Urklipp från artikeln: Killer potential: time to raise the profile of QPI
Sweden-based Phase Holographic Imaging is another.
Launched by chief executive Peter Egelberg back in 2004, it aims to provide long-term, label-free quantitative analysis of living cell dynamics.
After years of persistent research and development, the company today supplies automated, affordable time-lapse cytometry.
Right from the start, Egelberg and his team wanted to make the instruments simple, reliable and easy to use.
The company’s initial prototype, HoloMonitor M1, was delivered in 2004, followed in 2008 by a miniaturized QPI module attached to a Nikon microscope — the HoloMonitor M2.
“We placed six M2 units at Lund University but soon realized that we needed to redesign the software and the instrument itself,” highlights Egelberg.
“The setup was still too complex and way too expensive, and we were never going to make any money out of it.”
The company launched the HoloMonitor M3 in 2011, having set about designing an even smaller, cheaper instrument that, this time, could operate inside a cell incubator for long periods of time — a huge draw for biologists.
“Reducing field-rate failures took some time,” recalls Egelberg.
“For example, we had to switch to optically-coated components that would deter the formation of micro-organisms.
But we increased the mechanical and electronic quality of the instrument, and delivered HoloMonitor M4 in 2014.
” Four years on, and Phase Holographic Imaging has sold around 100 of those instruments worldwide.
Recent examples include a HoloMonitor Wound Healing Assay that provides data on cells migrating around a wound area, including individual cell tracking information.
Clearly success has ensued but as Egelberg points out: “When you are not working with these instruments on a day-to-day basis, you just don’t realize how much can go wrong.
We’re a small company that uses distributors so we really need to try and keep everything super-simple and reliable, otherwise these sales representatives will simply sell something that they are more confident selling.”
For Egelberg, cancer biology is also of paramount importance.
He noted: “We have other fields such as stem cells and immunology but cancer research is totally dominating.
” Egelberg firmly believes that QPI methods will prove instrumental to providing the final cancer cure.
“When cancer develops, the controlling mechanisms that have evolved to make cells collaborate have been displaced.
The cells start to multiply uncontrollably as their ancestors did a billion years ago, and as micro-organisms still do today,” he points out.
“Cancer researchers don’t really understand why this takes place and need to move from studying at a cellular level to a cell population level.”
Right now, Egelberg’s company is developing software to automatically extract more detailed information from the time-lapse movies of cells captured by the HoloMonitor M4.
In addition to current applications, he would like to provide easy-to-obtain, label-free quantitative cell culture information on viability, division rate, mitosis duration and more.
Importantly, Egelberg reckons that if researchers could automatically map thousands of cells throughout cancer treatment, identify and extract the surviving cancerous cells and then study these cells still continuing to divide, a cure for cancer could be clearer.
“Our goal is really to make a contribution to cancer research, and we can do this with commercial success,” he emphasizes.
“If we are commercially successful, that means we’ve created a system useful for cancer researchers, and hopefully this will lead to a cure for cancer.
Personally, this is why I am involved in QPI.” Like others in his field, Egelberg is certain that software will be critical to future commercial success.
He started his company with the QPI technology at the forefront of his mind, but points out: “We assumed that everyone would understand all of this but that just isn’t the case.
So what we are really doing now is adapting the software so the technology can be more easily used by cell biologists.”
Without a doubt, today’s over-arching challenge for QPI companies is to raise the market profile of the technology in general.
While academics have wholeheartedly embraced the technique, industry peers have yet to raise an eyebrow. “The interest is massive in academia,” says Popescu. “Look at the number of papers we have received for this conference alone.
Yet 99% of potential biology users in industry don’t even know that QPI exists; so we need to go to shows and make demonstrations worldwide to raise awareness and increase market adoption.”
Egelberg agrees. In his words, most of the cell biologists that his company targets “don’t have a clue” what QPI is.
“From very early on, we have been reducing our manufacturing costs and to reach volume sales, we’re targeting these end users directly,” he says.
“But this field is now getting more attention and this is very beneficial for all of us.
” He concludes: “If you are the only company in a field you have a hard time attracting customers and investors.
To reach success we need many companies working on the technology, or it simply isn’t going to happen.”
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Min kommentar
Såna här inslag är guld värda för vilket företag som helst.
Att få utrymme i en branschtidskrift som läses av användare som andra intressenter är stort.
Uppmärksamhetsvärde som PR dito är?
Nu får alltså PHI rejält med uppmärksamhet i USA.
Kan en fredag starta bättre?
Mvh the99
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