EU funding to propel microscopy spin out
9 Sep 2016 by Evoluted New Media
A spin out company has secured investment to take its microscope from prototype to a first trial product.
A spin out company has secured investment to take its microscope from prototype to a first trial product.
SiriusXT, spun out from University College Dublin’s (UCD) has received £2.5m from the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 2 funding. The company has created the soft X-ray tomography (SXT) microscope, a unique product that allows researchers to illuminate cells and produce 3D images. Scientists can use these images to show how drugs or diseases affect cells.
Tony McEnroe, CEO at SiriusXT, said: “Our main target market is the thousands of worldwide research laboratories who are focused on disease research and drug discovery. Our SXT microscopes have a similar engineering complexity and price tag to an electron microscope, and our goal is to make them as ubiquitous as electron microscopes in our target market.”
The company was spun out in 2015 and plan to have a pilot system trialled in the UK next year. The SXT microscope is the first commercial lab scale microscope of its kind in the world. In addition to disease and drug research, some uses of the microscope include cosmetics and food and materials science.
Dr Fergal O’Reilly, co found and CTO at SiriusXT, said: “Securing this Horizon 2020 funding is a key development for the company and represents a significant achievement for us and vindicates the support we have received to date.”
The EU Horizon SME Instrument will provide about £2.58m between 2014 and 2020. Business grants of £43,000 are available for feasibility assessment purposes. Companies are also eligible to apply for grants in the rough range between £430,000 and £2.15m.
