August 8, 2007, Montreal, Canada--ART Advanced Research Technologies, a Canadian medical device company that specializes in optical molecular imaging products for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, has entered into an agreement to develop and conduct clinical research with the Stanford Breast Imaging Section of Stanford University to evaluate the effectiveness of the company's SoftScan optical breast imaging system in treatment monitoring and diagnosis of breast cancer.
Dr. Debra Ikeda, Director of the Stanford Breast Imaging Section, is the Principal Investigator of this clinical research collaboration. In this role, she will also lead collaborative initiatives with Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, Director, Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, the primary objective of which will be to extend SoftScan's clinical value into the expanding field of breast cancer probe development.
"We look forward to clinical research with SoftScan optical breast imaging to address important unmet needs in breast cancer treatment monitoring and diagnosis. In addition, we look forward to incorporating molecular imaging techniques developed at the Clark Center into our breast cancer research," Dr. Ikeda said.
"Stanford University provides the optimum environment in North America for developing SoftScan's molecular imaging technology in the clinical arena," said Sebastien Gignac, President and CEO of ART. "And because we believe that the treatment monitoring capabilities of SoftScan molecular imaging will enable more predictable and productive drug development, we are actively seeking pharmaceutical partners to join and further expand our collaboration with Stanford."