IMSaT is conducting world-class research and development in several areas promising valuable advances for patients, healthcare providers and life science companies alike:

• Diagnostic & therapeutic imaging: the application of advanced cellular and molecular imaging techniques will revolutionize drug discovery & evaluation, diagnostics, and therapies (e.g. using MRI and ultrasound and advancing instrumentation including robotics to provide precise placement of probes and destructive energy to destroy or shrink malignant tumours)
• Drug delivery: new technologies for delivering drugs in a highly targeted, efficient fashion will establish new standards of clinical efficacy, efficiency and patient care
• Regenerative medicine: technologies for wound healing and tissue correction have huge economic potential for the medical device and allied biotechnology industries
• Minimally invasive surgical techniques: emerging technologies such as Minimal Access Surgery, ultrasound imaging, radio-frequency devices, cryogenics and lasers are driving the potential for new state-of-the-art equipment

Independently, the Universities of St Andrews and Dundee have enviable reputations in the fields of medicine, physics and the biological sciences. St Andrew’s School of Physics and Astronomy is an acknowledged centre of excellence in physics research and a focal point for medical photonics. Around the University of Dundee, with its eminent Schools of Medicine, Life Sciences and Engineering, and Ninewells Teaching Hospital (part of the UK’s NHS), a community of knowledge has grown up in the last two decades that offers unique scientific and commercial opportunities to make far-reaching advances in diagnosis and treatment. Add the two together and they represent a formidable bank of research excellence, clinical expertise and application development - a force with the potential to create world-class research of enormous benefit to 21st century healthcare.

IMSaT is a dedicated organisation that integrates a wide range of expertise available across all disciplines and combines it with our academic and corporate research partners and investors. IMSaT bridges the traditional gap between scientific research and the conception and implementation of novel biomedical devices and clinical procedures. The result is unequalled innovation and speed of implementation from lab to clinic. IMSaT assembles groups of expert business developers, physicists, engineers, life scientists and clinicians in our focus areas. These groups share and disseminate their research, and brainstorm potentially exciting opportunities for advancing clinical treatments. The outcomes are:

• Enhanced basic/applied research agendas, with long-term efforts directed to real clinical and patient needs
• Ideas for new biomedical device concepts to put into our development pipeline

Biomedical device concepts are taken through the IMSaT’s structured development process by a cross-functional team of scientists, engineers, clinicians, and business developers. Team members are drawn from our partners within the Universities of Dundee and St. Andrews to ensure coordinated assessment and development of clinical, commercial and technical aspects. At some point in the development process, leadership is transferred to a corporate partner – be this a spin-out business, or an existing medical device / life science company – to complete the journey to the market place. IMSaT is a joint venture of the Universities of St. Andrews and Dundee. At the University of Dundee:

• College of Art & Design, Architecture, Engineering and Physical Sciences
• College of Life Sciences
• College of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing
• Clinical Research Centre (a joint NHS / University unit)
• Research & Innovation Services (commercial functions)

At the University of St. Andrews:

• Department of Physics and Astronomy
• School of Medicine & Anatomy
• Research & Enterprise Services (commercial functions)

At the NHS:

• Ninewells Hospital, NHS Tayside
• Scottish Enterprise (enterprise development agency)
• Northern Research Partnership Joint Research Institute for Medical Technologies - Universities of Aberdeen, Robert Gordon and Dundee

IMSaT is housed in a new two-storey building, Wilson House, located next to the NHS Hospital and Medical School at Ninewells. Wilson House comprises 10,000 sq.ft. of lab space and contains:

• Full equipped workshop for instruments and implant production
• Nanotechnology and cell biology
• Ultrasound imaging and photonics labs
• Interventional MRI with surgical suite

IMSaT is also located close to the Clinical Research Centre, a joint venture of NHS Tayside and University of Dundee, comprising the following additional facilities:

• A clinical imaging suite with a 3 Tesla MRI scanner, a PET/CT scanner, and associated cyclotron (planned)
• Fully equipped inpatient and outpatient suites