Australia's Imagion Biosystems partners with Wayne State University to enable AI cancer diagnostics

Imagion Biosystems (IBX),  with operations in both US and Australia, has entered a collaborative service agreement with industry leading MRI experts at the Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSU), US.

This new collaboration bolsters the existing agreement the company has with Siemens Healthineers, the world’s leading manufacturer of MRI equipment. Key objectives of the WSU/IBX collaborative service agreement include:

• Determining the lowest concentration (dose) of the MagSense® imaging agent that could achieve the needed detection sensitivity for clinical utility;
• Establishing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) sequences and protocols that are optimized for MagSense® molecular imaging agents;
• Collaborating with Imagion and Siemens to transfer the optimized protocols to clinical sites for use in the planned MagSense® HER2 Phase 2 study; and 
• Employing quantitative imaging techniques that could yield AI compatible image data and improve and democratize diagnostic accuracy.

WSU’s Dr Mark Haacke and Dr Sagar Bush have pioneered the use of MRI in quantitative imaging and have had a long-standing relationship with Siemens. Equipped with Siemens’ top-of-the-line scanners, WSU will focus on quantitative imaging techniques compatible with Siemens and other commercially available MRI scanners.

By combining advanced quantitative imaging with the MagSense® imaging agents the Company aims to enable AI-based interpretation and to deliver more accurate and precise data for cancer detection and patient care. The company, with the support of Siemens, plans to use the optimised sequences developed by WSU in the upcoming Phase 2 clinical study of the company’s HER2 breast cancer imaging agent.