BioVolume is the world’s first 3D imaging solution that has been developed in partnership with a leading pharmaceutical company and wider industry for visualising and measuring subcutaneous tumour growth in preclinical oncology research.
It was conceived to enable faster, smarter and more confident decisions to be made in the identification and development of new cancer therapeutics.
BENEFITS
BioVolume enables cancer research companies to obtain more accurate, repeatable data than before. Translational science is also improved through data reliability and transparency.
REPEATABILITY
By significantly reducing
inter-operator variability across studies BioVolume can improve repeatability, removing the reliance on a single operator to complete a study.
SCIENTIFIC CONFIDENCE
With 3D imaging and thermography of each rodent tumour
BioVolume's algorithmic
approach to segmentation
and measurement ensures
consistency in output.
TRACEABILITY
BioVolume's secure cloud-based platform ensures all data is a captured, secured and available for review, offering full transparency in study data collection and analysis.
BioVolume uses proprietary capture analysis technologies to scan rodent tumours, recording RGB, thermal and 3D model data, delivering automatic detection, segmentation and measurement of a tumour’s volume. The data is processed and stored on the BioVolume cloud, allowing for a fast capture workflow and incorporates a fully traceable data storage and output solution for detailed analysis.
HOW IT WORKS
PROCESS OVERVIEW
A FAST AND INTUITIVE WORKFLOW
BioVolume was designed with the user's workflow in mind, ensuring that a measurement session can be completed as quickly as with callipers but with all the benefits of an advanced imaging platform.
*New platform design shown coming Q4 2020
BioVolume was designed with the users workflow in mind, ensuring that a measurement session can be completed as quickly as callipers but with all the benefits of an advanced imaging platform.
THE SCIENCE
INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS OF BIOVOLUME INTER-OPERATOR PERFORMANCE
ABSTRACT
In this experiment 3 operators at a large pharmaceutical company were tasked with capturing measurements of subcutaneous tumours on mice with both callipers and BioVolume on the same day, for the duration of the study protocol.
This was then repeated over 2 further experiments (3 experiments in total). The primary goal was to compare the inter operator variability of the 2 techniques to see if BioVolume outperformed callipers in the repeatability of measurements between operators.
A secondary goal of the experiment was to see if collecting image data (thermal, 3D and RGB photographic image sets) using Biovolume provided additional traceability benefits to the operators.
METHOD
3 Operators anonymised with labels 101, 102 and 103, were chosen at random to take measurements of single subcutaneous tumours implanted on the flank of 40 C57 Black/6 mice.
The experiment was conducted on 2 further studies containing 64 and 32 mice respectively, this time on Balb/C mice.
2 different techniques were used for measurement during this standard tumour growth study (with no compound or dosing of the animals).
RESULTS

Fig. 1
GROWTH CURVE ALIGNMENT
After all of the data was collected, growth curves were plotted for both BioVolume and calliper tumour volume measurements obtained by the 3 operators.
The results can be seen in Fig. 1, and visually demonstrates reduced variability between users during the initial study, when utilising BioVolume.
VARIABILITY ANALYSIS
Intra-class correlation analysis is used to assess the variance across operators whilst accounting for other sources of variation. High ICC corresponds to high agreement
(1 is perfect agreement).
For the 3 experiments, there is a statistically significant difference between the 2 techniques. The BioVolume ICC score is in the ‘excellent’ group, while the result for callipers falls into the ‘good/moderate’ group.

BioVolume ICC: 0.96 (0.95- 0.96)
Category: Excellent
Callipers: 0.86 (0.73 - 0.91)
Category: Good/ Moderate

DATA TRACEABILITY & VALIDATION
BioVolume records 3D models, RGB and thermal imagery for each rodent measurement, allowing interrogation at an individual rodent level. Tumour progression can be tracked visually, providing confidence in measurement output.
CONCLUSION
ICC and CoV analysis show statistically significant improvement in inter-operator variability across all 3 users when utilising BioVolume within the three individual experiments. This allows us to conclude that BioVolume can offer an improvement in study repeatability, as well as additional associated benefits.
The secondary goal of determining whether the collection of image data provided the user with additional benefits by way of allowing interrogation of raw data was also found to be true. BioVolume’s thermal, 3D and RGB image sets provided traceable visualisations of physical tumour growth over time, resulting in greater user confidence of the study outcome.
LATEST PUBLICATIONS & NEWS
Explore the latest publications and news about BioVolume.
SPECIFICATION
Every BioVolume implementation is delivered as a complete service package including hardware, software, platform, training and support.
HARDWARE OVERVIEW
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H: 198mm
W: 169mm
L: 278mm

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Aperture plate
Dust cover
Scan capture button
USB-B port
Power input
SPECIFICATIONS
SUPPORT & TRAINING
Dedicated account manager
Guaranteed response timeframes from UK support team, based on issue severity
Automated additional user registration
Full hardware support for the duration of the contract
Customised user training programme
& full suite of materials
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