Biomoda, a cancer diagnostics company, has filed an US patent application on a quantitative method for scoring cells labeled with the CyPath assay to determine whether cells are dysplastic or carcinomic by measuring the photon emission rate.
Biomoda’s CyPath reagents for the early detection of cancers is based on meso-tetra (4 carboxyphenyl) porphine (TCPP), a porphyrin compound that binds to cancer cells and fluoresces under specific frequencies of light.
The new patent application provides a system for verifying the spectral signature of TCPP optically and measuring the photon emission rate of TCPP-stained cancerous and precancerous cells.
Titled ‘System and Method for Analyzing Samples Labeled with 5, 10, 15, 20 Tetrakis (4-Carboxyphenyl) Porphine (TCPP),’ the US and foreign patent applications build on the science underlying Biomoda’s cytology-based diagnostic.
The TCPP platform, developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is the foundation for several Biomoda product lines still in the development stage.
Biomoda has been completing the pilot study on the CyPath assay as a diagnostic for early-stage lung cancer. Due to pending FDA approval, CyPath reagents are for investigational use only.
John Cousins, president of Biomoda, said: “We have an objective methodology that can be used by lab technicians anywhere in the world to accurately and inexpensively read CyPath reagent-labeled tissue samples. Previously, we had to rely on cytopathologists to look at each and every sample to determine whether there were cancer cells.
“This patent gives us a measurable, quantitative system that opens the door for the CyPath assay to be used to screen large populations for cancer and pre-cancerous conditions. Diagnosing cancer even before a tumor has formed will have an exponential effect on survivability.”
Biomoda focuses on the development of accurate, inexpensive and noninvasive tests for the early detection of cancer.