Aspect Management Technologies has raised $6 million from a private US investor, of which $4 million is earmarked for its medical device subsidiary, Aspect Magnet Technologies Ltd. and $2 million for Aspect AI Ltd., which develops MRI applications for use in industry and agriculture. The investor is a customer of Aspect AI.
Aspect Magnet is developing low cost, desk-top size MRI systems that can be installed on desktops in doctors' surgeries rather than taking up entire rooms in hospitals. Company founder and CEO Uri Rapoport says miniaturized MRI devices already exist but these have less power than the classic MRI scanning device, and thus the images they produce have a lower resolution. According to him, Aspect's device offers a higher magnetic force and resolution than existing devices.
Aspect has filed a 510k application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its device, which has already been installed at the University of California at Davis. The company is also set to install the scan at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Harvard University, and the San Giovanni Battista University Hospital in Turin, Italy.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on November 12, 2007
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