PathAI Announces Collaboration with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation to Advance Novel IBD Research and Development

Boston, MA – October 3, 2024 – PathAI, a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital pathology solutions, today announced a partnership with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. The collaboration will empower academic and biopharmaceutical researchers to unlock insights into inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) through the unique combination of quantitative histopathology data and well-characterized multi-modal clinical and molecular data.

Quantitative histopathology data will be derived from the deployment of PathAI's IBD Explore™ and AIM-HI UC™ algorithm products1 on digitized histology images from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation’s IBD Plexus​Ⓡ dataset. The parties will also pursue collaborative research using their complementary assets aimed at advancing the field of IBD research.​

Despite the current array of treatment options in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, remission rates in induction trials are still less than 50%, revealing a therapeutic ceiling in the treatment of both diseases and potential challenges that need to be addressed2-5. PathAI’s IBD Explore algorithm utilizes AI-powered histopathology analysis to provide detailed insights into the tissue’s inflammatory microenvironment. IBD Explore has the potential to lead to the discovery of novel biomarkers 6,7, disease subtypes, and treatment targets. Meanwhile, AIM-HI UC is the only AI-powered Geboes scoring tool that provides automated subgrade-level scores to accurately and reproducibly measure histological stage and improvement for ulcerative colitis research and clinical trials.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, the leading nonprofit organization in the IBD space, as a preferred partner to meaningfully advance our understanding of IBD through this unique combination of datasets,” said Andy Beck, MD, PhD, co-founder and CEO of PathAI.

“By partnering with PathAI, we aim to uncover valuable insights from well-characterized pathology images, enhancing our understanding of IBD at the microscopic level and paving the way for novel biomarkers, refined disease subtypes, and potential therapeutic targets,” said Angela Dobes, SVP IBD Plexus, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation.

By combining IBD Plexus’ deeply curated multimodal data, including its large-scale digitized pathology archive, with advanced AI analysis by PathAI, this collaboration aims to enhance researchers’ understanding of the histological factors of IBD to drive novel discoveries that improve quality of life for the millions of Americans living with these diseases.

For more information on licensing a joint dataset from PathAI and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, please reach out to [email protected]. Register for a free demo of PathAI’s algorithm products here.

Footnotes
  1. IBD Explore and AIM-HI UC are For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.
  2. Danese S. et al. Unmet medical needs in ulcerative colitis: an expert group consensus. Dig. Dis. 2019;37(4):266–283. doi: 10.1159/000496739. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30726845
  3. Colombel J.F. et al. Discrepancies between patient-reported outcomes, and endoscopic and histological appearance in UC. Gut. 2017;66(12):2063–2068. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2016-312307. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27590995
  4. Colombel J.F. et al. Effect of tight control management on Crohn's disease (CALM): a multicentre, randomised, controlled phase 3 trial. Lancet. 2017;390(10114):2779–2789. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32641-7.
  5. Alsoud D. et al. Breaking the therapeutic ceiling in drug development in ulcerative colitis. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021;6(7):589–595. doi: 10.1016/S2468-1253(21)00065-0.
  6. Shamshoian et al. 2024. United European Gastroenterology Week. ePoster PP0375.
  7. Griffin et al. 2024. European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation. P008.
About PathAI
PathAI is the only AI-focused technology company to provide comprehensive precision pathology solutions from wet lab services to algorithm deployment for clinical trials and laboratory use. Rigorously trained and validated with data from more than 15 million annotations, its AI-powered models can be leveraged to optimize the analysis of pathology samples, with the potential to improve efficiency and accuracy of pathology interpretation, as well as to better gauge therapeutic efficacy and accelerate drug development for complex diseases. PathAI is headquartered in Boston, MA. For more information, please visit www.pathai.com.

About the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation
The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization focused on both research and patient support for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with the mission of curing Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and improving the quality of life for the millions of people living with IBD. The Foundation’s work is dramatically accelerating the research process, while also providing extensive educational and support resources for patients and their families, medical professionals, and the public. To learn more about the IBD Plexus program, visit www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org/research/plexus.

Get In Touch

For media inquiries, please contact:

Maggie Naples
SVM Public Relations and Marketing Communications
[email protected]
+1 401-490-9700
Path AI seating area overlooking Fenway Park in Boston