XClose

UCL News

Home
Menu

£840K of private investments for Gold Standard Phantoms

1 August 2017

Gold Standard Phantoms have secured a total of £840K from private investors which will enable them to bring their first product to market in the fourth quarter of this year.

Gold Standard Phantoms - QASPER

Gold Standard Phantoms is a UCL Institute of Neurology spinout company led by Professor Xavier Golay which is developing, marketing and selling calibration services for Quantitative Medical Imaging. 

This investment means that they will be able to market an MRI calibration device when used to measure perfusion using Arterial Spin Labelling and will be aimed at research customers in the first instance with a view to launching a clinical version a year later.

Prof Golay said about the new product:

" During the last 3 decades, MRI has moved from a pure anatomical imaging methodology to being capable of acquiring quantitative measurements of physiological parameters, such as the rate of deliver of blood to an organ for example. While these methods are being used daily in research centres and university hospitals, they are still not present in daily clinical practice in radiological clinics. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of governance structure to ensure that an MRI can make a measure in a reliable way. At Gold Standard Phantoms, we aim to provide this structure in a one-stop-shop, from the design of advanced calibration systems representing physiological and functional components of the body to the automatic online platform allowing users wherever they are to ensure that their MRI remains compliant and the measured values remain trustworthy. Simply put, we develop the foundation to permit MRI to evolve from a pattern recognition based diagnostic method to a quantitative assessment of physiological parameters, its next revolution.

Gold Standard Phantoms was founded in 2014 with the aim of providing a solution to the issue of calibration and quality assurance in quantitative medical imaging.  It received the prestigious Small Business Research Initiative Healthcare's Phase I and Phase II awards in 2015 and 2016 for a total of £1.1 million, which enabled it to bring its first product, an imaging standard for Arterial Spin Labelling Perfusion MRI, from early stage prototype through to commercial product. It has also, together with the National Physical Laboratory and NEL, been awarded a £170,000 project from Innovate UK's 'Analysis for Innovators' competition to create a 'traceable calibration for an MRI perfusion measurement'.

Related