital; Dr. Jérôme Galon, INSERM; Dr. Travis Hollmann, Bristol Myers Squibb; Dr. Michael Surace, Director, AstraZeneca,  and exclusive details of the novel comprehensive COMET™ product suite.

To book a meeting or learn more about Lunaphore’s presence at the conference, please visit Lunaphore’s website.

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 provides solutions based on a game-changing chip technology that can extract spatial proteomic and transcriptomic data from tumors and other tissues, transforming any assay into multiplex spatial biology through a streamlined and easily integrated process. Lunaphore empowers researchers in immunology, immuno-oncology, and neuroscience to push the boundaries of scientific discovery and drug development. Lunaphore’s technology enables the identification of biomarker “signatures” with clinical relevance to support the development of diagnostic tools and streamline clinical trials, to ultimately improve patient outcomes. For further information on Lunaphore and its products, please visit https://lunaphore.com.

About COMET™

COMET™ is the only fully automated, high-throughput, hyperplex platform ensuring scalability and reproducibility without the need to conjugate primary antibodies. COMET™ provides walk-away automation, integrating staining, imaging, and image preprocessing steps to obtain standard hyperplex images. COMET™ generates highly robust and reproducible data with full tissue preservation, allowing researchers to perform downstream modalities such as H&E or transcriptomics using the same slide. Its superior tissue profiling capabilities facilitate the analysis of 40 different spatial markers in each automated run on a tissue slide. In contrast to other spatial biology solutions, COMET™ works with off-the-shelf, label-free primary antibodies, making panel design much more flexible and faster than any other hyperplex solution. COMET™ works with regular glass slides from standard histology workflows; it is validated for human and mouse samples and is compatible with any other animal sample. The platform can be used for a wide range of research applications, allowing for a dramatic improvement in the understanding of disease pathology. Orders of the new COMET™ version can be placed and will be available for shipment in the upcoming months. To learn more about the COMET™ platform, please visit: https://lunaphore.com/products/comet/

About HORIZON™

HORIZON™ is a tissue analysis software designed to simplify image analysis and evaluation. Tailored to COMET™ hyperplex immunofluorescence images, HORIZON™ extends the COMET™ workflow, providing a seamless integration between both systems, from a hyperplex image to cell phenotyping. HORIZON™ leverages COMET™-generated images and associated protocol information instantaneously. It can support assay development on COMET™, as well as image analysis workflows, by rapidly obtaining precise single-cell data for custom downstream analysis. HORIZON™ can perform cell segmentation in a few clicks thanks to a COMET™-specific, pre-trained algorithm, and the user-friendly and intuitive interface enables hyperplex analysis with no coding experience. With HORIZON™, it is possible to take full control of hyperplex data, visualizing all image channels with full flexibility and accurately finetuning histograms to see the adjustments applied instantly. The pre-release of HORIZON™ is now available for COMET™ users. To learn more about the HORIZON™ software, please visit: https://lunaphore.com/products/horizon/

About SPYRE™ Antibody Panel kits

The four SPYRE™ Antibody Panel kits – IO, Immune, TIL, and T cell Core Panels – lay the foundation of Lunaphore’s primary antibody offering and establish the basis for the immuno-oncology reagent portfolio. The assays developed with these kits can be modified or expanded with additional off-the-shelf antibodies from the customer’s own library to build custom panels for specific research needs without complexity. The primary antibody offering also includes Panel Builder, an online application providing exclusive access to a library of more than 70 successfully tested off-the-shelf markers and over 300 protocols. It provides an intuitive and convenient way to combine antibodies with SPYRE™ Antibody Panels to create panel protocols in silico, allowing ready-to-use COMET™ hyperplex protocols to be automatically generated in a few clicks. Orders of SPYRE™ Antibody Panel kits can be placed and will be available for shipment by the summer. To learn more about SPYRE™ Antibody Panels, please visit: https://lunaphore.com/spyre-antibody-panels/

 

For further information contact:

Irene Tamayo

Lunaphore Corporate Communications

Email: [email protected]