Spinoff Companies & Success Stories

VisualSonics

VisualSonics Inc. is a spinoff company that emerged from innovation at Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI). Dr. Stuart Foster and his laboratory created the first ultrasound tool that incorporated high-frequency transducers that made tiny physiological details, such as the blood flow feeding a mouse tumour, visible. The demand for this technology was so great that Dr. Foster formed VisualSonics to manufacture microimaging scanners for institutions like Harvard and Stanford universities, the National Institutes of Health and most major drug companies.

In 2010, SonoSite Inc. acquired VisualSonics for $67.9 million. The company’s aim is to shrink the technology for various clinical uses: neonatal care, early detection of skin cancer and skin-graft rejection, and diagnosis of eye diseases, among others.

Funding from the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund (now the Ontario Research Fund-Research Excellence), the National Cancer Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research was central to VisualSonics' success. Dr. Foster continues to work in the lab and collaborate with other scientists to improve the technology, and to develop new imaging methods including photoacoustics, which combines ultrasound with laser optics.

Related news and stories:

• A Sound Venture (2004)

Web site: visualsonics.com

Sentinelle Medical Inc.

In 1992, Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) senior scientist Dr. Donald Plewes and his then-graduate student Cameron Piron began developing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology for improved detection and biopsy of breast cancer. Twelve years later, they had a system that was prompting other researchers and clinicians to ask how they could get one.

The research led to the creation of Sentinelle Medical Inc., a Toronto-based company built on the work of Plewes, Cameron (now company president and recent recipient of the Premier's Catalyst Award) and their SRI team, which brings the innovative design of the Vanguard Breast MR Auxiliary Table and other MRI technologies into the clinic. The Vanguard allows for multidirectional access to the breast, provides greater patient comfort and facilitates rapid patient movement from MRI to ultrasound and image-guided biopsy. Paired with the company’s Variable Coil Geometry and BRIGHT software, these improvements reduce patient time in the magnet by up to 25 minutes, thereby increasing the efficiency of expensive and finite MRI resources.

Hologic Inc. aquired Sentinelle for $85 million in 2010. The deal will make Sentinelle's breast imaging technology available in more clinics, and allow Hologic to apply Sentinelle's technology to the imaging of other sites on the body.

Several SRI sponsors funded the research that led to the creation of Sentinelle, including the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance, Ontario Innovation Trust, Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund, industry and private investors.

Related news and stories:

• Catch a Rising Star (2010, PDF, 196.4 KB)
• Images of Excellence (2006)
• Screening for Breast Cancer: An Exposé (2004)

Web site: sentinellemedical.com

Profound Medical Inc.

Profound Medical Inc., formed in 2008, is manufacturing technology for a new therapy to treat men with prostate cancer. Developed by Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) physical sciences researchers Dr. Michael Bronskill and Dr. Rajiv Chopra, the system—magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided, transurethral ultrasound—enables rapid, precise heating and cell death in cancerous regions of the prostate, sparing healthy glandular tissue to limit or prevent sexual impairment, incontinence, bowel dysfunction and other side-effects. The treatment is fast (about 30 minutes), requires only spinal anesthetic and, unlike radiation therapy, is repeatable.

Several sponsors funded the 10-year development of this innovative technology at SRI, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, industry partners, the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund and the Ontario Research Fund-Research Excellence. Infrastructure support came from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Ministry of Research and Innovation.

A panel of Canadian and U.S. venture capitalists named Profound Medical one of Canada's Top 10 most promising life sciences companies in the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation's 2008-2009 award competition.

Related news and stories:

• Image-Guided Ultrasound Targets Cancer (September 15, 2008)

Web site: profoundmedical.com