A medical diagnostics company revealed Tuesday that it has joined forces with technology giant Nvidia to dramatically cut the time patients wait for critical cancer test results after surgery.
Droplet Biosciences announced the partnership will utilize Nvidia’s artificial intelligence technology to analyze genetic information much faster than traditional methods. The company is implementing Nvidia Parabricks, a specialized software system that uses advanced processors to rapidly examine DNA sequences.
The breakthrough allows doctors to identify remaining cancer cells within 24 hours by examining fluid from the lymphatic system collected during surgery. This represents a massive improvement over current blood-based testing methods, which typically require four to six weeks before tumor remnants can be detected.
According to Droplet’s chief scientific officer, Wendy Winckler, the AI acceleration has transformed their most complex computational processes. “By leveraging NVIDIA Parabricks’ acceleration, we’ve been able to compress some of our most computationally intensive steps from more than a day down to just a few hours,” Winckler explained.
The company reported that while the advanced computing technology costs more per hour to operate, the significantly shorter processing time actually reduces the total expense for each patient sample analyzed.
This rapid turnaround means patients can receive their test results before leaving the hospital, eliminating the need for additional appointments or extended waiting periods associated with conventional blood testing procedures.
Zhuosheng Gu, senior director of informatics and research at Droplet Biosciences, highlighted another improvement in their workflow. “We are using Parabricks to speed up our genomic analysis and shorten turnaround time from 10 days to less than five days,” Gu stated.
The startup’s initial clinical application focuses on HPV-negative head and neck cancer testing, which has received validation under Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments standards. Droplet Biosciences participates in NVIDIA Inception, a program designed to support AI startups, and serves as a customer of NVIDIA AI Enterprise services.
