Mars Bioimaging, a spin-out from Canterbury University, is aiming for public funding to build a 3D scanner at the university. Canterbury, which has a share in the company, currently has a bid with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to build a scanner at Otago University to use on patients.

The spin-out’s scanner would be able to look inside the body to examine molecular structures and tissues, thereby diagnosing common illnesses such as the build-up of plaque in heart disease, cartilage and arthritis. The scanner would also enable drug delivery systems which allow researchers to track drugs throughout the body.

If successful, the spin-out expects to be safely scanning large animals in three years’ and humans in five years’ time. The scanner would be hosted in Otago University’s Christchurch Medical School. Currently the technology is still facing some challenges, such as the quality of sensor materials and coping with the high power of the x-ray tubes used for human scanning.

Canterbury University already has NZ$4.5m ($3.92m) of government funding allocated from 2008 to 2014 to develop these kinds of scanners. The spin-out itself raised more than NZ$500,000 ($435,000) in February 2014 and is positioning itself for a series A later this year.

Anthony Butler, associate professor at Canterbury, said: “We have been the first in the world to explore the scanner and its applications. While others theorise about scanner uses we can actually test them. Five years ago there were only a small number of people in the world doing this research. There are now special editions of journals covering the topics and conferences. The preclinical imaging market involving scanners used in medical research is worth about $200m a year and growing 16% annually.”