Lunaphore Announces Formation of New Scientific Advisory Board

LAUSANNE, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lunaphore Technologies SA, a Swiss life-sciences company developing innovative next-generation equipment for cancer research, announces the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) with the appointment of two experts in the immuno-oncology (I-O) field to provide strategic advisory support to the company’s R&D activities and product portfolio development.

The role of the SAB will be to bring strategic insights that will enable Lunaphore to become leaders in the field of high-dimensional analysis of tissue samples. The SAB will support as well in the establishment of scientific partnerships with key stakeholders for the coming years.

The new Lunaphore SAB will be comprised of the following members:

• Prof. Paolo A. Ascierto, MD

Dr. Paolo A. Ascierto is the Director of the Department of Melanoma, Cancer Immunotherapy and Development Therapeutics at the National Tumor Institute in Naples, Italy. Professor Ascierto’s research interests include the genetics and proteomics of melanoma, assessment of new molecular markers for tumor progression, biochemical and immunological monitoring, immunotherapy and vaccination treatments in solid tumors, and combination strategies with I-O. He is a member of the Steering Committee of Society of Melanoma Research (SMR) and the Board of Directors of Society of ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (SITC), President of the Fondazione Melanoma Onlus, and of Campania Society of ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (SCITO). He is an Associate Editor for Onco-Immunology of Annals of Oncology, Chief Section Editor for Combination Strategies section of Journal of Translational Medicine, and Associate Editor of Journal of ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. He has been the Principal Investigator in over 100 clinical trials and is the author of more than 450 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

• Dr. Jérôme Galon

Dr. Jérôme Galon is the Director of Research at INSERM (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), and Head of the Laboratory of Integrative Cancer Immunology at the Cordeliers Research Center in Paris, France. Dr. Galon defined the concept of cancer immune-contexture, pioneered the Immunoscore and is PI of the Immunoscore worldwide consortium. This scientific contribution was acknowledged by many awards such as the William B. Coley Award, the Award from the National Academy of Science, from the National Academy of Medicine, and European Inventor Award 2019. He is the co-founder of HalioDx and the Chairman of its Scientific Council.

“I am excited to have such great experts in I-O join our SAB,” said Dr. Dupouy, CTO at Lunaphore. “Their expertise in the field will be key to focus our research efforts on the most promising I-O applications, as well as to expand our scientific collaborations worldwide.”

"The key for the immune responsiveness is in the tumor microenvironment,” noted Dr. Ascierto. “Lunaphore has a technology which can potentially make such evaluation easier and greatly contribute to the research field of immunotherapy."

“Lunaphore is developing rapid automated staining instruments based on an innovative microfluidic technology with great potential for multiple research applications,” Dr. Galon said. “I look forward to the next generation hyper-plex immunofluorescence instruments.”

About Lunaphore

Lunaphore Technologies S.A. is a Swiss company transforming the field of tissue analytics in cancer research through the development of innovative staining and imaging technology platforms. The award-winning technology at its core is called FFeX (Fast Fluidic Exchange). Using high-precision microfluidics, complex assays can be automated, extracting comprehensive data much faster than current techniques. Lunaphore was founded in 2014 with the vision of bringing –omics like approaches to tissue analytics and has been recognized as one of the most innovative companies internationally. For further information on Lunaphore and its products, please visit www.lunaphore.com.