Sydney Neuroimaging Analysis Centre, a leading neuroimaging research and medical image analysis facility at the University of Sydney, has recently secured significant government funding and regulatory approval for its innovative AI-powered software designed to analyze and monitor brain diseases.

The centre has been granted A$3.75 million ($2.5 million) in equity-free funding from ANDHealth+, a digital health accelerator program supported by the Australian government’s Medical Research Future Fund. This funding will play a crucial role in advancing the commercialization of its AI-enabled medical imaging software, iQ-solutions.

iQ-solutions, SNAC’s flagship product, offers quantitative analysis of brain structures from MRI scans, allowing for precise and personalized monitoring and management of brain diseases such as multiple sclerosis and dementia. Professor Michael Barnett, co-founder of SNAC, highlighted the significance of iQ-Solutions in aiding radiologists to detect and quantify brain inflammation in multiple sclerosis patients, potentially influencing treatment decisions to prevent future disability.

In addition to iQ-solutions, SNAC is also actively developing other innovative tools like Torana, a data informatics platform for medical scan management, and VeriScout, an AI-based software for automatic detection of cerebral hemorrhage in brain CT scans. These technologies are already in use at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney as part of the facility’s broader implementation of AI clinical applications.

The recent approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration adds to SNAC’s list of achievements, following a 510(k) clearance from the United States Food and Drug Administration earlier this year. With global market clearances in hand, SNAC is poised to make a significant impact in the rapidly growing $250 million brain image analysis market.