NEWSART Time Domain Technology Applications to be Presented at the Photonics West Conference in San Jose, California
Presentations to discuss applications of ART’s SoftScan and eXplore Optix products
Montreal, Canada, January 18, 2007 - ART Advanced Research Technologies Inc. ("ART") (TSX: ARA), a Canadian medical device company and a leader in optical molecular imaging products for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, will be presenting four papers at the Photonics West BiOS symposium, being held at the San Jose Convention Center in California, from January 20 to 25, 2007.
SoftScan related presentations
Mr. Mario Khayat, Vice President Optical Products, will present additional data gleaned from the SoftScan® tissue characterization study. The presentation, entitled “Optical tomography as an adjunct to X-ray mammography: methods and results”, will take place on Saturday, January 20th at 1:30 p.m.
Another scientific presentation entitled “Sensitivity and repeatability of diffuse optical tomography: towards breast cancer neo-adjuvant treatment monitoring”, featuring ART’s SoftScan optical imaging device, will discuss preliminary data suggesting that SoftScan is effective at showing tumor response to breast cancer treatments. The optical imaging technology of SoftScan demonstrated superior sensitivity, allowing for earlier detection of small variations in physiological parameters, and higher repeatability through the identification of scattering patterns of reference. This oral presentation by Dr. Niculae Mincu, Senior Scientist Optical Products at ART, will take place on Tuesday, January 23rd at 10:20 a.m.
eXplore Optix related presentations
Dr. Frederic Leblond, Research Scientist at ART, will be presenting a tomography algorithm using time-resolved data that takes into account the study animal’s profile, in order to optimize fluorescence image quality for eXplore Optix™. This presentation, “Diffuse optical fluorescence tomography using time-resolved data acquired in transmission”, is set to take place on Saturday, January 20th at 10 a.m.
Separately, research related to ART’s eXplore Optix system will be featured in a scientific poster session to be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, January 23. Dr. Guobin Ma, Senior Scientist at ART, will present a poster entitled “Numerical Optix: a time-domain simulator of fluorescent-light diffusion in turbid medium”. Researchers developed a numerical simulator of eXplore Optix which generates virtual data to test and improve the fluorescence diffusion models and algorithms used by the device.
Finally, a paper featuring a collaboration with ART will be presented by a team of researchers from Dartmouth College, with lead author Subhadra Srinivasan discussing results on Monday, January 22nd at 10:50 a.m. The presentation, entitled “Improved quantification of fluorescence in 3-D in a realistic mouse phantom”, shows that with prior knowledge about the spatial structure, an improvement in the recovery of true values for localization and quantification of fluorescence could be obtained.
Full texts of the abstracts can be obtained through the Photonics West BiOS meeting program page (https://spie.org/Conferences/Programs/07/pw/bios/), and following the link labeled “BiOS 2007 Abstracts”.
The Photonics West symposium, organized by the International Society of Optical Engineering, leads the way in the development and transfer of important light-enabled technologies, such as biomedical optics, and lasers and applications in science and engineering. For more information on this event, visit: https://spie.org/events/pw.
About ART
ART Advanced Research Technologies Inc. is a leader in molecular imaging products for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. ART has developed products in medical imaging, medical diagnostics, disease research, and drug discovery with the goal of bringing new and better treatments to patients faster. eXplore Optix™, an optical molecular imaging device designed for monitoring physiological changes in living systems at the preclinical study phases of new drugs, is distributed by GE Healthcare and is used by industry and academic leaders worldwide. SoftScan®, an optical medical imaging device, is designed to improve the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. ART is commercializing these products in a global strategic alliance with GE Healthcare, a world leader in mammography and imaging. Finally, the Fenestra™ line of molecular imaging contrast products provide image enhancement for a wide range of preclinical Micro CT applications allowing scientists to see greater detail in their imaging studies, with potential extension into other major imaging modalities. ART's shares are listed on the TSX under the ticker symbol ARA.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties that would cause actual events to differ materially from expectations. These risks and uncertainties are described in the Management Proxy Circular of ART dated October 24, 2006, available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under the profile of “ ART Advanced Research Technologies Inc. (old)” (ART’s predecessor issuer.
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For more information:
ART Advanced Research Technologies Inc.
Jacques Bédard
Chief Financial Officer
Tel. 514.832.0777
jbedard@art.ca
Mario Khayat
Vice President, Optical Products