ThinkCyte, FIMM Partner to Advance Treatments for Blood Cancer

ThinkCyte, a biotechnology company that develops innovative scientific instruments, entered into a strategic research partnership with the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM-HiLIFE), University of Helsinki, to advance the understanding of leukemia and its treatment. The partnership leverages ThinkCyte’s new artificial intelligence (AI)-driven cell characterization and sorting platform, VisionSort, and FIMM’s biorepository of clinically annotated leukemia samples and expertise in drug screening, with the aim of uncovering new insights into how to treat leukemias and other hematological malignancies.

FIMM hosts the Finnish Hematological Biobank, which is a national biorepository containing an extensive clinical set of leukemia sample series taken at different timepoints of disease and treatment stages. By combining their technology, resources, and expertise, the groups seek to characterize how cell morphology changes in different types of blood cancer and how these changes can inform treatment selection, monitor disease progression, and aid in the identification of novel drug targets.

“Blood cancers are a complex, heterogeneous set of diseases and while the treatment landscape has advanced in recent years, there is still a lot we don’t know,” said Caroline Heckman, research director at FIMM. “By combining ThinkCyte’s AI-based platform to detect novel, disease-related changes in cell morphology with our curated collection of patient samples and research expertise, this approach will enable us to view these diseases and intervention strategies in an entirely new, holistic way.”

Janette Phi, chief business officer at ThinkCyte said, “We are very excited about the research partnership with FIMM, a global leader in using innovative approaches and technologies to understand and ultimately make a meaningful impact in the lives of patients with blood cancer. The insights we will gain from this research collaboration can be extended to many other diseases and we look forward to seeing the new avenues of R&D this collaboration will open up.”