Leap Medical closes $1M financing round for photonics-based detection of brain injury

Montreal, QC, Canada--Leap Medical, a privately held medical device company, successfully secured seed financing in the amount of $1 million dollars ($1.025 million Canadian dollars) to develop its photonic-based evanescent field technology for the rapid detection of brain injuries and infection. The round, co-led by MSBi Valorisation and investors BDC Venture Capital and GO Capital Fund, should enable the company to complete initial human validation of its platform technology. The round was also supported by a grant from the Quebec Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade (Ministère du Développement économique, Innovation et Exportation - MDEIE) and a loan from the CQVB (Centre québécois de valorisation des biotechnologies). For related articles, see also "UV LED therapy shows promise in preventing focal seizures," "Miniature microscope images active neurons," "Tiniest two-photon MEMS microscope performs brain imaging," and "Inexpensive handheld tool detects brain injuries in the field."

The company has also negotiated an option agreement with McGill University (Montreal) for exclusive worldwide license rights to develop and commercialize products based on its pioneering photonics research. McGill's technology is the first to exploit the properties of an evanescent field to non-invasively analyze biofluids located several centimeters behind outer tissue layers. Also see related articles on photonics applied to brain research, including “

Each year, millions of patients are admitted to Emergency Departments throughout the world with head injuries and severe or persistent headaches. Physicians are concerned that these symptoms may be due to brain injuries or infection. Both conditions are considered medical emergencies as they can cause permanent brain damage if not diagnosed and treated rapidly. The current standards of care, a CT-Scan of the head or a lumbar puncture (removal of cerebrospinal fluid using a needle inserted in the base of the spine), are invasive, costly, and impractical. Leap Medical's point of care solution is completely non-invasive and requires very little time to perform.

Briefly, a light source is directed onto a scattering surface (such as the skull), and is internally reflected within the skull in a manner similar to the way that light travels through a fiber-optic cable. This internal reflection generates a wave of energy out of the far side of the scattering layer, called an evanescent field. The evanescent field interacts with the layers of tissue beneath the skull and affects the properties of the light that is internally reflected. An external detector receives the reflected light and the signal is processed to extract the characteristics of the different (deep) tissues encountered. Thus, by shining a non-invasive source of light onto the external surface of the head, biological markers that are contained many layers underneath can be identified and measured - all without risk to the patient.

--Posted by Gail Overton; [email protected]; www.laserfocusworld.com.