Through NIH grant and Alliance with University of Illinois Labs, ISS Moves Forward with the Development of a Device That Will Map Human Brain Functions

CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS—October 29, 2001—Once again, a Champaign-based business is finding itself in the vanguard of research and development of scientific and biomedical instrumentation.

This time, however, ISS, Inc., located at Interstate Research Park, isn’t just supplying the world’s scientists with the latest in fluorescence technology. The 15 year-old company hopes to bring to market in the next three to five years a medical device using infrared light technology that would be able to map the human brain.

Toward that end, Ben Barbieri, President of ISS, recently accepted a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to take the product, tentatively called “Imagent™,” from the prototype to fully operational phase.

“We’re excited that NIH recognizes the positive clinical potential of this device and will help fund the next phase of its development,” said Barbieri.

Based on technology developed by scientists at the University of Illinois, and further engineered by ISS into another research-oriented device, Imagent™ will produce a map of a patient’s brain. Using data collected by the device, doctors would then be able look at a functional image of the brain, telling them which areas are functioning correctly and where there may be problems. This will be especially useful to trauma physicians and neurologists.

Barbieri says the Imagent™ project is an example of the synergy fostered when the U of I joins local business in the research and development process. Its technology is based on the work of scientists at U of I’s Laboratory of Fluorescence Dynamics, headed by Professor Enrico Gratton. Professor Andrew Webb of the Beckman Institute and the department of electrical and computer engineering will be working with ISS on the testing of Imagent™.

The most similar technology is functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, (fMRI). An add-on to the traditional MRI machine, fMRI is costly and fraught with the same problems of traditional MRI. Some patients cannot use MRI because it would have an adverse effect on a pre-existing medical condition. MRI requires patients to remain completely still for 20 to 30 minutes—a difficult proposition for children. Some are excluded from MRI due to the claustrophobic nature of the machine, a tube into which they are enclosed.

Imagent™ uses light, fiber optic cables, and sensors attached to the head to gather its data. It’s many times faster than fMRI. The actual equipment will be much smaller and easier for hospital staff to use. Functional MRI equipment must be housed in its own specially built room staffed with several people to operate the machine and perform the tests. Imagent™ will sit on a table top and be operated by a single technician or doctor.

It will also cost much less.

“Large and small hospitals will be able to afford Imagent™,” Barbieri said. “The price of tag an MRI machine with fMRI capabilities is too much for most institutions.”

One example of Imagent™’s use would be in the diagnosis of trauma patients. If a patient comes into the emergency room from a car accident and has lost control of a limb, a physician could stimulate parts of the body while the person is attached to the device. The mapping of the brain functions during the test, with the resulting image, will tell the doctor whether or not there is brain damage and where it’s located.

NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke thinks enough of the burgeoning technology to continue supporting ISS in its work on Imagent™. In 1999, NIH awarded the first phase of a Small Business Innovation Research grant. That provided some of the funding to move the project from idea to prototype.

ISS’ progress was then reviewed and the company was awarded a second phase of funding to finish engineering of the final device and help it become ready to manufacture and sell. Over the next two years, ISS is eligible for up to $750,000 in funding to finish the project. Barbieri said the initial impact of the grant has already been felt at the company. A software designer was just hired to work on the program hospitals will use to work with Imagent™.