Kate Lillard
Chief Scientific Officer, Indica Labs Inc
When
6th Dec 2022
12:00 - 16:00
Where
London, UK
London Heathrow Marriott Hotel
Indica Labs is pleased to announce that they will be hosting the HALO® User Group Meeting: Harnessing the Power of AI in Digital Pathology from 12-4 pm.
Agenda as below:
11.30 – 12.00: Registration and pick up packed lunches
12.00: Welcome Address: Indica Labs Overview
Dr. Kate Lillard Tunstall, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, Indica Labs
12.10: Live Demonstration of the New Microglial Activation and Object Colocalization Modules in HALO
Emily Gamble, Product Specialist, Indica Labs
Learn about the new features of the new FL Microglial Activation module and updates to the BF Microglial Activation module as well as the BF and FL Object Colocalization 2.1 modules in this live demonstration. New features for the Microglial Activation modules include an interactive markup image option, inclusion of maximum cell body size parameter, inclusion of branch point and end point counts, and summary results are now divided into activated and inactivated microglia counts. The BF Object Colocalization module can now detect up to 5 chromogenic stains, the FL module can detect an unlimited number of channels, and an analysis tile padding parameter improves analysis markups.
12.25: Automation and Artificial Intelligence in the Pharmaceutical Histology Lab
Dr. Elena de Miguel, PhD, Associate Director of Histology and Imaging, uniQure
Histology is a key component of drug development which goes through massive transformation. There are several elements that are used by mid-size pharmaceutical histology labs. Elena will talk about how her lab utilizes HALO to get more accurate and reliable data from histological samples in a way that is scalable, quantitative and repeatable. She will put forward several examples from brain and liver research in order to substantiate her work. Further to that, she will also address the current challenges in the field.
12.55: Demonstration of New Features in HALO AI 3.6
Dr. Natasha Carmell, PhD, Manager, Life Science Applications (EMEA), Indica Labs
Natasha will be discussing and demonstrating new features and functionality of HALO AI 3.6, due for release in early 2023. Learn about our new AI Membrane Segmentation module which can be embedded into analysis modules, interactive HALO AI classifier mark-ups and the importing of additional object data into the HALO results tab.
13.15: Coffee break
13.30: Advanced Tumor Cell Detection Using HALO AI
Dr. Marwan Chami, PhD, Subject Matter Expert Digital Pathology – Clinical Biomarkers & Companion Diagnostics, Merck KGaA
Standard pathology approaches play a crucial role in diagnosis, assessment of protein expression and classification of disease. With the recent technological advances and the increased focus on precision medicine, digital pathology-based approaches had gained momentum for quantitative assessments of biomarker expression through the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI)- based solutions. The use of trained AI algorithms in drug development and translational research can significantly benefit the immune-oncology field in the discovery of novel biomarkers and drug targets. As different biomarkers have different expression patterns, we saw a need for more advanced tools to accurately detect and quantify biomarker immunoreactivity in different tumor cell compartments. In this presentation, we describe a project aiming at developing Tumor-Stroma classifiers for different cancer indications on IHC scanned slides. And on the cell level, the deployment of novel tumor cell quantification tools enabling us to robustly quantify marker expression in cellular compartments. We believe that with these robust AI-powered analysis tools assessing biomarkers tumor cells will be enhanced in precision, reproducibility, and scale.
14.00: HALO as a Central Platform for the Comparison of Orthogonal Methods of Pharmacodynamic Protein Quantification in
Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE) Clinical Trial Samples
Dr. Jack Robertson, PhD, Translational Pathology Image Analysis Lead, AstraZeneca
Immunohistochemistry (IHC) has long been used as a pharmacodynamic endpoint in clinical trials, but this indirect measurement of protein levels is only linear in a limited range and does not measure protein concentrations in the cells. Traditionally IHC has been scored by the percentage of positive cells or H-Score, however, the advent of digital pathology and image analysis has enabled much more granular scoring of differences in staining intensities. With this increase in measurement sensitivity, how do we know what constitutes a meaningful change in protein concentration as measured by IHC?
Newer orthogonal methods for tissue protein quantification from formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue, such as protein mass spectrometry, are now available and have led to the ability for comparisons to be made between the techniques to fully understand the protein levels that relate to a certain staining intensity for an IHC assay.
