illumiSonics Selected for INOVAIT Focus Fund Investment to Revolutionize Intraoperative Cancer Diagnosis
June 18, 2024 - Toronto, ON - illumiSonics Inc., (“company”) a leading company in optical imaging systems providing unprecedented cellular and molecular data, is thrilled to announce that the company has been selected as one of the seven recipients of the INOVAIT Focus Fund. This funding will support a groundbreaking development effort titled "First Accurate Fresh Bulk Tissue Imaging with Multiplex Smart Staining and AI-Assisted Diagnosis for Rapid Intraoperative Cancer Assessment."
The primary aim of this effort is to pioneer the development of innovative smart, virtual stains that will facilitate the first rapid, accurate, bulk fresh tissue multiplex technique for intraoperative cancer diagnosis and assessment. This advancement promises to significantly enhance the precision and speed of cancer diagnosis during surgery and transform surgical outcomes for patients. Over the next three years, the company will optimize hardware, generate training data, train smart stains, and clinically validate fresh tissue images.
"Having our project selected for the INOVAIT Focus Fund is a testament to the innovative potential of our technology and the dedication of our entire team," said Scott Durbin, chief executive officer. "We are committed to pushing the boundaries of medical imaging technology to improve surgical precision and patient outcomes. This investment will enable us to accelerate our research and development efforts, bringing us closer to revolutionizing intraoperative cancer diagnosis."
Parsin Haji Reza, chief technology officer also, commented: “INOVAIT’s Focus Fund is crucial in progressing our cutting-edge research, ensuring that illumiSonics remains at the forefront of medical innovation. By developing these advanced smart, virtual stains and validating their effectiveness through rigorous clinical studies, we aim to set new standards in cancer diagnosis and treatment.”
Funding for this project was provided in part by INOVAIT through the Government of Canada's Strategic Innovation Fund.
INOVAIT is a pan-Canadian network funded by the Government of Canada and hosted at the Sunnybrook Research Institute with the objective of building a truly integrated image-guided therapy ecosystem, fueling continuous innovation that revolutionizes healthcare globally. Through connecting, educating, and investing in the industry’s brightest minds and most promising ventures, INOVAIT will support and encourage collaborative development and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into medical technologies. Ce projet a été financé en partie par INOVAIT dans le cadre du Fonds stratégique pour l’innovation du gouvernement du Canada.
Financé par le gouvernement du Canada et situé à l’Institut de recherche Sunnybrook, INOVAIT est un réseau pancanadien dont l’objectif est de créer un écosystème de thérapie guidée par imagerie véritablement intégré qui favorise l’innovation continue et révolutionne les soins de santé à l’échelle mondiale. Grâce à l’établissement de liens, à la formation et à la réalisation d’investissements au profit des plus brillants cerveaux et des initiatives les plus prometteuses du secteur, INOVAIT soutiendra et stimulera le développement collaboratif ainsi que l’intégration de l’intelligence artificielle (IA) dans les technologies médicales.
About illumiSonics Inc.
illumiSonics Inc. is a Waterloo, Ontario company that has developed the PARS® (photon absorption remote sensing) optical imaging platform, a revolutionary non-contact, high-resolution, label-free, non-destructive imaging modality. PARS® captures all light-matter interactions to give unprecedented deep data, which can then be processed using AI to yield multiple virtual histopathology images. PARS can generate multiple diagnoses from a single tissue sample which has the potential to dramatically change the imaging of both fixed and fresh tissue samples. For more information, visit www.illumisonics.com.
About INOVAIT
Established in 2020, INOVAIT invests strategically in collaborative partnerships that build upon Canada's strength in digital innovation and health science research to create a critical mass of world-leading Image-guided therapy (IGT) companies. Hosted by the Sunnybrook Research Institute and supported by the Government of Canada's Strategic Innovation Fund, the Network brings together small, medium-sized, and large companies, research organizations, post-secondary institutions, and not-for-profit organizations. INOVAIT aims to build an integrated IGT ecosystem by fuelling continuous innovation that revolutionizes healthcare globally. To learn more, visit www.INOVAIT.ca.
The primary aim of this effort is to pioneer the development of innovative smart, virtual stains that will facilitate the first rapid, accurate, bulk fresh tissue multiplex technique for intraoperative cancer diagnosis and assessment. This advancement promises to significantly enhance the precision and speed of cancer diagnosis during surgery and transform surgical outcomes for patients. Over the next three years, the company will optimize hardware, generate training data, train smart stains, and clinically validate fresh tissue images.
"Having our project selected for the INOVAIT Focus Fund is a testament to the innovative potential of our technology and the dedication of our entire team," said Scott Durbin, chief executive officer. "We are committed to pushing the boundaries of medical imaging technology to improve surgical precision and patient outcomes. This investment will enable us to accelerate our research and development efforts, bringing us closer to revolutionizing intraoperative cancer diagnosis."
Parsin Haji Reza, chief technology officer also, commented: “INOVAIT’s Focus Fund is crucial in progressing our cutting-edge research, ensuring that illumiSonics remains at the forefront of medical innovation. By developing these advanced smart, virtual stains and validating their effectiveness through rigorous clinical studies, we aim to set new standards in cancer diagnosis and treatment.”
Funding for this project was provided in part by INOVAIT through the Government of Canada's Strategic Innovation Fund.
INOVAIT is a pan-Canadian network funded by the Government of Canada and hosted at the Sunnybrook Research Institute with the objective of building a truly integrated image-guided therapy ecosystem, fueling continuous innovation that revolutionizes healthcare globally. Through connecting, educating, and investing in the industry’s brightest minds and most promising ventures, INOVAIT will support and encourage collaborative development and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into medical technologies. Ce projet a été financé en partie par INOVAIT dans le cadre du Fonds stratégique pour l’innovation du gouvernement du Canada.
Financé par le gouvernement du Canada et situé à l’Institut de recherche Sunnybrook, INOVAIT est un réseau pancanadien dont l’objectif est de créer un écosystème de thérapie guidée par imagerie véritablement intégré qui favorise l’innovation continue et révolutionne les soins de santé à l’échelle mondiale. Grâce à l’établissement de liens, à la formation et à la réalisation d’investissements au profit des plus brillants cerveaux et des initiatives les plus prometteuses du secteur, INOVAIT soutiendra et stimulera le développement collaboratif ainsi que l’intégration de l’intelligence artificielle (IA) dans les technologies médicales.
About illumiSonics Inc.
illumiSonics Inc. is a Waterloo, Ontario company that has developed the PARS® (photon absorption remote sensing) optical imaging platform, a revolutionary non-contact, high-resolution, label-free, non-destructive imaging modality. PARS® captures all light-matter interactions to give unprecedented deep data, which can then be processed using AI to yield multiple virtual histopathology images. PARS can generate multiple diagnoses from a single tissue sample which has the potential to dramatically change the imaging of both fixed and fresh tissue samples. For more information, visit www.illumisonics.com.
About INOVAIT
Established in 2020, INOVAIT invests strategically in collaborative partnerships that build upon Canada's strength in digital innovation and health science research to create a critical mass of world-leading Image-guided therapy (IGT) companies. Hosted by the Sunnybrook Research Institute and supported by the Government of Canada's Strategic Innovation Fund, the Network brings together small, medium-sized, and large companies, research organizations, post-secondary institutions, and not-for-profit organizations. INOVAIT aims to build an integrated IGT ecosystem by fuelling continuous innovation that revolutionizes healthcare globally. To learn more, visit www.INOVAIT.ca.
| illumiSonics Selected for INOVAIT Focus Fund Investment to Revolutionize |