Project description
Towards non-invasive diagnostics of gastrointestinal tract inflammation
Intestinal inflammation, or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), is a condition characterised by chronic relapsing. Today, all endoscopic diagnostic procedures (such as colonoscopy and upper endoscopy) that provide clear, detailed views of the gastrointestinal tract are invasive and particularly burdensome for patients. The EU-funded EUPHORIA project aims to launch commercialisation of the novel, non-invasive technology of Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT), developed by iThera Medical. In a pilot study, MSOT has already demonstrated its potential for superior diagnostic performance at a lower patient burden compared to other procedures. EUPHORIA will improve the usability of the technology, validate the results in a multi-centre clinical study, prepare CE marking for the device, and pave its way to the markets.
Objective
EUPHORIA will pave the way to establish MSOT (Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography) technology for the non-invasive assessment of intestinal inflammation in patients. EUPHORIA will enable commercialization of the technology by finalizing technical improvements that will increase diagnostic outcome beyond what has been shown in a first feasibility study, will improve usability, prepare CE marking for the new device and validate clinical results in a large clinical study.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic condition, posing significant burden to patients and health care systems. Patients suffer from a relapsing course of intestinal inflammation, and to date, there is no satisfying non-invasive diagnostic modality for monitoring disease activity. In a recent clinical study conducted by University Hospital Erlangen, MSOT, a technology developed by iThera Medical (ITM), has proven to be superior in diagnostic performance to other procedures.
Imasonic (IMA) and RayFos (RFO) are ideally positioned to drive the technical improvement steps: Imasonic, an expert in ultrasound transducer manufacturing, will develop an ultrasound detector with higher signal-to-noise ratio to enable better sensitivity and detection at depth. RayFos specializes on real-time sensing and image inversion, processing and rendering and has significant experience in optoacoustic tomography algorithms and implementation. iThera Medical will lead the incorporation into the device, CE marking and commercialization. The University Hospital Erlangen is an excellence center in IBD and will drive the clinical validation. Pintail has extensive project management, dissemination and commercialization expertise.
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinegastroenterologyinflammatory bowel disease
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata sciencedata exchange
- social sciencessociologysocial issuesunemployment
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesacousticsultrasound
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
81379 Munchen
Germany
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.