Through Innovate UK’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) programme, the university received £130,000 to work with Moor Instruments Ltd to develop technology to assess blood flow in the microvasculature of organs during surgery.

Moor is a designer, manufacturer, and distributor of monitoring and imaging systems, based in Axminster, Devon. The firm also contributed a further £64,000 to the collaboration with Dundee.

Ensuring that blood flow can be accurately measured during surgery is a key step to reducing complication risk. Currently, fluorescent dyes are injected into patients to periodically enable perfusion imaging during surgery.

The Dundee-Moor project has seen the researchers develop technology that will assist with surgery without the need to inject dyes — and may also be used to assess perfusion of organs to help understand disease.

The device is set to initially be available for use in pre-clinical research, with it being anticipated that full development for use in clinical settings will follow.

The academic leads for the project are Dr Nikola Krstajic from Dundee’s School of Science and Engineering, and Dr Colin Murdoch from the School of Medicine.

Speaking on the collaboration, Dr Krstajic said that: “This has been a fantastic project to work on. Moor Instruments provided us with the essential background and pathway to pursue our objectives as engineers.

“As a company, Moor is able to highlight exactly what the medical industry requires and that knowledge empowers us to develop solutions that can ultimately benefit patients.

“Our Biomedical Engineering students also benefit from exposure and work experience in research and development within a top UK clinical and pre-clinical device design company.”

The North of Scotland KTP Centre, which helps to facilitate KTP collaborations between academia and industry, selected the Dundee-Moor project as a case study, demonstrating the benefits that these types of projects can bring to both academia and business.

Emma Craig of the North of Scotland KTP Centre commented: “This is the first University of Dundee KTP to have completed a full project lifecycle since they joined the North of Scotland KTP Centre in early 2019 and the whole team have been a pleasure to work with.

“We are delighted that the partnership has developed their new device and wish them every success with the ongoing testing and commercialisation.”

Rodney Gush, senior applications scientist at Moor also commented, saying: “It has been a real pleasure to work with Innovate UK, the North of Scotland KTP Centre and Dr Nik Krstajic and Dr Colin Murdoch at the University of Dundee, and many of their colleagues for additional ideas and support.”

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The device and the collaboration which has underpinned it is the latest medtech-related news to come from the University of Dundee.

Relatedly, last year, DIGIT reported on the university’s new Centre for Medical Education and Technology — co-developed by the School of Science and Engineering and the School of Medicine — to help facilitate original research and prepare its graduates for high-skilled jobs within medtech.

The University of Dundee is also home to the Tayside Innovation MedTech Ecosystem (TIME), a Tay Cities Deal-funded centre engaging the NHS, academia, and commercial partners to develop innovative medical technologies as well as new companies.