Revolutionary New Instrument for Cancer Diagnostics
In vitro diagnostics leader DakoCytomation today unveiled its new fully automated staining instrument Eridan™ at the National Society of Histotechnology Symposium in Toronto, Canada.
“I see the Eridan™ as a truly innovative step towards the way diagnostic laboratories will work in the future.” Jes Østergaard, CEO of DakoCytomation states, “One true benefit is that we have removed the limitations of traditional batch processing. This means that the patient sample can be processed immediately and the diagnosis is not delayed due to technical limitations. By providing a more sophisticated solution, we fulfil our mission of improving patient care by reducing the time that they must wait for an accurate diagnosis.”
The Eridan™ enables complete walk away automation beginning with tissue deparaffinization and ending with an optimized IHC stained slide. Continuous workflow via its unique drawer design and complete slide traceability from any client software location demonstrate some of the system’s unique features. The Eridan™’s ability to merge Local Area Networking (LAN) technology, InfoGlyph™ label coding, and remote diagnostics truly set it apart from the competition. The Eridan™ is the innovative solution for automated staining of paraffin embedded tissues; cytology and fine needle aspirate preparations.
“We see a constant need for us to improve the kind of service our customers can offer to their customers; the patients.” says Dennis Chenoweth, Corporate Vice President of Diagnostics. “The Eridan™ will make life easier for all who work in clinical laboratories. Because the instrument provides continuous flow capabilities, laboratory personnel will be free to run samples when they come into lab. This means they can avoid back-logs and improve the efficiency of their service”.
The Eridan™ Staining System will be promoted at five Congresses world wide in 2004.
Technical Details
The Eridan™ is the first system to utilize a sophisticated software design that allows for true continuous workflow, which is highly desirable in today’s high throughput laboratory. The user now has the freedom to customize their system in accordance with their daily workflow. The Eridan™ does not require the server PC to be enslaved adjacent to the instrument, unlike many of its competitors. Because of its LAN topology, the Eridan™ instruments and their client PCs can be located anywhere in a fashion similar to the way internal office networks are set up in today’s business world. This enables a patient slide to be programmed in one location, run on an Eridan™ instrument in another location, and monitored throughout at a third location all of which can be seen in real-time.
The Eridan™’s unique drawer design allows for constant access to finished slides, and offers the ability to load additional slides and reagents at any time during processing. This allows users continuous access for addition of new slides without concern for batching or compromising existing slide status.
The InfoGlyph label coding technology is used on both slides and reagents. This new technology combined with the LAN allows for slides and reagents to be placed on any instrument at any time. The Eridan™ Staining System does not require restriction of reagents to a specific instrument, like the older daisy chaining technology currently employed on competitive instruments. The sophisticated Eridan™ software tracks all reagents regardless of specific instrument to enhance system ease of use and quality control.
DakoCytomation A/S, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, is a leading cancer diagnostics company with a focus on personalized medicine. DakoCytomation offers systems solutions for clinical laboratories and life science researchers, providing tests and instruments so that physicians can link diagnostic results to specific therapies and optimize patient care. The privately held company has significant R&D and manufacturing activities in Denmark, UK and USA, with operations in 20 countries, distributors in 50+ countries and more than 1,300 employees. www.dakocytomation.com
