Back to all blog posts
Aiforia Technologies and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have signed an agreement to advance the diagnostic and prognostic methods for bladder cancer treatment. This partnership, formalized through a Sponsored Research Agreement, aims to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into the histopathological analysis to better understand and treat advanced urothelial carcinoma. This collaboration combines Dana-Farber’s expertise in spatial transcriptomics and clinical data with Aiforia’s AI expertise in histopathology.
The research is supported by a Bits to Bytes grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. Part of a broader initiative by the Healey-Driscoll Administration to advance life science infrastructure, the Bits to Bytes Program specifically funds projects that utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze large datasets. This award enables Dana-Farber and Aiforia to develop an AI-driven approach that aims to improve clinical outcomes for patients with urothelial carcinoma.
The central goal of the research is to compare responders and non-responders to the combined therapy of enfortumab vedotin and pembrolizumab (EV-Pembro) in patients with advanced bladder cancer. The Dana-Farber team will use Aiforia® Create to develop the necessary AI models to identify histologic patterns and features in the H&E images that differentiate responders from non-responders to the EV-Pembro treatment. This enables researchers to apply cutting-edge AI analysis to H&E samples in the study.
“This partnership represents a powerful collaboration between cancer research and AI innovation. Being named the industry partner for the “Using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Combination with Spatial Transcriptomics to Identify Biomarkers of Response in Immunotherapy Treated Urothelial Carcinoma Patients” project underscores Aiforia’s commitment to advancing cancer research. Together, we are working to solve the pressing challenge of identifying which bladder cancer patients benefit most from EV-Pembro treatment.”
– Darshan Kumar, Director of the Global FAS Team at Aiforia
"We are honored to be recognized by the Bits to Bytes Program. The integration of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s research expertise with Aiforia’s AI-driven image analysis platform represents a powerful synergy, enabling us to accelerate the discovery of clinically meaningful biomarkers to guide the treatment of patients with metastatic bladder cancer receiving first-line enfortumab vedotin and pembrolizumab."
– Joaquim Bellmunt, MD, PhD, Director of the Bladder Cancer Center at the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
|
Henry W. Long Scientific Director of the Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute |
 |
Joaquim Bellmunt Director of the Bladder Cancer Center at the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute |
 |
Paloma Cejas Associate Scientific Director and Head of Innovation at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute |
 |
Darshan Kumar Director of the Global FAS Team at Aiforia |
Looking for an AI development tool for your research project?