Diagnostic Photonics Inc., a startup developing a handheld, high-resolution imaging system for cancer surgery, is the winner of a business plan competition.

The competition was sponsored by the PROPEL Center of the iBIO Institute, which provides support for early-stage life sciences companies in Illinois. A panel of life sciences financial investor judges chose Diagnostic Photonics for the award, which comes with a $15,000 cash prize.

The company's Foresee Imaging System incorporates interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy, a software-based diffraction-correction technique. Massively parallel computations carried out on graphics processing units allow images to be corrected in real time.

Using the technology, surgeons will be able to act on imaging information during surgery instead of waiting days for pathology results, and potentially avoid costly repeat procedures and poor clinical outcomes.

With a wide field of view and state-of-the-art graphics processing, the imaging system supports rapid, freehand scanning to quickly locate and identify areas of interest. Employing near-infrared light sources, Foresee’s high dynamic range enables sharp image contrast and 2 to 3 mm of imaging depth.

Under a grant from the National Cancer Institute, the company has also developed a software package to preprocess data to more efficiently perform diffraction correction on large images. The software assesses the size of the uncorrected image data and the available memory on the graphics processing units to break data into optimal segments for processing. After diffraction correction is complete, the data are assembled into a final corrected image.

Diagnostic Photonics’ medical imaging technology originated in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois. The company was founded in 2008.