Micrima – a Bristol-based medtech company – has built on huge successes and is expanding into new offices at Bristol’s One Glass Wharf, with plans to further develop its advanced breast cancer scanner, MARIA.
The MARIA scanner (pictured right), which was initially developed by researchers at the University of Bristol, is set to revolutionise the detection of breast cancer (when compared with the traditional x-ray mammography) by making the whole process more accurate, as well as safer.
“The problem is that many tumours are not discovered early enough”
Micrima’s Executive Chairman, Roy Johnson, says: “Breast cancer is the most common cause of death in women between the ages of 35 and 55 in Europe and the leading cause of death for women in many countries. The problem is that many tumours are not discovered early enough, largely due to the difficulty in discriminating between cancers and dense tissue using current imaging technology.”
The company, which managed to raise a massive £2.6m of investment last year, has now got the scanner into clinical trials at several breast cancer imaging centres across the UK and is hoping that the office expansion will enable them to support the commercialisation and further technical development of the scanner.
Speed and comfort
Other benefits of the new technology include the speed at which a scan can be completed – at just 5 minutes – and the increase in comfort for the patient, with the scanner designed to avoid breast compression.
And with discomfort given as one of the main reasons given by women not attending mammogram appointments, this alone is huge in terms of the number of lives it could save.
Find out more about the MARIA scanner on the Micrima website or follow them on Twitter to stay in touch with the latest updates at: @MicrimaLimited.
Via: SETSquared
