ACTIVE NEEDLE TECHNOLOGY LTD

Unsuccessful biopsy due to inaccurate needle placement is common according to Active Needle Technology, which is based at Culham Science Centre near Abingdon.

It can be costly too, because it could mean that another biopsy needs to be done, incurring extra costs, and clinician time – never mind all the extra scheduling of appointments and patients being required to come back another day.

The Active Needle Technology company has developed a needle actuating device. Its award-winning technology enables precision needle targeting and has the potential to allow clinicians to perform these procedures safely, efficiently and cost-effectively benefiting patients and healthcare providers.

The technology is the outcome of research work carried out by Dr Muhammad Sadiq, a biomedical engineer and Royal Society of Edinburgh enterprise fellow, and Professor Graeme McLeod, a consultant anaesthetist at Ninewells Hospital and the University of Dundee.

In March the pre-revenue company announced that it had been awarded an Innovate UK grant to help it focus on scaled manufacture for its devices. It is working with the Coventry-based Manufacturing Technology Centre to help it develop a strategy for building its devices at volume.

Late last year the company raised more than £250,000 on crowdfunding site Crowdcube.