Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Origin (Development of a Compact, Time-Efficient and Safe Medical Diagnostics Machine)
Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2024-12-31
We are in the era of precision medicine, that is individualised treatment that involves the use of targeted diagnostics and therapeutics to the unique characteristics of a patient and of his/her disease based on genetic, biomolecular or phenotypic characteristics. The concept of “personalized” or “precision medicine” represents a great innovation in medical care that has been historically based largely on a generic approach to both diagnosing and treating disease. The principle is coupling diagnostics and therapeutics. In precision medicine, the genetic change can be more important than the type of cancer that we are going to treat. The detection of this information totally depends on the of the previous sample processing. Tissue processing is a laborious procedure that nowadays takes up to 24 h and uses harmful chemicals. The key objective of the EU-funded ORIGIN® project is to bring to the market an innovative device that reduces processing times, the number of processing steps and chemicals used. Importantly, chemical waste can be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way, and the device is less expensive to operate. The project will undertake the necessary activities for validating and further optimising the device beyond the prototype stage to deliver faster diagnosis and results in a clinical setting.
During this first year, we focused on the development of the project both from a theoretical point of view and from a design and technical point of view. On the one hand, various theoretical aspects have been deepened: on the basis of what is already present in the existing scientific literature, Diapath has embarked on a path aimed at building a solid theoretical model on which to lay the foundations for the development of the instrument object of this important project. On the other hand, an important effort was aimed at the construction of a prototype that would allow to obtain reliable, repeatable and excellent quality results and which would therefore guarantee adequate processing of the histological samples. Great attention is paid to the development of a technology that can allow the correct control of the variables involved and that can monitor the process parameters in order to keep the histological sample, unique and unrepeatable, in conditions of maximum safety.
Current tissue processors on the market take up to 24 hours to process samples for diagnosis and leave the operator exposed to chemicals. They also use different kinds of chemicals, in large volumes, which leads to cross contamination of chemicals and samples. This results in more plastic packaging to dispose of, making the process both costly and environmental unfriendly. Our company, Diapath SpA, is developing an innovative solution to these problems, ORIGIN®. We tried to include all important aspects of anatomic pathology, from the persons involved in the process, such as operators and patients, to the quality of the work performed; another essential aspect that we considered is the environmental impact of how laboratories work. So far, in fact, little efforts have been directed towards limiting and reducing the environmental impact of tissue processing technologies, such as chemicals toxicity and disposal, and plastic waste. ORIGIN® technology greatly reduces the number of chemicals needed and, consequently, of plastic tanks required. Moreover, rather than disposing of the components immediately after use, they are recycled and used for further processing. The whole project is compliant with European environmental policies, as we try to think about a greener future for anatomic pathology.