Bioptigen receives $458,000 to advance intraoperative OCT system development

Jan. 14, 2015

Bioptigen has been awarded a Strategic Growth Loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBiotech) totaling $458,000 to support development of the company's intraoperative optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system.

Bioptigen (Morrisville, NC) has been awarded a Strategic Growth Loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBiotech; Research Triangle Park, NC) totaling $458,000 to support development of the company's intraoperative optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system. OCT is a form of high-resolution imaging that has been compared to ultrasound imaging, though OCT uses light rather than sound to create the images.

Bioptigen's EnFocus intraoperative OCT system will provide 3D visualization simultaneous with and coregistered to images from surgical ophthalmic microscopes.

NCBiotech awarded the loan to Bioptigen specifically to support clinical validation of a new microscope integrated OCT system targeting cataract and advanced cornea surgeries. More than 20 million cataract surgeries are performed each year. The addition of depth-resolved intraoperative imaging with OCT is motivated by reducing the need for post-surgical follow up procedures, enabling new classes of precision surgery with higher success rates and improving visual outcomes for patients.

Besides the NCBiotech Award, Bioptigen has recently received a Fast Track SBIR grant from the National Eye Institute for development of intraoperative OCT.

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