Mauna Kea Technologies Announces the Installation of Cellvizio® at University College Cork - APC Microbiome Ireland for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Applications

Paris and Boston, July 3, 2023 – 5:45 p.m. CEST – Mauna Kea Technologies (Euronext: MKEA) inventor of Cellvizio®, the multidisciplinary probe and needle-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (p/nCLE) platform, today announces that Cellvizio is being installed at the University College Cork - APC Microbiome Ireland, a world-leading Science Foundation Ireland research center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) applications under the leadership of Prof. Marietta Iacucci. This is also the first installation of Cellvizio in Ireland for clinical purposes. 

Prof. Marietta Iacucci, M.D., Ph.D., FASGE, AGAF, who recently joined University College Cork as Professor of Gastroenterology and Clinical Investigator at APC Microbiome Ireland, stated: “In our recent publication and presentation of the Endo-Omics study, we demonstrated that in vivo, mucosal and microvascular changes detected by pCLE are associated with response to biologics in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. We aim to continue to push our knowledge further thanks to the combination of cutting-edge technologies such as AI, multi-omics analysis and pCLE.” 

Recently presented at the 2023 Annual Congress of ECCO, the Endo-Omics study¹ led by Prof. Iacucci demonstrated the clinical value of computer-aided analysis of pCLE images with molecular labeling and gene expression for identification of markers of response in biological therapy in IBD patients. This may lead to improved outcomes for patients through enhanced personalized treatment. 

Sacha Loiseau, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of Mauna Kea Technologies, commented: “Following the publication of the Endo-Omics study and the results of the ERIca trial demonstrating the superiority of Intestinal Barrier Healing as visualized by Cellvizio over endoscopic and histological biomarkers, we are entering a new phase of business development for Cellvizio in the field of IBD. Cellvizio brings a clear differentiated value proposition in the analysis of IBD patients’ condition which paves the way for its use in the drug development process for IBD therapies.”