Here I present a workflow using HALO/HALO AI as a central platform to allow the comparison of immunohistochemistry results with tissue region-specific laser capture protein mass spectrometry results in clinical trial samples. In this, I show how we aligned the two workflows to enable an accurate comparison of the outputs of each technique in measuring the pharmacodynamic changes in clinical trial samples.
14.30: Customer Collaborations and the Development of CE-IVD Algorithms
Dr. Peter Caie, PhD, Principal Scientist, Indica Labs
Peter will cover how and why Indica Labs collaborate with external industrial, clinical and academic partners. He will give an overview of what these collaborations entail and what kind of advantages they can bring to both parties when developing AI products designed to be taken through regulatory approval for clinical use. He will also give examples of current projects which apply diverse levels of collaborator involvement with external partners.
14.50: Coffee break
15.05: Collaborative Working: Development of Pathology-based AI Tools for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Cancer
Dr. David Dorward, Consultant Thoracic Pathologist and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and University of Edinburgh
With the rapid development of new targeted, personalised treatments for lung cancer there are many emerging challenges in the delivery of pathology services to ensure that patients receive both an accurate diagnosis and access to the correct therapies as quickly as possible. Currently, within pathology laboratories much of this work is both labour and time intensive but the advent of digital pathology and artificial intelligence provides a number of opportunities to explore alternative ways of addressing some of these issues. This talk will focus on the development of a collaboration between Indica Labs and NHS Lothian to create clinically relevant AI tools to tackle some of the key “pinch points” in delivery of lung cancer pathology services. The aim is to highlight the unique opportunities that are available through clinical / industry collaborations in order to ensure that AI is integrated in a way that is tailored to clinical needs and can be fast-tracked through regulatory approval. In particular, this talk will focus on the development of AI tools to assess tumour percentage within biopsy samples to guide molecular testing and scoring of the predictive biomarker PD-L1.
15.35: Live Demonstration of the HALO Prostate AI and QC Algorithms in HALO AP
Katie McKinley, Director, Clinical Applications, Americas & Europe, Indica Labs
Indica Labs provides ready-to-use AI algorithms to deliver operational efficiency and support diagnostic confidence. Katie will demonstrate our artificial intelligence-based QC algorithm deployed in HALO AP. This tool drives the effective and efficient sign-out of cases from the lab to the pathologist by automating slide screening process and alerting staff only when necessary, minimizing the time required by lab staff to quality check each slide. Katie will also demonstrate the recently CE-marked HALO Prostate AI algorithm running within HALO AP. Learn how this deep-learning-based screening tool assists pathologists in the identification and grading of prostate cancer in core needle biopsies.
15.55: Closing Remarks
Dr. Kate Lillard Tunstall, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, Indica Labs
Bath Road, Heathrow Airport, Hayes, UB3 5AN, UK
This workshop will be held at the venue of the Digital Pathology & Ai Congress, which starts the next day.
For those staying over to attend both meetings, after the Global Engage drinks reception at 6pm, you can enjoy dinner at Carluccio’s, our hotel’s Italian restaurant, break a sweat at the well-equipped fitness centre or enjoy a rejuvenating swim in the heated indoor pool.
For travel, the venue has easy access to motorways and is connected to London in 15 minutes via the Heathrow Express. As well as being just moments from Heathrow Airport, the hotel is close to many celebrated attractions, such as Windsor Castle, Twickenham Stadium and Legoland.
FREE
Standard registration for those not in the categories below
FREE
Fee for practising pathologists, hospitals, medical doctors, university academics & NFP employees. Offer not applicable to employees from pharma or solution providers who should select an option below.
FREE
Fee for representatives of organisations offering services and/or business & technology solutions and also to business consultants.
Dr. Kate Lillard Tunstall, Chief Scientific Officer, Indica Labs
Kate Lillard received her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, followed by a Howard Hughes postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. While conducting research in the area of stem cell biology and oncology as a graduate and postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Lillard developed a keen interest in IHC which led to her joining Aperio in 2007 where she supported and then managed image analysis products for digital pathology. After acquisition of Aperio by Leica in late 2012, Dr. Lillard joined Indica Labs as Chief Scientific Officer where she supports, promotes, and helps guide the development of digital pathology image analysis solutions for the life sciences.
