Cambridge Raman Imaging Limited  has been awarded €140,000 by the European Union’s Graphene Flagship to accelerate development of its innovative graphene-enabled scanning Raman microscope.

The Company, a spin out from the University of Cambridge and the Politecnico di Milano in Italy, was incorporated in March 2018 to develop and commercialise the joint work of both universities to create graphene-based ultra-fast lasers. Frontier IP owns 33.3 per cent of the Company.

Cambridge Raman Imaging is initially developing a Raman-imaging scanning microscope to diagnose and track tumors, and for other detection applications.

The technology uses graphene to modulate ultra-short pulses of light that can be synchronised in time and are much lower cost than conventional systems.

The Company’s scanning microscope will target real-time digital images of fresh tissue samples to detect and show the extent of tumours, their response to drug treatments and to allow surgeons to see if a cancer has been completely removed.

Existing histopathology technologies mean samples taken from a patient must be stained and sent to a laboratory for analysis, including during operations. Cambridge Raman Imaging’s lasers will be compact enough to use in an operating theatre, speeding up progress. The global market size for tumour analysis and tracking has been estimated to be £9 billion a year, according to Grandview Research.

Potential future applications include endoscopic examination, scanning body fluids for pathogens or tumour cells, and imaging semiconductors or proteins.

The Graphene Flagship is one of the largest research initiatives ever funded by the EU, tasked with bringing together academic and industrial researchers to take graphene from academia and into society.