Cancer diagnostics company Biomoda, Inc. (OTCBB: BMOD) (www.biomoda.com) filed a U.S. patent application on a quantitative method for scoring cells labeled with the CyPath® assay to determine whether cells are dysplastic or carcinomic by measuring the photon emission rate.
“We now have an objective methodology that can be used by lab technicians anywhere in the world to accurately and inexpensively read CyPath® reagent-labeled tissue samples”
Biomoda's CyPath® reagents for the early detection of cancers is based on meso-tetra (4 carboxyphenyl) porphine or TCPP, a porphyrin compound that binds to cancer cells and fluoresces under specific frequencies of light. The new patent application provides a system for verifying the spectral signature of TCPP optically and measuring the photon emission rate of TCPP-stained cancerous and precancerous cells.
"We now have an objective methodology that can be used by lab technicians anywhere in the world to accurately and inexpensively read CyPath® reagent-labeled tissue samples," said Biomoda President John Cousins. "Previously, we had to rely on cytopathologists to look at each and every sample to determine whether there were cancer cells. This patent gives us a measurable, quantitative system that opens the door for the CyPath® assay to be used to screen large populations for cancer and pre-cancerous conditions. Diagnosing cancer even before a tumor has formed will have an exponential effect on survivability."
Biomoda is nearing completion of the pilot study on the CyPath® assay as a diagnostic for early-stage lung cancer. Pending Food and Drug Administration approval, CyPath® reagents are for investigational use only.
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