Merck will use Nucleai’s platform to explore and further develop identified pathology-based biomarkers as companion diagnostics
Merck innovation centre in Darmstadt, Germany. (Credit: Merck KGaA.)
Merck has joined forces with Nucleai to leverage the latter’s AI-powered image analysis and biomarker discovery platform for its clinical-stage oncology assets.
Under the collaboration, Merck will use Nucleai’s platform for exploratory research to further develop identified pathology-based biomarkers as companion diagnostics.
Also, the partnership will further utilise the technology to expand onto Merck’s analysis capabilities, enabling faster turnaround time and scale for future studies.
Nucleai CEO and co-founder Avi Veidman said: “We are thrilled to announce another major collaboration with a leading pharmaceutical company like Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany to identify and develop novel biomarkers for their oncology assets.
“By combining real-world and clinical trial datasets, with an integrated and scalable technology platform, we are harnessing the power of AI and big data and setting the standard for future precision medicine collaborations.”
Nucleai is a precision medicine company that developed an AI-powered image analysis platform to harness the power of spatial biology from pathology images.
Its ATOM platform was built and trained using large-scale proprietary datasets of pathology images and clinical data from hospitals and healthcare organisations in the US and Israel.
The platform leverages computer vision and deep neural networks to structure and characterise tissue and cell architecture in pathology images.
Also, it identifies spatial features of the tumour and the immune system, creating specific histological biomarkers that help predict patient response and inform treatment decision.
The biomarkers are capable of providing better understanding of cancer biology, enabling further stratification of patient populations, and improve the success rate of clinical trials and patient care, said the company.
Nucleai said that it is currently working together with pharmaceutical companies to discover novel spatial biomarkers, develop pathology-based companion diagnostics assays and improve patient outcomes.
In January this year, the company has partnered with Debiopharm, a Swiss-based biopharmaceutical company, to deploy its AI-powered biomarker platform for the latter’s oncology assets.