Start-up company Michelson Diagnostics has been awarded a £140k grant for research and development by the London Development Agency
The SE-London based company will use the funding to support the development of a prototype medical scanner to be used in lung cancer surgery.
Michelson Diagnostics aims to address the huge potential market for a noninvasive alternative to surgical biopsy in many clinical applications such as lung, cervical, oesophageal and skin cancer.
Applications director Gordon McKenzie said: "Clinicians we are working with are very excited that by using our equipment, they will be able to see the tell-tale signs of tumour growth without causing the patient the pain and stress of a biopsy".
The technology is based on optical coherence tomography and enables images of sub-surface tissue structure to be captured and displayed at far higher resolution than available from ultrasound, PET or MRI scanners.
The prototype will be used to demonstrate that real-time images of clinical quality can be obtained.
