附近上门

is moving pathology from the glass slide into the digital age.

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Pathology has been generally unchanged for 150 years. The process involves taking a piece of tissue–such as from a biopsy–putting it on a glass slide and examining it under a microscope.

Pathologists look for patterns of disease, such as cancer, determine how advanced it might be and the best treatments to consider. Slides are often examined once and stored away, providing opportunity for billions to be scanned into an image library, , CEO of Proscia, told 附近上门 News.

Digital pathology, on the other hand, is a young science. The field gained attention in the United States in 2017 when the approved the, which creates, views, manages and interprets digital slides.

鈥淚t鈥檚 incredible how analog this space is,鈥� West said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the last 鈥�-ology鈥� to go digital, so this is really in the first inning.鈥�

Philadelphia-based Proscia, a provider of digital and computational pathology tools, secured a $23 million Series B round of funding that will be used to accelerate the adoption of digital pathology globally. led the round and was joined by . The new round brings the company鈥檚 total funding to $35 million since being founded in 2014, including a in 2018, according to 附近上门 data.

鈥淒igitization has swept through almost every domain of health care, and we are now seeing its revolutionary impact on pathology,鈥� said , partner at Scale Venture Partners, in a written statement. 鈥淧roscia is a high growth company with a unique platform-plus-AI approach that is enabling it to capitalize on a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity.鈥�

Proscia鈥檚 Concentriq software creates high-resolution images of tissue biopsies and uses artificial intelligence applications to not only improve pathologist workflow, but enable laboratories, health systems and pharmaceutical companies to gather new insights and breakthroughs in order to improve patient outcomes.

Following the company鈥檚 Series A in 2018, it focused on regulatory clearance, receiving approval in Europe last year. Proscia did receive approval this year from the FDA under its due to the global pandemic keeping people out of laboratories.

The company鈥檚 latest capital infusion will go toward achieving scale, commercial product development, data and securing formal FDA approval, West said. He also intends to grow the team by two or three times in the coming quarters.

The pathology market is a $30 billion market, and West expects digital pathology to be the standard in the next five years, which will present a multibillion-dollar opportunity as more laboratories create images.

In 2020, the company grew approximately 11 times in revenue year over year. Although West wouldn鈥檛 comment on the growth trajectory, he did say he is bullish about 2021, given the market tailwinds the company was experiencing even prior to the global pandemic.

鈥淲e are expanding into life sciences and have 10 of the top 20 companies using our platform, and I want that to be all 20 in the next few years,鈥� he added. 鈥淕lass sides represent gigabytes of research, and we are building out the tools, technology and capabilities to help customers.鈥�

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