CellCarta, a leading global contract research organisation (CRO) laboratory, has announced the launch of its Global Digital Pathology and AI Consortium, a curated ecosystem of leading digital pathology, artificial intelligence and precision diagnostics innovators designed to help biopharma sponsors accelerate biomarker discovery.
The Consortium initially brings together Lunit, Mindpeak, Imagene AI, Dipath AI, Nucleai, Tivenix and Indica Labs with CellCarta's global histopathology, genomics, immunology, proteomics, sample logistics, data analysis and regulatory capabilities. The model is designed to give sponsors access to a flexible AI-agnostic ecosystem rather than a single algorithm, platform or AI vendor pathway.
In addition to biomarker discovery, the Consortium will work on patient stratification, clinical trial execution and companion diagnostic strategy across oncology, autoimmune, Alzheimer's disease and other indications.
The Consortium is designed to address a growing need in precision medicine to help sponsors move from promising AI concepts to practical, clinically relevant, trial-ready evidence. By combining CellCarta's pathologist-directed digital pathology workflows, whole-slide scanning, image analysis, assay development, clinical laboratory operations and regulatory experience with specialised AI innovators, the Consortium aims to reduce fragmentation and give sponsors a more coherent path to applying AI across drug development.
Just as CellCarta works across major IVD and technology platforms to support early discovery, translational, clinical trials and companion diagnostic development, the Digital Pathology and AI Consortium is designed to remain non-exclusive, modular and AI-agnostic.
In this way, the Consortium extends CellCarta's platform-agnostic operating model into digital pathology and AI, helping sponsors avoid fragmented point solutions while preserving flexibility across technologies, indications, development stages and regulatory strategies. The goal is to help sponsors identify, evaluate and deploy the right AI-enabled solution for each program. The Consortium gives CellCarta a differentiated position in the CRO market by connecting validated laboratory operations with advanced digital pathology, image analysis, spatial biology, multimodal biomarker discovery and precision diagnostics capabilities.
The initial participating companies bring complementary capabilities across the digital pathology and AI continuum:
- Lunit clinically validated AI solutions empower earlier detection and treatment decisions across the cancer care continuum through a suite of AI products including immune phenotyping, TME biomarker formation from H&E, cell- and subcellular-level IHC quantification, and H&E-based molecular state prediction
- Mindpeak is the frontier tissue-AI partner for precision oncology, turning IHC, H&E, and mIF images into reproducible, quantitative insights - from biomarker discovery to companion diagnostic rollout.
- Imagene AI delivers precision oncology intelligence through robust multimodal foundation models and proprietary real-world data, accelerating biomarker discovery, patient stratification, response prediction, and companion diagnostic development
- Dipath AI is a Chinese medical technology company specialising in AI-assisted digital pathology solutions with a strong presence in China
- Nucleai is a tissue intelligence company applying AI-based image and clinical analysis to biopharma drug development
- Tivenix expands the Consortium's precision diagnostics reach through AI-enabled bioinformatics and liquid biopsy. By leveraging methylation biomarker data, the platform assesses organ-specific cell-death signals for the early detection and stratification of neurodegenerative conditions
- Indica Labs specialises in AI-powered digital pathology by redefining medicine with pathology platforms and services supporting life science discovery, translational research, clinical workflows, and companion diagnostic development.
"AI in pathology is moving quickly, but sponsors do not need another black box or another fragmented vendor pathway," said Christopher Ung, Chief Scientific Business Officer of CellCarta. "They need a scientifically credible, operationally controlled way to evaluate, validate and deploy the right AI approach for the right program. CellCarta's Digital Pathology and AI Consortium give sponsors a single CRO laboratory partner that understands histopathology, genomics, immunology, proteomics, digital pathology and companion diagnostics while remaining open and independent across AI platforms."
The Consortium will support sponsor needs across exploratory biomarker discovery, image analysis, tumour microenvironment characterisation, spatial biology, patient stratification, assay development, digital and AI-enabled companion diagnostic strategies, and retrospective or prospective clinical trial applications. CellCarta expects the Consortium to evolve and expand over time as new technologies mature, additional disease areas emerge and sponsors require more integrated approaches to digital pathology, AI and multi-omic biomarker development.
To learn more about CellCarta's digital pathology capabilities, visit https://cellcarta.com/digital-pathology/.