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Sheffield cancer diagnostics firm secure £750,000 funding

A Sheffield-based cancer diagnostic firm has secured £750,000 in funding to develop new “real time results” for women undergoing tests.

The money is in addition to the £1m announced in June 2012, from The North West Fund for Biomedical, managed by SPARK Impact.

Zilico is developing a new system with two applications which aim to provide instant results, removing several weeks of waiting for a diagnosis.

The technology is called electrical impedance spectroscopy, and can measure the resistivity of cells and so detects changes as cells progress from normal to precancerous, and then to cancerous.

Zilico Ltd was originally spun out from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The first application of the ‘Zedcan’ device is positioned within the referral population, and could help in reducing the number of biopsies taken.

A second application will be positioned as a screening device and will help to reduce the subjectivity and time-taken with current tests.

Sameer Kothari, chief executive of Zilico, said: “I welcome the ongoing support of the existing shareholders and I am also pleased to bring in new investors. This investment will significantly help with our launch plans of ZedScan in 2013.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .