Clinical Need
Of the one in eight American women on average who will develop breast cancer, about 15% of those women will develop triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), one of the most aggressive subtypes. Current diagnostic practice is to place biopsied breast tissues through immunohistochemistry (IHC), which detects assays of cellular biomarkers under microscopy. However, the unique properties of TNBC complicate diagnosis with IHC through poor sensitivity at only 78.2%. Developing a novel method of TNBC diagnosis that may be complementary to IHC may drastically increase sensitivity in diagnosing TNBC.
Our Solution
LuminaScope's method utilizes chromatin structure as a biomarker for TNBC. Chromatin architecture is massively altered in TNBC with disorganized compartments in the nucleus and disrupted chromatin loops. Our product, the LuminaScope, is a custom and cost effective microscope capable of fluorescence-based applications in microscopy with a corresponding image analysis GUI capable of measuring chromatin's distortion in order to discern TNBC.