Dr. Elena de Miguel, Associate Director of Histology and Imaging, uniQure
Elena de Miguel is the Lead of Histology & Imaging Department at the Dutch gene therapy company UniQure. Elena’s team focuses on applying digital pathology and computational methods to advance gene therapy research. Elena has special interest in precise detection of gene therapy probes and cell phenotyping. Dr. Elena de Miguel received her PhD in Medicine from University of Helsinki, Finland.
Abstract
Dr. Natasha Carmell, Manager, Life Science Applications (EMEA), Indica Labs
Natasha has a background in cellular and molecular biology, receiving her PhD in Molecular Oncology from the University of Sheffield. Her thesis evaluated the identification of novel targets to augment chemotherapeutic potency in high-grade brain cancers. During this time Natasha developed an interest in IF, IHC and image analysis. After finishing her PhD, Natasha joined Indica Labs in 2019 as a Field Applications Scientist, and in 2021 she took on the role of Life Science Applications Manager where she leads the EMEA Applications team in sales and applications support of HALO, HALO AI, and HALO Link.
Dr. Marwan Chami, Subject Matter Expert Digital Pathology – Clinical Biomarkers & Companion Diagnostics, Merck KGaA
In his current role at Merck Healthcare KGaA, as a digital pathology subject matter expert Marwan supports pre- and clinical teams using digital image analysis. He supports programs by providing digital pathology solutions tailored to clinical development needs. Before joining Merck, Marwan worked as a consultant for quality control and data management, consulted customers for digital image analysis and closely interacted with pathologists and AI groups. He earned his PhD in 2017 at the Saarland Medical Hospital, Germany, in the field of Multiple Sclerosis. Till 2019, Marwan stayed at the Saarland Hospital and set up a laboratory for brain tumor diagnosis.
Dr. Jack Robertson, Translational Pathology Image Analysis Lead, AstraZeneca
Following a Master’s Degree in Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, Jack completed a PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge (MRC Human Nutrition Research). His thesis was titled ‘Endogenous Nanoparticles and Crohn’s Disease’ and focused on multiplex immunofluorescence, confocal, 2-photon and electron microscopies. He then undertook a postdoctoral position at the University of Cambridge (Department of Veterinary Medicine) using immunofluorescence imaging of clinical tissues and image analysis to interrogate the spatial distributions and activation statuses of immune cells to study immunological responses to bacterial antigens and their modulation by endogenous and man-made nanoparticles
Jack joined AstraZeneca’s Translational Pathology group as a Senior Scientist where he focused on immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence and image analysis in pre-clinical and clinical samples. He is now the head of the Translational Medicine Image Analysis team which has the remit to support image analysis in prevalence studies and clinical trials using commercial and custom softwares, supporting assay development with image analysis in mind and also developing and improving imaging and image analysis workflows.
Dr. Peter Caie, Principal Scientist, AI Collaborations, Indica Labs
Peter Caie worked for 9 years as a Senior Scientist at AstraZeneca before completing his PhD from the University of Edinburgh in Cancer Pathology. He went on to run the Quantitative and Digital Pathology (QUAD) Lab at the University of St Andrews where his research focused on artificial intelligence, cancer prognosis, and diagnosis in the field of digital and molecular pathology. Currently, Dr. Caie is a Principal Scientist at Indica Labs where he manages the company’s AI based projects involving external collaborators, with the aim of translating deep learning algorithms into routine clinical workflow.
Dr. David Dorward, Consultant Thoracic Pathologist, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Edinburgh
Dr David Dorward is a Consultant Pathologist who specializes in the diagnosis and molecular profiling of lung cancer. His research has predominantly focused on understanding lung inflammation in response to infection, injury and cancer but he also has a growing interest in the application of digital pathology in clinical practice. As well as exploring the opportunities provided by integrating digital reporting into routine histopathology practice David has been collaborating with Indica on the development of a number of AI tools. The rest of his time is spent with his family or on a bicycle.
Katie McKinley, Director, Clinical Applications – Americas & Europe, Indica Labs
Katie is responsible for the commercial growth of HALO AP, Indica Labs’ first analysis software designed specifically for clinical workflows. Working closely with clinical laboratories, she applies her experience of the clinical market, and pathology workflow optimization to support institutions as they transition away from glass. Katie has held a variety of customer facing roles over the years, entering the digital pathology industry in 2009.
