TechniScan (Salt Lake City) reported being awarded a $2.8 million small business innovative research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health to support further development and preclinical testing of the company’s UltraSound CT imaging system (USCT).

The system is intended to aid physicians in diagnosing breast cancer in conjunction with traditional mammography by providing detailed information about the anatomy and tissue properties of the breast in ways not previously possible. The goal of the USCT is to characterize the ultrasound properties of normal, benign and malignant tissues in the breast, which could enable physicians and radiologists to recognize cancer more easily, according to the company.

The technology uses complex mathematical calculations, both inverse scattering transmission and advanced reflection algorithms, to produce 3-D images that represent the physical structures of the breast and how those structures relate to each other. The process provides information about characteristics of body tissue unavailable to physicians and radiologists in the past, TechniScan said. The NIH grant, which will be disbursed in two phases, will fund R&D and testing of the technology.

“The grant will help us support the commercialization,” TechniScan CEO Dave Robinson told Medical Device Daily. “With the grant, we’re modifying an existing prototype that we have. And I think the thing that was attractive to the NIH was that we’ve brought the product to the point that without a lot of modification, we can put a unit out.”

TechniScan itself was borne out of an academic setting and has received to date about $15 million from the “NIH and other agencies,” he said.

TechniScan said competition for the National Cancer Institute SBIR grants is intense, with fewer than one in nine of the FY06 new application submissions funded.

Robinson said that the grants, which “help companies over the commercialization hurdle,” are “very, very difficult” to win.

The tasks for Phase I, the design of technical improvements to TechniScan’s prototype UltraSound CT Imaging System, areexpected to be complete by early 2007. In Phase II TechniScan will produce two copies of the improved UltraSound CT imaging system for preclinical testing at the University of California San Diego (La Jolla, California) and at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota), the company said, with Robinson adding that testing of the prototypes is scheduled to begin in late 2007 into early 2008.

TechniScan is a private company that grew out of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Utah (Salt Lake City).

In other grants/contracts news:

• The Third Frontier Commission of the State of Ohio has approved two projects that, it said, “will positively impact Ohio’s ability to identify and attract cutting-edge bioscience companies from around the world.”

Ohio’s bioscience-focused Edison Center, Omeris , received a three-year, $1.5 million “Asset-based Company Attraction Program” grant. Omeris also will serve as a collaborator with PolymerOhio , the recipient of a similar grant to attract polymer companies, some of which will have biomedical applications. Activity and funding for both programs will initiate in early 2007.

Omeris’ program will focus on attracting companies to Ohio’s greatest areas of technological strength in the biosciences, including cardiology, cancer, neurosciences, medical polymers, bioinformatics, and agricultural biosciences. Omeris said it intends to attract eight to 12 companies that will relocate or establish a new facility in Ohio. Target companies are defined as currently operating in the marketplace with annual sales in excess of $100 million.

According to Omeris, 775 bioscience-related entities are operating in the state, ranging from the very large to the very young. Bioscience-related entities include those involved in research, development, and marketing of pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, bioinformatics, medical devices, medical equipment, and other health-related products.

“A critical element of this project is raising the visibility of Ohio’s bioscience assets,” said Omeris president/CEO Tony Dennis. “This grant will allow us to make companies around the world aware of the abundance of bioscience opportunities, innovation and research expertise in Ohio that can enhance their ability to generate profits.” Dennis added that in addition to promoting Ohio’s assets, Omeris also will introduce and broker partnerships between out-of-state companies and existing Ohio entities where the assets reside.

In 2004-05, Omeris developed and operated a pilot program for the Ohio Department of Development that demonstrated their company attraction process to be highly effective. In the pilot program Omeris set out to develop 20 qualified leads of companies potentially interested in either relocating or expanding in Ohio.

Omeris was able to develop 69 qualified leads, and three of those companies — Evotec , Rapid MRI , and Amylin Pharmaceuticals — have already established operations in Ohio.

In partnership with TeamNEO, Omeris also will lead a company attraction component of the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center, the first-ever Wright Mega-Center of Innovation award. Led by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation , the mega-center recently received $60 million in Third Frontier funds to develop and acquire new cardiovascular treatment technologies, spin off new companies, and recruit experienced leaders and emerging companies to establish an internationally recognized cluster of cardiovascular expertise (Medical Device Daily, Dec. 20, 2006).

Ohio’s Third Frontier Project has invested a total of $632 million since it was launched in 2002. To date, Third Frontier investments have leveraged $945 million in private and federal investment in Ohio, attracted or created more than 200 companies and retained or created more than 2,600 jobs with an average salary of more than $63,000 per year.