3Scan, Inc. was an American biotechnology company based in San Francisco, California which was acquired in 2019, when 3Scan became a part of Strateos.[1][2] It offered automated microscopy services using a coordinated combination of both hardware and software for the 3D analysis of cells, tissues, and organs. The company was founded in 2011 by Todd Huffman, Megan Klimen, Matthew Goodman, and Cody Daniel. The 3Scan technology is based on the Knife Edge Scanning Microscope developed in the late 1990s by Bruce McCormick, founder of the Brain Networks Lab at Texas A&M University.[3]

3Scan, Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryBiotechnology
Founded2011 (2011)
FoundersTodd Huffman, Megan Klimen, Matthew Goodman, Cody Daniel
FateAcquired
Headquarters,
United States
ServicesAutomated tissue image analysis
Websitewww.3scan.com

History

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3Scan CEO Todd Huffman originally worked as a neuroinformatics researcher at Texas A&M in 2003 and first encountered the technology which became the core of 3Scan's microscopy services during this time.[4] While the KESM was originally developed as a neuroimaging tool, 3Scan has taken the principles involved in this technology and expanded its use to create a novel type of histology and tissue imaging.[5]

The company has raised a total of $22 million through two rounds of equity funding from Lux Capital and Data Collective, joined by Dolby Family Ventures, OS Fund, Comet Labs, and Breakout Ventures.[6] They have also raised $390,000 in non-dilutive grant money from institutions such as Breakout Labs and Start-Up Chile.[7][8] The company employs about 35 full-time employees[9] and generates revenue by providing its imaging services to pharmaceutical companies, labs, or pathologists involved in pre-clinical drug discovery. As of 2017, 3Scan is collaborating with pharmaceutical development scientists, academic researchers, and tissue engineers as a contract research organization. It is not currently used for clinical diagnostics, but is in the process of building out a platform to perform clinical pathology and diagnostic services.[10]

In 2018, cofounder Cody Daniel was named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.[11]

Technology

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3Scan’s technology changes the histology workflow to automate the process of tissue sectioning and imaging. Traditionally, histology slides are prepared by embedding a tissue sample in paraffin, taking some few slices of the tissue with a hand-driven microtome, mounting the tissue slices on slides, and staining with various histology stains. A pathologist then looks at these slides with a microscope. In the workflow developed by 3Scan, tissues are stained, embedded, and then sliced and imaged by the KESM.[12] By automating this process, it becomes feasible to take slices of and image the entirety of tissue instead of a few representative slides. In addition to taking more sections, 3Scan’s proprietary software is able to computationally realign these sections in order to visualize the 3D structure of the tissue, similar in appearance to a CT scan. It uses machine vision to produce a 3D spatial map that researchers can analyze on a screen, similar to a topographical map of the Earth.[13][14][15] Using these maps, scientists are also able to analyze parts of tissue and phenomena that were previously not visible, such as changes to blood flow between different tissue samples.[16][17][18]

This analysis is not possible using traditional manual histology techniques due to the excessive time involved and lost sections due to folding and warping. 3Scan’s KESM technology is able to perform approximately a year’s worth of tissue sample processing in a single day.[19]

References

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  1. ^ "Transcriptic and 3Scan form Strateos 3d Medical Imaging Company". 3d Printing Industry. 11 June 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  2. ^ "Strateos combines Transcriptic and 3Scan". Global News Wire. 3 June 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  3. ^ Yoonsuck, Choe (2011). "Knife-Edge Scanning Microscope Brain Atlas: A Web-Based, Light-Weight 3D Mouse Brain Atlas". Frontiers in Neuroinformatics. 5. doi:10.3389/conf.fninf.2011.08.00036.
  4. ^ Wolfe, Josh. "Digital Imaging On The Cutting Edge Of Tissue Analysis". Forbes. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  5. ^ Yoonsuck, Choe (2011). "Knife-Edge Scanning Microscope Brain Atlas: A Web-Based, Light-Weight 3D Mouse Brain Atlas". Frontiers in Neuroinformatics. 5. doi:10.3389/conf.fninf.2011.08.00036.
  6. ^ "3Scan raises $14M Series B to build out digital pathology tech | FierceBiotech". www.fiercebiotech.com. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  7. ^ "Big data in pathology: 3Scan's 3D tissue imaging platform offers reams of data on scale of gene sequencing". MedCity News. 3 February 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  8. ^ "Tissue Analyzer 3Scan Builds Out Machine Learning With $14M Series B | Xconomy". Xconomy. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  9. ^ "Transwestern Startup Stories: Todd Huffman – 3Scan - The Registry". The Registry. 2017-09-25. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  10. ^ "Faster, better, stronger: the power of automated 3D histopathology - Teledyne DALSA". Teledyne DALSA. 25 May 2017. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  11. ^ Howard, Caroline. "Cody Daniel, 28 - pg.4". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  12. ^ "Big data in pathology: 3Scan's 3D tissue imaging platform offers reams of data on scale of gene sequencing". MedCity News. 3 February 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  13. ^ Berman, Alison E. (11 October 2016). "Robotic Tissue-Slicing Microscopes and DIY Crowd Science to Accelerate Research". Singularity Hub. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  14. ^ "3Scan raises $14M Series B to build out digital pathology tech | FierceBiotech". www.fiercebiotech.com. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  15. ^ "With a Knife as a Microscope, 3Scan Maps in 3D | Xconomy". Xconomy. 4 February 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  16. ^ Kolodny, Lora. "3Scan raises $14 million for a robotic microscope that could accelerate drug discovery | TechCrunch". Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  17. ^ "A 'scientific deli slicer' gives doctors an up-close look at tumors". STAT. 12 July 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  18. ^ "Systems Imagination, 3Scan to Offer 3D Pathology Imaging Services". GenomeWeb. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  19. ^ "3Scan raises $14M Series B to build out digital pathology tech | FierceBiotech". www.fiercebiotech.com. Retrieved 2 October 2017.