Frontier IP Group PLC (AIM:FIPP) portfolio company Cambridge Raman Imaging (CRI) is to receive a grant from the European Innovation Council’s Transition awards to fund the development of a low-cost cancer diagnostic as part of the CHARM project.
CRI will use Raman digital imaging technology to analyse the molecular composition of patient tissue samples to distinguish cancerous from healthy cells without the need for chemical staining.
Raman imaging technology uses graphene-based ultra-fast fibre lasers to generate digital images of patient tissue for automatic analysis by artificial intelligence that can be viewed remotely if required.
CHARM is a pan-European collaboration that also includes the University of Cambridge, Italian institutions Politecnico Di Milano and Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche, the Jena University Hospital in Germany, and project management firm IN srl.
The project will receive €3.3mln in total with CRI’s share €1.3mln, which is being made to its wholly-owned Italian subsidiary.
It was one of 42 selected for funding from 292 submitted in the first-ever EIC Transition awards, intended to support moving technologies from laboratories into the real world.
Dr Matteo Negro, CRI’s Chief Technology Officer and CHARM project coordinator, said: "CRI has a mission to bring coherent Raman histopathology to the clinical market and the EIC Transition grant will be boosting our activities towards a successful commercialisation of our innovation."
Neil Crabb, chief executive officer of Frontier IP, said: "Cambridge Raman Imaging's novel technology has the potential to revolutionise cancer diagnosis and treatment, not least by making it more widely available through histopathologists working remotely.
“The EIC grant provides further strong validation of the approach being taken by the company."
Frontier IP has a 25.8% equity stake in CRI.