Omniscient has developed a dual-view endoscope for conducting colonoscopies that could detect pre-cancerous growths currently missed by front-facing devices.
University of Arizona has spun out a new US-based colonoscopy device developer called Omniscient with an undisclosed amount of capital from its Tech Launch Arizona (TLA) tech transfer office.
Omniscient received the money across two rounds from TLA’s Asset Development Program, whose remit includes inventions not yet able to attract external investors.
The spinout will commercialise a dual-view endoscope for detecting indications of colon cancer internally with greater efficiency than conventional single-view models.
The endoscope delivers front-facing and 360 degree back-facing video feeds from the colon to the same screen to help doctors identify pre-cancerous growths known as polyps, which often lurk unnoticed behind folds. Omniscient claims that colonoscopies overlook 25 to 40% of pre-cancerous polyps, with dangerous implications for the patient.
The company advances research by professors Bhaskar Banerjee, who is based in University of Arizona’s Cancer Center, and Rongguang Liang, from the university’s College of Optical Science.
Banerjee said: “We are using instruments that evolved out of the telescope to look forwards. That is fine if you are looking for something in front of you but once you get inside the human body, it has some shortcomings. The need is to look sideways and backwards.”