Fahy Gurteen Laboratories

p<>. Scientists at Fahy Gurteen Laboratories have accumulated considerable know-how of high-throughput platform technologies for the discovery, development and clinical validation of cancer biomarkers.

At the heart of the company are high-throughput systems for fully automated immunohistochemistry (IHC) and immunocytochemistry (ICC) staining of tumour tissues and cytospin preparation, including on-board de-paraffinisation and antigen retrieval protocols and highly sensitive polymer-based technology that allows enhanced penetration to antigens resulting in high signal amplification.

Contract Research Services

• Tissue embedding and re-embedding
• Production of multi tissue blocks
• Precision microtomy
• Laser-capture microdissection (LCM)
• H & E and special stains
• Automated IHC and Digital Image analysis
• Automated and manual IHC staining on human and animal FFPE tissue, and cell block samples
• IHC optimisation on control tissues

• Application testing on a variety of tissues:
• Pathological tissues
• Tumour panels
• Cell blocks

• Clinical validation of biomarkers on FDA approved panels of normal and pathological tissues
• Accelerated or real time FDA approved reagent stability/shelf life determination
• Fully integrated high resolution digital scanning of slides
• Automated high capacity whole slide scanning with or without image analysis for validated biomarkers
• Automated quantitative image scoring using FDA standard validated classifiers on pathologist annotated tissue
• Leica web based image sharing and browsing services

• Production and characterisation of FFPE cell line blocks for target validation
• siRNA mediated knock down and overexpression for biomarker analysis

R&D Activities

p<>. Fahy Gurteen is currently exploring innovative technical solutions for the measurements of biomarker expression in immunostained sections using a high-throughput, fully automated image analysis pipeline which is being used by our scientists to develop diagnostic, prognostic and predictive assays for different tumour types. This hardware platform digitally scans a high volume of slides combining independent dual sensor technology and high resolution CCD cameras.

Our unique image processing algorithms allow enhanced analysis through training of the software for specific applications. The platform combines machine-learning tools and region-based detection, segmentation and classification algorithms, based on morphology, gradients and colorimetric thresholds, to accurately identify and isolate, for example, tumour nuclei and automatically generates a molecular phenotypic readout.

The system is able to mask intra-cellular structure to distinguish between nuclear, cytoplasmic and membrane staining. Importantly, it can also perform tissue microarray analysis (TMA) using an auto core-mapping function to automatically locate, select and analyse tissue cores.

Fahy Gurteen Laboratories also develops nucleic acid tests either as stand-alone assays or adjunct assays for the gene associated with a protein target if complementary diagnostic information is required.

Fahy Gurteen scientists working on nucleic acid tests use a number of technologies and platforms, including laser capture microdissection for the specific capture of cells and subsequent processing for RNA and DNA analysis, a fully automated in-situ hybridisation platform with fluorescent or enzyme-based systems (chromogenic) for detecting labelled nucleic acid probes, and Real-Time PCR platforms.