PFI-BIC: Innovation Transfer of the Portable Nuclear Moment Imaging Platform

This Partnerships for Innovation project from University of Florida is focused on developing the nuclear moment imager (NMI) which is a technology that utilizes the directional nature of highly sensitive optical magnetometers to collect an MRI-like image in only seconds without the use of large permanent magnetic fields. It functions more like magnetic tomography than a conventional MRI, in that the magnetic fields from the subject are imaged directly. It can be made portable, and it will be relatively inexpensive compared to MRI. The broader impacts of this research include applications and research in areas as diverse as medical imaging for head trauma, industrial product inspection, agricultural pest control, scientific study of biological processes, ground penetrating imaging, and agricultural product inspection. The nuclear moment imager has the potential to affect many areas of everyday life in such widely varying areas as medicine, agriculture, science, industrial inspection, and other areas yet to be envisioned. One particularly exciting potential application is in third world countries, where the availability of a relatively inexpensive MRI-like imager that could travel with mobile medical teams could change the way "bush medicine" is practiced. The NMI platform and Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (PFI: BIC) research will be housed as a part of the recently formed Center for Innovation Translation. This center allows students to move real-world research projects rapidly to the early prototype stage, thus educating them in early-stage high-tech startup skills, contributing to the overall regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. Partners at the inception of the project: University of Florida with the Microfabritech/Center for Innovation Translation, Materials Science and Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Biomedical Engineering, and Radiology departments participating; Small businesses: Anitraks (Gainesville, FL),an imaging software development firm; Synogen (Gainesville, FL), a medical device development firm; and Medical Tool & Technology (Hawthorne, FL), a medical device prototype manufacturer. All of three of these businesses for profit companies that are fully engaged in the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. Symmetricom (San Jose, CA), a world leading manufacturer of atomic clocks and atomic physics technology--has recently become a partner on this project and will be working to optimize miniature magnetometers for this application. In addition, the group has very active partnerships with the UF Office of Technology Licensing ,which routinely participates in nurturing entrepreneurial activities in the region,;the Innovation Hub, a newly formed one-stop-shop incubator that specializes in getting new technological business over the early startup difficulties; and the Sid Martin Biotech Center which is a biotechnology focused incubator near Gainesville that is working with more than 30 active small businesses.