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Friday, March 29, 2024

Indica Labs and Octo Work With NIH to Launch COVID Digital Pathology Repository

Indica Labs, a provider of computational pathology software, and Octo, an information technology systems provider to the U.S. government, are pleased to announce the online COVID Digital Pathology Repository (COVID-DPR), a virtual collection of high resolution microscopic COVID-related human tissue images hosted at the National Institutes of Health.

While the number of COVID-19-related deaths continues to rise worldwide, only a few organizations are equipped with the viral containment facilities to perform autopsies and collect tissues from patients who succumb to the disease. These tissues are critical for researchers who are investigating the pathology, treatment, and prevention of COVID-19 infection.

COVID-DPR was created to enable international collaboration by providing a centralized, cloud-based repository for sharing and annotating digital whole slide images of lung, liver, kidney, and heart tissues from patients infected with COVID-19, as well as the closely related coronaviruses associated with SARs and MERs. The whole slide images, annotations, and metadata in the repository will be used as a reference dataset for education, research, and future clinical trials aimed at limiting further infection, disease, and death.

COVID-DPR is underpinned by Indica Labs’ HALO Link software, a collaborative image management platform designed specifically for secure sharing of digital whole slide images and data. The HALO Link instance associated with COVID-DPR will be deployed in a web portal developed and managed by Octo and Axle Informatics to provide a secure, globally accessible central repository. Biomedical scientists can securely add, view, annotate, analyze, and share whole slide images using HALO Link. Indica Labs’ image analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence tools can also be integrated and accessed within the HALO Link interface.

Susan Gregurick, NIH Associate Director for Data Science and Director of the Office of Data Science Strategy, is coordinating NIH’s computational efforts to combat the disease. “To better understand the ravaging effects of COVID-19 on the human body and to make progress in alleviating those effects, researchers need to have timely access to clinical and imaging data,” said Gregurick. “The COVID-19 digital pathology repository is a significant step in this direction. This resource provides all investigators a platform to access important reference datasets, and in the next iteration, to support clinical trials research and provide datasets for computational studies based on imaging analysis and artificial intelligence, which are essential capabilities for defeating COVID-19.”

COVID-DPR will be available immediately as a shared resource for researchers at institutes around the world with initial datasets being provided by infectious disease labs across North America, Europe, and Australia. The repository is available at https://covid19pathology.nih.gov for those  interested in accessing the whole slide images as well as those clinicians who have access to samples and data.

Read more at Octo

Indica Labs and Octo Work With NIH to Launch COVID Digital Pathology Repository Homeland Security Today
Homeland Security Today
The Government Technology & Services Coalition's Homeland Security Today (HSToday) is the premier news and information resource for the homeland security community, dedicated to elevating the discussions and insights that can support a safe and secure nation. A non-profit magazine and media platform, HSToday provides readers with the whole story, placing facts and comments in context to inform debate and drive realistic solutions to some of the nation’s most vexing security challenges.
Homeland Security Today
Homeland Security Todayhttp://www.hstoday.us
The Government Technology & Services Coalition's Homeland Security Today (HSToday) is the premier news and information resource for the homeland security community, dedicated to elevating the discussions and insights that can support a safe and secure nation. A non-profit magazine and media platform, HSToday provides readers with the whole story, placing facts and comments in context to inform debate and drive realistic solutions to some of the nation’s most vexing security challenges.

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