Slides Go Digital
JOE FERGUSON Sun Staff Reporter | Posted: Sunday, June 20, 2010 5:20 am
Flagship Biosciences CEO and Chairman Steve Potts looks at a microscope slide from a biotech study with a NAC.ET data center server in the background. (Rick Wacha/Arizona Daily Sun)
Glass microscope slides with thin tissue slices are a common sight in most college biology courses.
Millions of new slides are produced every year for common medical tests as well as the research that is being performed by pharmaceutical and medical device companies.
But how the glass slides are handled does not reflect advances in technology — the slides are still shuffled from laboratory to laboratory as pathologists and techs review the results under powerful microscopes.
Maybe a little faster thanks to Fed Ex and UPS, but there are still rooms filled with the delicate pieces of glass.
A Flagstaff company is trying to revolutionize the industry, offering to bring companies largely dependent on slides into the 21st century.
Flagship Biosciences still might require companies to ship them the slides. But then they are transformed into digital pathology files that can be reviewed by a pathologist anywhere in the world.
Each electronic slide is scanned into ultra-high resolution, which allows pathologists and researchers the ability to zoom in to the tiniest detail.
“I call it the Google Earth for the microscope,” said Steve Potts, the CEO and chairman of Flagship Biosciences.
The company was founded in Boulder, Colo., by two renowned pathologists, Drs. David Young and Frank Voelker. Both men offer their expertise to clients, allowing smaller companies to have a well-respected pathologist consult on their slides.
Potts was hired earlier this year after the company moved to Flagstaff.
Having the top experts review new slides is only one of the advantages in using their digital services, said Potts.
The key, he says, is building a digital pathology library to compare hundreds of similar slides with the touch a of a few keystrokes. The libraries, often containing sensitive research, are not shared between clients.
In his office at the local small business incubator known as Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies, twin slide scanners hum nearby. The Aperio ScanScope scanners used by Flagship Biosciences are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and can scan hundreds of slides on a daily basis.
The company moved this year from Boulder to Flagstaff to tap into NACET’s integrated technologies.
A hyperfast connection to the Internet through NACET allows Flagship Biosciences to upload hundreds of images per file in a reasonably short time — they easily eat up a gigabyte or more. A secured server room behind several locked doors and with constant surveillance from security cameras assures that the client’s sensitive data is protected.
The company, which was founded last summer, has several clients.
Potts said despite the high costs of the scanners, the company has always made money.
“We were profitable from day one,” Potts said.
Potts said the company is looking to hire another pathologist for their digital pathology services in the near future. He believes that Northern Arizona University will be a good source for techs as the company grows.
Joe Ferguson can be reached at jferguson@azdailysun.com or 556-2253.
