NSF Awards $700K to Purdue Company

The tuition and fee recommendations will now go to the Executive Committee for a May 31 public hearing

A Purdue University-affiliated company has received a National Science Foundation grant for more than $700,000. Vibronix Inc. received the Small Business Innovation Research grant to support its breast cancer tumor locating technology called AcouStar. 

AcouStar assists surgeons in finding breast cancer tumors more quickly, helping them be removed faster, more accurately and reducing repeat surgeries. 

Ji-Xin Cheng, a professor of biomedical engineering and electrical and computer engineering at Boston University, and previously at Purdue founded the company with Pu Wang, chief executive officer, who earned his doctorate at Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

“AcouStar can effectively reduce the surgical delay and potentially minimize the re-excision rate,” Wang said in a news release. “Moreover, this innovative technology will not only be applicable for breast cancer surgery navigation, it may also be used as an internal tracking device for multiple other applications, such as implantable device tracking, endoscope tracking, navigation for partial kidney removal and other procedures.”