TORONTO – Trillium Health Partners has received a C$1 million (US$810,000) grant from TD Bank Group to help accelerate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) at a newly developed health care lab. The AI Deployment and Evaluation (AIDE) lab will determine if machine learning models developed by industry and academia work well outside the data sets upon which they were trained.

Astrazeneca plc has signed an agreement with liquid biopsy testing company Saga Diagnostics AB to develop dPCR assays. Lund, Sweden-based Saga Diagnostics will develop Sagasafe dPCR assays towards undisclosed methylated targets for analysis of tissue samples and liquid biopsies. The assay is part of Saga’s portfolio of “ultrasensitive technologies,” comprising Sagasign for personalized monitoring of cancer burden and minimal residual disease.

TORONTO – Imaging company Moleculight Inc. has launched a new point-of-care, wound imaging platform intended for multiple U.S. health care settings and has also inked a deal with a U.S. distributor to ensure it gets there.

PARIS – Mauna Kea Technologies SA reported the commercial launch of a new generation of its in vivo cellular imaging for diagnostics in gastroenterology. At the same time, the company is deploying its new needle-based and miniprobe-based multidisciplinary confocal laser endomicroscopy platform in the U.S., as well as in France, Germany and Italy.

Diacarta Inc.’s diagnostic assay, Coloscape, could be the first to meet the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS)’s strict standards for Medicare coverage of a liquid biopsy for colorectal cancer screening if results seen in a Plos One study are borne out in larger trials and the test gets the nod from the FDA. That is a lot of ifs, but the study posted strong results: 100% specificity and 92.2% sensitivity for cancer and 95% specificity and 62.5% sensitivity for precancerous lesions.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has restored a rule that requires prior authorization for any mergers that affect a market that was the subject of previous allegations of attempted anticompetitive behavior. The agency’s press release on the change seems to respond to the decision by Illumina Inc. to complete its acquisition of Grail Inc. and its multicancer screening test, as indicated by the statement that the policy would address the behavior of companies that see little risk to their long-term market strategies despite FTC opposition to an acquisition.

DNA Script SAS nabbed $165 million in a series C fundraising round to support commercialization of the company’s Syntax platform and expand its portfolio of products powered by enzymatic DNA synthesis. DNA Script has raised a total of $280 million to date.