Novel tissue preservation media for tumor margin evaluation on intraoperative MRI

Amber is a novel preservation media for diagnostic tissue biopsies that enables superior histology, biomarker viability, and high RNA quantity. Amber is proposed to increase visualization of tumor margins on MRI. The current challenge of evaluating post-surgical specimen is the MRI technology is succumbed to surgically induced artefacts
from tissue-air interface. Tumor margin detection is vital to prevent local recurrence. If margins are not identified, the tumor may be leftover in the patient, which would lead to a second surgery and more complex therapy. Amber is designed to suspend the tissue, image the specimen with reduced artefacts and then transport the suspended
tissue in Amber to pathology for further histological evaluation. The current transport diagnostic media is Formalin, which is known to degrade nucleic acids and create strong crosslinks with tissue proteins, leading to decreased biomarker viability. Amber has proved to perform superior to Formalin, circumventing the current clinical challenges.

Faculty Supervisor:

Benjamin Hatton

Student:

Partner:

Toronto Western Hospital

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Toronto

Program: