NEW YORK – Juntendo University, Sysmex, and ThinkCyte said Tuesday that they are collaborating on research into the early detection and treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).
The joint research program will use Tokyo-based ThinkCyte's Ghost Cytometry AI-based cell characterization and sorting technology to develop better diagnostics for blood cancers and advance treatment of CML.
The partners will use the Ghost Cytometry technology to generate morphological signatures of cells collected from CML patients with the aim of identifying and characterizing disease-driving cells. Characterization and detection of these disease-driving cells could allow for earlier diagnosis and treatment of CML and could help researchers better understand how patients develop resistance to existing drugs for the disease.
"The development of new rapid and minimally invasive tools to diagnose the disease early and guide our understanding of how therapeutic agents targeting leukemia stem cells is key to advancing patient care," Tomoiku Takaku, associate professor of hematology at Juntendo University, said in a statement. "We believe this research will lead to findings that help reduce the burden of high drug costs and unwanted daily side effects that many CML patients face."
"Ghost Cytometry has the potential to be a powerful new cell analysis technology for many hematological conditions. Starting with CML, we believe that the diagnosis and treatment of blood cancer [will] be greatly advanced by this joint research program," Tomokazu Yoshida, member of the managing board and senior executive officer managing director and CTO at Sysmex, said in a statement.
The research is supported in part by Japan's Small and Medium Enterprise Agency's "Go-Tech Project," which seeks to move promising technologies from the basic research setting to industry.
Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.