OncoRes Medical has been awarded $1 million in federal funding to develop technology that can reduce the need for repeat operations in breast cancer patients.
OncoRes Medical has been awarded $1 million in federal funding to develop technology that can reduce the need for repeat operations in breast cancer patients.
That funding was made available through the third round of the federal government's $45 million BioMedTech Horizons program, which is funded by the federal medical research future fund.
Funding is intended to assist the commercialisation of medical technology, with 21 startups sharing in $19 million in this latest round.
OncoRes Medical will use the funding to develop what it describes as compact wireless technology designed to improve accuracy during breast conserving strategies.
Chief executive Kath Giles discussed OncoRes's work to improve breast cancer surgery with Business News in April.
Dr Giles said the technology, once developed, would aim to give surgeons a better level of precision and accuracy during breast cancer surgery.
“Among women, breast cancer remains the most common cancer, the second most common cause of death from cancer and a leading cause of premature death,” she said.
“In Australia alone, approximately 20,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.
“The majority of those women will elect to have breast conserving surgery over a mastectomy to excise the tumour and preserve the appearance and function of their breast.
“However, due to the limitations of technologies available to oncology surgeons today, the cancer will not be completely removed in many of those patients.
“Thanks to this funding, we are now in a position to develop a second-generation device which will utilise digital photography coupled with a novel silicone material to encode tissue stiffness.”
Elsewhere in Western Australia, Ear Science Institute Australia received $993,500 to commercialise its registered ClearDrum technology.
That device is an acoustically optimised silk fibroin implant and is intended for use in the treatment of chronic middle ear disease.
ESIA managing director Marcus Atlas said the funding was a major step forward for the company as it commercialised its research, while chief executive Sandra Bellekom said the plan now was to move the device into clinical trials by next year.
Artrya also received $1 million through the program, which will replortedly help fund employment of PhD students from The University of Western Australia.
Innovation vouchers total $690,000
Innovation and ICT Minister Dave Kelly this morning announced 36 startups across WA had received up to $20,000 in vouchers this year as part of the state government’s new industries fund.
Notable recipients of funding included ESIA, as well as medtech startups Singular Health and VeinTech.
Mr Kelly said 16 additional vouchers had been awarded this year to compensate for the impact of COVID-19 on WA businesses.
