Press release from Companies
Published: 2025-09-09 09:45:46
BiBBInstruments AB ("BiBB" or the "Company"), a cancer diagnostics company, today announces that a research team from Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville (Florida) has presented a poster at the Department of Medicine Research & Innovation Day of a research project using BiBB’s EndoDrill® GI to sample core biopsies for tissue slice cultures. The initial results included three patients with solid pancreatic tumors (PDAC). Tissue samples were acquired using standard manually operated fine needles (EUS-FNA and EUS-FNB) as well as motorized biopsy sampling with EndoDrill® GI. The research team concluded that EndoDrill® GI demonstrated the potential to provide high-quality PDAC tissue cores with reduced blood contamination compared with standard needles. A larger patient population is planned to confirm reproducibility and potentially establish EndoDrill® GI as a new standard technique for obtaining tissue samples for advanced tissue culture research.
“Although these are early results at Mayo Clinic, the findings comparing EndoDrill® GI with traditional biopsy needles are encouraging. If further confirmed in a larger population, it would be highly exciting if EndoDrill® samples could support tissue culture models and contribute to advances in precision medicine,” says Dr. Charles Walther, Founder and CMO of BiBBInstruments.
The poster, entitled “Drill2Culture – Establishing Ex Vivo PDAC Models via EndoDrill-Derived Core Biopsies Using Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS)-Guided Biopsy” (Diana V. Vera Garcia et al.), summarizes the outcome of three comparative PDAC patient cases. Tissue samples were collected using standard manually operated fine needles (EUS-FNA and EUS-FNB) as well as EndoDrill® GI.
EUS-FNA biopsies showed marked blood contamination and loss of viable tissue during cultivation, while EUS-FNB frequently yielded fragmented specimens with similar tissue loss. By contrast, EndoDrill® GI provided intact core tissue with less blood contamination and more material available for histological assessment and tissue slice culture establishment. These findings were confirmed by images of stained tissue slices. The researchers concluded that EndoDrill® GI may improve tissue quality compared to standard needle techniques. The team now plans to include a larger patient population to confirm reproducibility when using EndoDrill® GI for core tissue acquisition.
About PDAC and Tissue Culturing
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) constitutes approximately 90% of pancreatic cancers and is associated with poor prognosis and limited effective therapies. A strong and growing research field focuses on developing tissue culture models from PDAC tissue. These cultures are based on thin slices of patient tumor tissue that preserve the three-dimensional structure of the cancer and can be used as a platform for precision medicine – primarily to test pharmacological drugs directly on a patient’s own tumor sample in order to optimize treatment on an individual basis.
Researchers require viable tumor tissue to establish such models. Several groups have demonstrated that core needle biopsy (CNB) samples are more reliable than fine-needle aspiration (FNA) samples for generating PDAC tissue cultures. Core tissue is characterized by larger, intact tissue fragments, reduced blood contamination and artifacts, and higher tumor cell content – critical factors for successful culture establishment.
About EndoDrill® GI
EndoDrill® GI is the world’s first FDA-cleared powered biopsy instrument for endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). Unlike conventional manual FNA/FNB needles, it features a motorized rotating tip that extracts intact core tissue samples, delivering superior histological yield and enabling molecular analysis. The system received 510(k) clearance in the U.S. in 2023 and CE marking in Europe in 2024. It is currently undergoing clinical evaluation in both regions, with a U.S. launch in collaboration with TaeWoong Medical USA set to begin in autumn 2025.
This is a translation of the Swedish press release. If there should be any discrepancies, the Swedish language version prevails.
For more information about BiBB, please contact:
Fredrik Lindblad, CEO
E-mail: fredrik.lindblad@bibbinstruments.com
Phone: +46 70 899 94 86
www.bibbinstruments.com
About BiBB
BiBBInstruments AB is a cancer diagnostics company that develops and manufactures EndoDrill®, the world’s first line of powered endoscopic biopsy instruments. EndoDrill® is designed to collect core tissue samples (CNB) with high diagnostic accuracy, aiming to improve the diagnosis of cancers in the stomach, pancreas, liver, lung, and bladder. The product portfolio targets the global market for ultrasound-guided endoscopic biopsy instruments (EUS/EBUS), one of the most advanced and rapidly growing segments of endoscopy. BiBB received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. FDA for its lead product, EndoDrill® GI, in 2023. In 2024, CE marking under the EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR) was granted for all three product variants – EndoDrill® GI, EndoDrill® EBUS, and EndoDrill® URO – making EndoDrill® the first powered biopsy system cleared in both the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. launch of EndoDrill® GI is set to begin in autumn 2025 in collaboration with TaeWoong Medical USA. The EndoDrill® system consists of sterile, single-use biopsy instruments and a proprietary motorized drive unit. BiBB was founded in 2013 by Dr. Charles Walther, cancer researcher at Lund University and senior consultant in clinical pathology at Skåne University Hospital. The Company is headquartered at Medicon Village in Lund, Sweden, and is listed on Spotlight Stock Market (ticker: BIBB).
