illumiSonics’ technology a revolutionary step in cancer diagnosis

When it comes to treating cancer, the time it takes to complete a diagnosis can have a significant impact on patient outcomes. In the U.S., the average time to complete a diagnosis is over five months, which can delay lifesaving treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Waterloo-based illumiSonics is changing that with PARS, its ground-breaking technology for life science research, digital pathology and fresh tissue diagnostics. With PARS, the diagnostic time for a cancer diagnosis could potentially be reduced from months and weeks to hours.

There are several imaging diagnosis tools available today, including X-ray, MRI, and ultrasound. illumiSonics’ founder and CTO, Parsin Haji Reza, said that no one imaging tool is better than another. Instead, each can produce an image for different diagnostic needs.

“If you want to look at a baby, you’d use ultrasound because X-rays cannot give you an image with tissues or skin. On the other hand, ultrasound can’t product the skeletal images that X-rays can. They each produce a different visualization based on the contrasts they can image,” he said.

PARS also produces visualizations with unique contrasts, but instead of sending X-rays through the body or a gel-based ultrasound, it uses a laser. The idea for the technology behind PARS started when Reza noticed something interesting during his research at the University of Alberta.

“I was a Ph.D. student, and there was a phenomenon we couldn’t explain at that time. Usually, with ultrasound imaging, you need to use a gel to collect the image. During one of my experiments, I saw that I could collect some of the generated signals without any contact,” he said.

The laser is focused on a sample and is absorbed by tissues, fluids and cells. The laser is absorbed differently, from the amount of light to the wavelengths and colours. PARS takes this a step further by delivering the laser in a fast burst to generate vibrations and fast absorption in the targeted samples.

“In optical imaging, there is a technique known as photoacoustics, where a specific color of light is used to target a specific absorber. If you send this laser very fast enough, it can cause some vibration, and that vibration generates ultrasound,” Reza said. “That was the original idea. Through our research, we have developed the technology to measure sound and temperature. We capture not only pressure, but also as anything else associated with optical absorption—and that makes our technology the most advanced optical absorption imaging technology.”

Reza sees the biggest market opportunity for PARS in digital pathology and molecular imaging. Cancer diagnoses often require a tissue biopsy, which can be time-consuming. One of the most significant challenges with biopsies is the amount of tissue required to perform the multiple tests needed for a cancer diagnosis.

“When there is a suspicious area, you either perform a biopsy or you send a patient to surgery to remove the entire tissue. The pathologist then has to section off the sample and dye it before examining it under a microscope. ” he said. “This can take weeks or months. Imagine if it is a potential brain cancer. You’ve put the patient into surgery for the biopsy, now you have to perform a second risky surgery to remove the cancerous tissue.”

PARS is a table-top system which can be used in the operating theatre to perform a diagnosis during the biopsy or tumour removal. It can provide multiple diagnoses from one biopsy tissue without the need for preparing several dyed samples. Instead of weeks and a potential secondary procedure, the pathologist can make a diagnosis right away and allow the surgeon to complete any tissue removal that is required.

It is a potentially life-changing technology being developed here in the David Johnston Research + Technology Park. It was at the University of Waterloo that Reza was able to move the concepts from idea to reality.

It is a potentially life-changing technology being developed here in the David Johnston Research + Technology Park. While the research for PARS began during his Ph.D. studies, it was at the University of Waterloo that Reza was able to move the concepts from idea to reality. Reza moved to the University in 2018 to become an assistant professor in the Faculty of Engineering.

“Beside the reputation of University, one of the main reasons I moved to Waterloo was the open IP policy, which allows you to commercialize and control your own IP,” he said.” I also had a great introduction to the city thanks to Paul Salvini, the previous CEO of the Accelerator Centre. He took me around the city and showed me what was happening in the region. That was a very important part of making the decision to move to Waterloo.”

“Beside the reputation of University, one of the main reasons I moved to Waterloo was the open IP policy, which allows you to commercialize and control your own IP.”

Parsin Haji Reza

The ability to commercialize research at the University of Waterloo and co-locating with startups, scale-ups and enterprise leaders at the R+T Park are two of the advantages Reza said are helping contribute to illumiSonics success.

“The biggest challenge in academia for me was to make sure that this was a technology that is working and is clinically and scientifically valid. Once we saw it works and it got validated, we felt comfortable to put this forward for commercialization,” Reza said. “We have some great investors supporting us. We’ve raised over USD $10 million and are working to close USD $25 million. It’s been a long journey, but we’ve got great people on the team and hopefully we can do something great for people.”