Medical Imaging Company Scores $1.7M Boost

(Image courtesy of Purdue Research Foundation) Animated Dynamics co-founders from left-to-right: Ran An

Indianapolis-based Animated Dynamics Inc. has locked up a $1.7 million round of funding. The company says it will use the investment to help move its medical imaging technology to market quicker.

Motility Contrast Tomography is built on technology patented through the Purdue Research Foundation’s Office of Technology Commercialization. It’s designed to improve targeted cancer treatments.

Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder David Nolte helped develop the technology at Purdue University and currently serves as the Edward M. Purcell Distinguished Professor of Physics at the school. He says “similar to Doppler weather radar measuring the reflection of radio waves from clouds, our technology measures the reflection of light waves within living tissue to build a 3-dimensional image showing the movement of cells and organelles in real time. This bio-dynamic image offers novel information about tissue health and function that is simply not available from any other existing technology."

MCT can be used to evaluate how a cancer patient’s tumor responds to chemotherapy agents before prescribing cancer treatment drugs. Animated Dynamics expects to get technology into the hands of oncologists for testing sometime next year.

Indianapolis-based Caravel Ventures led the Series A equity round along with co-investors Elevate Ventures, Purdue Research Foundation and Vestian.

The company has previously received a total of more than $1 million in funding, including a $750,000 National Science Foundation grant last year.