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Histofy, a company specialising in AI for pathology, today announces £500K of funding to develop algorithms for endoscopic colon biopsy screening, helping to mitigate the worldwide pathology staffing crisis.  Birmingham, UK (10th March 2023) – Histofy, a spinout company from the University of Warwick, today announces it has joined hands with leading academic and clinical partners on a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded project to transform colon biopsy screening with advanced AI. The pioneering technology will automatically screen out normal biopsies so that pathologists can better use their resources analysing disease. The company, founded by Prof David Snead, Prof Nasir Rajpoot and Dr Simon Graham, will integrate its existing AI technology into clinical practice and perform an extensive validation using over ten thousand biopsy samples across ten UK sites. Easing the Staffing Crisis with AI ​​Increasing screening rates for early detection of colon cancer are placing significant pressure on already understaffed and overloaded histopathology resources worldwide. The surging demand ultimately leads to delays in diagnosis, negatively impacting patient care especially for those with abnormal conditions (e.g., cancer or serious inflammation) where early intervention and treatment are critical. The funding acquired from NIHR will enable Histofy to integrate AI into the screening procedure, helping to ease the tremendous pressure currently placed on pathologists.  “Current practice is unsustainable and with increasing demands for colon screening there is no sign of it slowing down” A Consortium of Ten Partners NIHR have funded £2.6 million over three years to a consortium of eleven UK organisations, where Histofy have secured over £500K as the sole commercial partner responsible for productising the technology and integrating it within existing hospital systems. The consortium comprises ten NHS sites: Coventry, Nottingham, Cambridge, Oxford, Southampton, Glasgow, Newcastle, Durham, North Tees and Wolverhampton, who will provide a total of ten thousand biopsy samples for large-scale validation of the algorithm.  Prof Snead, Chief Medical Officer at Histofy and the COBIx Project Lead, said: “I am excited at the prospect of streamlining the examination of colon biopsies using AI. Current practice is unsustainable and with increasing demands for colon screening there is no sign of it slowing down. Our AI technology will reduce the number of biopsies that require examination and hence help overcome current challenges with staffing”. Prof Rajpoot, Chief Scientific Officer at Histofy and the COBIx Joint Project Lead, added: “There is great potential for AI in pathology. In particular, our revolutionary technology can significantly reduce the burden of colon biopsy screening, helping pathologists focus on cases that require special attention”.  About NIHR The National Institute for Health and Care Research funds and delivers world-leading health and social care research that improves people’s health and wellbeing, and promotes economic growth. Their mission is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research

Histofy today announces the signing of spinout agreement with the University of Warwick to commercialise cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) tools for pathology.  Birmingham, UK (8th March 2023) – Histofy, a medical technology company specialising in developing transparent AI models for pathology, has announced that it is now a spinout from the University of Warwick. The company’s technology aims to revolutionise tissue based research and practice by bringing AI technologies for deep tissue profiling to the market. An Important Milestone The spinout from the University of Warwick marks an important milestone for Histofy, as it enables the company to develop and commercialise its innovative technology. The founding team of medical and AI experts is dedicated to driving innovation in the pathology field through the use of transparent AI models. Tim Francis, Business Development Manager at Warwick Innovations, said: “This is an important step in the realisation of technology developed at Warwick. There is great potential for improvements in cancer treatment and patient outcomes.” Cutting-Edge AI for Cellular Pathology Histofy’s innovative technology brings avant-garde AI to histopathology and offers precise and accurate tissue profiling that will enable faster and more accurate diagnostics, prognostics and predictive analytics. With a focus on the clinical and biopharma markets, the company’s technology has the potential to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. “Our AI tools will leverage the huge amount of pathology data that exists worldwide and ultimately lead to faster diagnosis and better treatment” Prof Nasir Rajpoot, Chief Scientific Officer at Histofy, said: “I am excited for Histofy to pioneer the clinical translation of AI based biomarkers for improved diagnosis, prognosis and treatment selection. Our AI tools will leverage the huge amount of pathology data that exists worldwide and ultimately lead to faster diagnosis and better treatment”.  Prof David Snead, Chief Medical Officer at Histofy, stated: “I firmly believe in the tremendous potential of AI in pathology. The technology that Histofy is creating will transform the future of pathology, leading to more objective diagnosis, personalised medicine and shorter turnaround times”.  Histofy’s groundbreaking technology has already gained recognition in the medical community, with the founding team publishing over 250 papers in esteemed journals. The spinout from the University of Warwick further strengthens the company’s position in the market, as it continues to explore new ways of tissue profiling. Dr Simon Graham, Chief Technology Officer at Histofy, said:  “At Histofy we are looking forward to placing AI in the hands of biomedical researchers and practitioners to improve patient care. We are ready to make AI accessible across a range of solutions for the digital pathology market and believe that our technology will dramatically improve the management of complex diseases, such as cancer”. 

Histofy, a Birmingham-based startup, has been founded to accelerate the transformation of cancer research and care with cutting-edge transparent artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Birmingham, UK (6th February 2023) – Histofy AI, a UK-based startup, has been founded by a team of world leading experts with an accumulated 40+ years of experience in the field of digital pathology and AI. With over 250 publications in leading journals and conferences from research spanning over 20 years, the team brings their understanding of pathology and AI to  spearhead the development and introduction of advanced AI tools for clinical pathology and pharmaceutical research.  Transforming Pathology with AI Examination of pathology slides is essential in ensuring accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment of many diseases, such as cancer. For many years, this has been done by visual inspection of the tissue with a microscope, but the digital pathology revolution means AI can be utilised to assist pathologists in delivering quicker and more accurate results – ultimately leading to better patient care.  Histofy has been launched to commercialise the AI tools the team has developed in research programmes over the past few years. This technology delivers transparent AI for deep profiling and interpretable decision-making from digitised images of pathology slides. “This is a very exciting time for pathology as we move into an era where pathologists will be using AI to assist in analysing patient tissue samples” Histofy Appoints CTO Today, Histofy also announces the appointment of Dr Simon Graham as the company’s Chief Technology Officer. With a background in mathematics and computer science, Dr Graham completed his PhD in computational pathology from the world-leading Tissue Image Analytics (TIA) Centre at the University of Warwick, where he was awarded the best thesis prize in the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine.  Dr Graham, Chief Technology Officer at Histofy, said: “I am excited at the prospect of placing robust AI solutions in the hands of pathology and oncology researchers and practitioners to improve patient care. We are ready to make AI accessible across a range of solutions for the digital pathology market and believe that our technology will dramatically improve the management of diseases, such as cancer”.  Prof David Snead said:  “This is a very exciting time for pathology as we move into an era where pathologists will be using AI to assist in analysing patient tissue samples. Our research programme has developed some of the best and most interesting solutions. Histofy AI has been launched to take these technologies through productisation and commercialisation. Dr Simon Graham is a world leading computational pathology scientist developing this technology, so we are delighted to welcome him as our CTO.”