The oncological surgical developer has been spun out from ICL with investment from China and Hong Kong.
Imperial College London (ICL) today spun out an oncological surgical robotics developer called Precision Robotics with an undisclosed sum of funding from a consortium of unnamed China and Hong Kong-based investors.
Precision Robotics aims to develop a flexible and manoeuvrable robotic arm to help conduct surgical procedures more accurately, coupled with 3D augmented reality-based imaging software to aid visualisation of where to make excisions of tissue.
The technology will initially be used for colorectal oncological surgery, procedures targeting cancer in the colon, but Precision could also consider treatments for oral, gynaecological and other conditions further ahead.
Precision Robotics is based on research by Guang-Zhong Yang, director and co-founder of ICL’s Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery in the Faculty of Engineering. The spinout was established by ICL’s tech transfer affiliate, Imperial Innovations, owned by commercialisation firm IP Group.
Yang’s research was funded by the UK government’s Department of Health, as well as UK state-owned grant body Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and biomedical research charity Wellcome Trust.
While Precision will work from headquarters in the UK, it will also operate offices in Hong Kong and could, longer term, participate in a China-based joint venture.
