The 20 Most Disruptive Healthcare Solution providers The 20 Most Disruptive Healthcare Solution Provide | Page 13

ClearLight is an early stage company, focused on
developing automated instrumentation and associated
reagents to simplify and expedite non-destructive
3-Dimensional (3D) tissue analysis to facilitate preclinical
and clinical research applications. It is creating a platform
that will enable an end-to-end solution for 3D analysis of
preclinical and clinical models of disease. It will consist of
an automated multi-sample and individualized 3D tissue
processor paired with optimized biomarker panels as well
as multi-sample imaging and custom 3D image analysis
software.
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as Clearlight Diagnostics, LLC, it was founded in 2014 by
Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, the inventor of CLARITY,
Optogenetics, and STARmap technologies and D.H. Chen,
Professor of Bioengineering and Psychiatry & Behavioral
Sciences at Stanford University as well as the Investigator
of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
At ClearLight, we
are focused on improving
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the future of predictive
treatment
The current focus of the company is in the area of oncology
prognostic and predictive applications. In this, it
emphasizes on predictive biomarker applications for
immune-oncology T-cell based drugs as well as standard of
care (SOC) biomarkers. Neuroscience is another area of
interest for ClearLight Biotechnologies. In neuroscience, it
emphasizes on the models of Alzheimer’s disease.
However, the technology could be easily applied to any
biological area that relies on 2D thin-section analysis of a
tissue. She has worked in broad senior level roles encompassing
research and development as well as clinical and medical
affairs. Prior to joining ClearLight, Dr. Goodman held the
position of Senior Director of Scientific and Medical Affairs
for Biodesix, an innovator of blood-based cancer
diagnostics. She was instrumental in building and leading
the company’s first scientific and medical affairs team, as
well as initiating key academic collaborations in the areas
of lung and breast cancer. Her other senior level roles
include directing the analytic team involved in the CLIA
validation and commercialization of Monogram
Biosciences’ first oncology diagnostic product, HERmark®.
The Visionary Leader The Problem in the Already Existing Techniques
Laurie Goodman, Ph.D. is the current CEO and Board
Manager of ClearLight Biotechnologies and previously
served as the Chief Scientific Officer since 2015 before
assuming her new role. Dr. Goodman is a seasoned
professional with more than 25 years of experience in
innovative technology development, clinical cancer
diagnostics, and translational cancer research within the
biotechnology industry. She holds a BS degree in Biology
with a minor in Chemistry from Arizona State University
and a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from University
of California Berkeley. Following a postdoctoral fellowship
at Genentech, she began her career at Lynx Therapeutics
(currently Illumina) where she initiated and developed a
breast cancer scientific program to validate the company’s
next generation sequencing platform. Dr. Goodman is also
an author on several key publications and patents related to
analytic and clinical cancer biomarkers. Current gold standard techniques, for the analysis of
diseased and normal tissues are outdated and around a
century old. It relies on the analysis of 2D thin-section
formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue techniques.
The spatial analysis of a potentially heterogeneous tissue
microenvironment can be highly limited by such
techniques, as can the analysis of the tissue morphology.
Furthermore, 2D analysis is destructive, slide-based,
variable and highly manual, and does not represent the
entire biology. Mathematically speaking, a single
5-micron tissue section from a 2 cm3 breast carcinoma is
exactly the same as the ratio of a single Manhattan block to
all of Manhattan (adapted from a personal communication
with Dr. Geoffrey Baird MD PhD). It is not representative
of the more comprehensive biology of that tumor and
therefore may hinder successful treatment outcomes for
patients.
Focus Areas