Grant: Idea to Innovation

This proposal aims to introduce new immunolabelling probes based on gold-silver alloy nanoparticles (ANPs) for application in clinical pathology imaging of cancer. Such probes open the possibility to perform quantitative and multiplexed analysis, thus overcoming the important limitations of present immunolabelling techniques. These ANPs can be identified by their spectral signature (colour), enabling multiplexed cell labelling and identification. The ANP labels are stable and bright, and upon modification to bind a specific target, they can enable the biomarker quantification. Such quantification is highly valuable for pathologists who must precisely determine the cancer type and then select the most efficient treatment for the patient, as is needed for immunotherapy. We will mediate the maturation of our research to obtain a robust technology and demonstrate the advantages of antibody-functionalized ANPs as probes for the quantification of PD-L1, a protein biomarker of non-small cell lung cancer. Our approach ought to yield a much higher immunotherapy treatment success rate than is currently available by tailoring treatment specifically toward a patient. The target market segments for this technology are the reagents for immunolabelling (expected to reach USD $2.6 billion in 2026) and the global market for immunotherapy (USD $150 billion). A patent for our ANPs and related process has already been issued (US Patent 10,239,122 (2019)). Moreover, this project also shows potential for the development of new patents for the complete imaging system. Highly respected pathologists, who are potential users in the health sector, have confirmed the value of our new technology and will test it in their own clinical activities. To move our project to commercialization for the synthesis of ANPs, their functionalization, production of the optical imaging setup, and software analysis, the creation of a start-up at Polytechnique Montréal is being considered. Roche, an international leader in in vitro diagnostics, sees tremendous potential in this technology to transform cancer diagnosis and has expressed support for our PD-L1 detection strategy for partnership development.