News

SurgiVance Inc. Awarded Competitive Grant from the National Science Foundation

New York, NY, January 10, 2022 – SurgiVance Inc. has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for $256,000 to conduct research and development (R&D) work on digitizing the pathologist in the operating room. Combining biophysical optics and imaging with machine learning, SurgiVance aims to revolutionize digital health by advancing pathology, which is the way we diagnose diseases in order to treat them better.

Our engineering approach may lead to better and faster treatments. “NSF is proud to support the technology of the future by thinking beyond incremental developments and funding the most creative, impactful ideas across all markets and areas of science and engineering,” said Andrea Belz, Division Director of the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships at NSF. “With the support of our research funds, any deep technology startup or small business can guide basic science into meaningful solutions that address tremendous needs.”

SurgiVance C.E.O. Daniel Gareau is optimistic about the future of digital pathology, given recent advances in optics and imaging. “This award will help SurgiVance proceed to hopefully achieve a Phase II NSF SBIR award of $1M which will complement the >$1M seed funding we have raised thus far,” said Dr. Gareau.

 

Ex vivo confocal microscopy: revolution in fast pathology in dermatology

Confocal microscopy with in vivo and ex vivo modalities has been used in the evaluation of skin cancer and other dermatological disorders. Recent developments in ex vivo confocal microscopy allow for faster pathology assessment with greater accuracy by the visualization of cellular and architectural details, similarly to standard pathology, in either paraffin‐embedded or frozen samples. They include the possibility of multimodal confocal microscopy using different lasers and fusion images. New staining protocols including immunostaining, with no damage to conventional histopathology preparation, have been recently described in melanocytic tumours and inflammatory skin diseases. Digital staining with haematoxylin and eosin is also incorporated in the new devices. In this review the applications of ex vivo confocal microscopy will be presented with the description of the technique and the technology, clinical evidence in dermatology and other fields, and further applications.

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