Imaging Biometrics, a medical visualization software company, has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Penn regarding a tumor evaluation technology created by radiology professor Jayaram Udupa.
Once commercialized, the software will provide clinicians with standardized MRI images “to make their clinical interpretations” and “pick up changes much more easily,” Imaging Biometrics Chief Executive Officer Michael Schmainda said. Such changes include brain tissue components, tissue volume measurements and other disease-related factors.
Imaging Biometrics already offers a product called IB Neuro, which can be used to evaluate the initial tumor, especially for pre-surgical planning purposes. What the new technology offers, however, is “a way to standardize the images from one step to the next,” Schmainda said.
According to Udupa, scanned MRI images of the same organ or body region are not always similar, thus creating “bothersome,” “inconvenient” and often “meaningless” images, which are generally a result of manual, as opposed to automated, adjustment.
“The idea of the technology is that for a given body region,” images provided over time “on different scanners and even different brands of scanners … will be all cast in the same grayscale,” Udupa said.
He studied the software’s effects on multiple sclerosis and noticed that standardizing the images helped detect legions and quantify tissue and legion volumes, all of which can help track the progress of the illness.
MS is a “white matter disease,” he said. “If there are slight changes in the white matter, you may not be able to discern that slight change if you don’t standardize.”
The same concept, he added, can be applied to MRI imaging for any body part, including the heart and even joints.
The technology was studied as part of the 1999 doctoral thesis of Laszlo Nyul, one of Udupa’s former students. The patent for the technology was issued in 2003.
However, in June, Imaging Biometrics approached Udupa through the Center for Technology Transfer, which protects and licenses University-related intellectual property, to arrange commercialization of the software.
The company is now beta-testing the software, and will then pursue Food and Drug Administration clearance before releasing it to the international public, particularly neuroradioloigists, neuro-oncologists and neurosurgeons.
According to Schmainda, new drugs and therapies make it more difficult for radiologists to interpret differences over time in images.
With Udupa’s patented technology, the company will now be able to offer improved image quality and hopefully allow clinicians to provide patients with effective treatment early and “extend their quality of life,” Schmainda said.
