Revolutionizing Liver Disease Diagnosis: Arrow Dx Drives Artificial Intelligence to Diagnose Liver Disease
Revolutionizing Liver Disease Diagnosis
This series of interviews highlight the need for cutting edge alternatives to liver biopsy, a painful, risky, invasive procedure long considered the gold standard for diagnosing liver disease such as fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
NASH is a lifestyle disease that is caused by an accumulation of fat in the liver. It can be reversed, but left untreated, it may progress into a more serious form of the disease. Current estimates show that 1 in 4 people already have NAFLD or NASH, yet these conditions are underrecognized, underdiagnosed, and undertreated.
Topics in this series are:
AI & Machine Learning
Digital Technologies & Medical Image Analysis
Biomarker-Based Diagnostics
Blood Screening Diagnostics
Adoption of Diagnostic Tools for Liver Disease
Part 1
Arrow Dx Drives Artificial Intelligence to Diagnose Liver Disease
Global Liver Institute spoke with Edward Olano, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arrow Dx, about using medical, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence to create the ArrowTest, the company's solution to a non-invasive alternative to liver biopsy.
GLI
Welcome Edward, thank you for speaking with Liver Matters. Please tell us about yourself and the history behind Arrow Dx.
EDWARD OLANO
I graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and earned a master’s degree in Physical Chemistry from the University of Texas, Austin. The majority of my post-graduate work was channeled into my role as a chemistry consultant for industrial partners where I gained new skills in nanotechnology, chemical synthesis, and spectroscopy.
In 2016-2017, I was very fortunate to meet some outstanding individuals through the American Chemical Society (ACS) accelerator known as the ERC (Entrepreneurial Resources Center). These experts in business, chemistry, medicine, and law, became my mentors. They advised me on how to start a company and introduced me to my co-founder J.Y. I learned tremendously under their tutelage, and remain in close contact today. In fact, one of my mentors is involved in Arrow Dx’s advisory board.
My co-founder and I were passionate about creating a company that would address the unmet needs for innovative and non invasive diagnostic tools. We believed in our value proposition and quickly deposited nearly all our savings into building the company, embarking on the most challenging, exciting, and inspiring effort of our lives.
GLI
How did you determine the goal of Arrow Dx?
EDWARD OLANO
When we officially started Arrow Dx in 2019, the focus was on environmental diagnostics, specifically the detection of compounds (e.g., metals, organics) in water. We rented a private laboratory space and began developing a proprietary technology that detected compounds in both biological and non-biological solutions. Our hard work paid off. Compelling data from our experiments helped drive significant interest. However, as more people, especially doctors, became familiar with our detection technology, we learned about very urgent diseases that desperately needed new non-invasive solutions for early screening - fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). We quickly changed directions to help address this problem and hopefully help save lives.
GLI
Liver biopsy, the current standard of care for detecting liver disease, is invasive, painful, potentially inaccurate, and carries a risk to patients. How does Arrow Dx’s technology uniquely address these challenges?
EDWARD OLANO
Arrow Dx is building highly sensitive chips that will detect chemical and biological molecules in the blood, urine, water, and saliva. This technology provides portability, ease of use, and versatility in detecting a wide range of compounds. For these reasons, together with our medical, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence collaborators, we are using this proprietary technology to create the ArrowTest. We envision that physicians can use the ArrowTest as a non-invasive alternative to liver biopsy.
GLI
The recent American Cancer Society (ACS) 2020 Facts and Figure Report states that new cases of liver cancer are increasing the fastest. How will Arrow Dx’s technology improve the early detection of NASH and ultimately help prevent advanced disease and liver cancer?
EDWARD OLANO
The main goal is to catch NASH as early as possible before it progresses to more severe liver damage or scarring known as cirrhosis, which can impair liver function. It is imperative to determine reliable diagnostics and develop predictive models that not only detect if liver disease is present but also the chance that a patient will develop an aggressive form of the disease later on. Our aim is that the ArrowTest will provide this information so that patients can consider available medications and make positive lifestyle changes, potentially reversing liver disease. Currently, many pharmaceutical companies are working on new medications to stop and reverse NASH. Some of these medications will be approved by the Food and Drug Administration in late 2020 or early 2021. We expect that the information provided from the ArrowTest will help determine which patients will receive new medications when they are approved.
GLI
How do Artificial Intelligence and machine learning help detect complex diseases such as NASH?
EDWARD OLANO
Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are very powerful tools to analyze data. In recent years they have been used a lot more in diagnostic medicine. These tools alone are powerful and can predict diseases but to fully harness their potential you need to combine them with a diagnostic like ArrowTest. Then you have the best chance of providing a prediction for a complex, advanced disease such as NASH.
GLI
Does accurate, real-time diagnostic data have the potential to impact costs associated with liver biopsy and surgical procedures, such as liver resection or complete liver transplant?
EDWARD OLANO
Yes. A recent paper by Stephen A. Harrison, MD, FACP, FAASLD, visiting professor of hepatology at the University of Oxford and medical director at Pinnacle Clinical Research, discussed how the growing epidemic of liver disease impacts the financial solvency of the U.S. healthcare system. The paper states that for the 6.65 million adults who live with NASH in the U.S., lifetime costs for all NASH cases in 2017 were $222.6 billion and the cost of advanced NASH was $95.4 billion. “NASH, especially advanced NASH, is associated with a high lifetime economic burden,” a test such as the ArrowTest has the potential to reduce these costs by 25% to 40%.
GLI
When may we expect to hear more about Arrow Dx?
EDWARD OLANO
We are working hard. Hopefully by late 2020.
Edward M. Olano
Edward M. Olano is the Co-Founder & CEO of Arrow Dx, a Boston based start-up combining Nanotechnology & Artificial Intelligence working to develop an inexpensive test to screen early for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) including non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of California at San Diego and a Master of Science degree in Physical Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to founding Arrow Dx, he was a physical chemistry consultant for industry and academia specializing in the synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials. His fields of expertise are physical chemistry, analytical chemistry, nanotechnology, inorganic synthesis, and combustion.