Creating an automated microtomy system.

Leading the way in tissue sectioning technology

Clarapath was founded in 2014 as a spin-off of Dr. Partha Mitra's research on high-throughput neuroanatomy at Cold Spring Harbor Labs. In order to facilitate whole-brain digital neuroanatomy research, Dr. Mitra was processing hundreds of thousands of tissue samples using the tape-transfer method for high-quality microtomy (cutting tissue into micrometer-thin sections for further analysis). The tape-transfer method was originally developed to facilitate the transport of only frozen tissue sections to glass slides for clinical application of anatomic pathology. Historically, tape-transfer has not been used for paraffin wax tissue processing.
 
Developing an end-to-end system

The device, named SectionStar, takes paraffin tissue blocks as inputs and creates glass slides as outputs.  SectionStar will be transformative toward improving patient care, decreasing costs, and enhancing the quality and consistency of tissue preparation. In addition this system allows for database and reporting capabilities that currently do not exist.  LIMS Integration features allow Pathologists have the ability to look at block and slide images in real time or within the database.  It will automatically acquire and log process and image data that characterizes the histological sectioning.