Celerus Diagnostics announced that the company is planning to launch its automated IHC system. The company's next generation Wave Instrument is designed to perform routine IHC in less than one hour.
Rapid IHC, said Chief Executive Officer Dave Gross, will take on an entirely new meaning and significance in 2010. This statement follows Gross’ announcement, that Celerus Diagnostics will introduce a totally automated immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining system to the market next year. According to Gross, the next-generation Celerus Wave System, the Wave RPD, will provide laboratory results faster and more flexibly than anything known to the industry. The key is uniting total automation with our existing rapid staining system, he said. No manual pretreatment will be required, as is necessary with many existing legacy staining platforms.
Hospital and reference labs are faced with a myriad of scheduling and turnaround pressures, said Jason Lusk, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Celerus. Yet, patients aren’t able to consider treatment options with their doctor until learning the outcome of their tests. The ability of the Wave RPD System to totally automate Rapid IHC will mean more timely treatment decisions, reduced patient anxiety and better outcomes.
Celerus Diagnostics introduced Rapid IHC with its Wave System in 2008. In addition to standard IHC applications, breast, neuro and Mohs surgeons benefit significantly from intraoperative results made possible in just 15 minutes. A totally automated Rapid IHC platform gives labs the flexibility to choose from a variety of rapid protocols that meet their workflow objectives. Adding pretreatment steps to the existing 15-minute staining protocols on the Wave System, results in total IHC automation in less than one hour, compared to industry standards of 2-1/2 to 4 hours.
Rapid means different things to different labs, said Lusk. Some will be interested in the ability to obtain first slides for the pathologist in less than an hour; others will find value in the ability to produce more than 144 routine slides in a shift with a single Wave RPD System. Ultimately, it’s about providing diagnostically relevant information sooner. A technology leap to total automation for Rapid IHC requires advances in every component of the system; hardware, software and detection chemistries, Lusk added. The Wave isn’t evolving into a Rapid IHC System, it was designed for it.
The technology’s been demonstrated repeatedly and it’s quite impressive, said Gross. We’re moving forward with engineering and protocol development for production and establishing plans for commercialization. We are rapidly securing partnerships for antibody supply and global distribution.