SMI/Omega development team receives fund to develop prototype fast multispectral endoscope

Cascade Technologies, Inc., (OTCBB: CSDT) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary Spectral Molecular Imaging, Inc. (SMI) will receive NIH research funding through a collaboration with Omega Optical of Brattleboro, Vermont. This effort will accelerate development of a new class of medical endoscopes enhanced with proprietary multispectral imaging technology. The principal investigators on the project are Dr. Gary Carver, Director of Research at Omega Optical, and Dr. Daniel L. Farkas, Chairman and CEO of SMI.

“that biomedical researchers could use this new technology to catalog more extensive libraries of spectral images showing tumor growth, angiogenesis and subsequent metastasis. We believe that these enhanced libraries will lead to important new applications in surgical pathology, oncology labs, and clinics.”

The $750,000 new grant was awarded by the National Cancer Institute within the National Institutes of Health, under the federal government's Small Business Innovation Research Initiative - a program designed to speed the translation of important technology from the laboratory to the clinic marketplace. This is a Phase II award, granted upon successful completion of a $100,000 Phase I feasibility study earlier this year. The new Omega/SMI development program, scheduled for two years, focuses on completion of a prototype fast multispectral endoscope and its preclinical testing. This latter activity is scheduled at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where Dr. Farkas was, until very recently, Vice-chairman for Research and Professor in the Department of Surgery, and Director of the Minimally Invasive Surgical Technologies Institute.

"Today's endoscopes," explained Dr. Farkas, "while highly successful and widely used, provide a limited picture of the areas under investigation. We expect our new class of medical endoscopes to enable collecting information about human tissue signatures with a speed and resolution surpassing anything currently available on the market. When completed, our instruments will provide surgeons, in real time (that is during intervention) with the sort of diagnostic information that is only available today after slow lab tests on biopsied tissues. We believe this functionality should substantially enhance the ability of physicians to detect and treat a range of diseases of the gastro-intestinal and respiratory tract, including colon and lung cancers."

The SMI/Omega development team intends to rely on fast fiber-optic wavelength selection tools developed for the telecommunications industry - a technology not previously applied in biomedical imaging. This teaming of optical experts from the telecom and biomedical sectors was viewed quite favorably by the NIH. When achieved, the resulting new performance would ultimately enable earlier detection of cancer and other diseases, as well as treatment. "We expect," added Dr. Farkas, "that biomedical researchers could use this new technology to catalog more extensive libraries of spectral images showing tumor growth, angiogenesis and subsequent metastasis. We believe that these enhanced libraries will lead to important new applications in surgical pathology, oncology labs, and clinics."

Endoscopy is a medical procedure that allows visual internal examination of the body using a small diameter optical instrument, rigid or flexible, and tipped by a camera, called an endoscope. Typically, the endoscope is introduced into the body via small incisions, or through body openings such as the mouth or anus, to allow doctors to examine the esophagus, lungs, stomach and portions of the intestine. When the endoscope is introduced via the anus, the procedure is commonly called a colonoscopy, a recommended procedure for all people over the age of 50. Colonoscopies screen for colon cancer and other diseases of the lower gastro-intestinal (GI) tract.

The estimated world market for endoscopic imaging and diagnostic products is well in excess of $10 billion per year.