Innovation Awards 2017

EVALUATOR COMMENTS
There's lots to love about MARS Bioimaging as they lead this imaging revolution. It's a very smart move to have the clinic end user
involved in the R&D process! This will make a massive difference to health services.
Emerging New Zealand Innovation,
Innovation in Health & Sciencee
MARS
BIOIMAGING
T
he name may suggest it was
built for missions to the Red
Planet, but Christchurchbased
MARS Bioimaging’s
innovations are firmly grounded
on Planet Earth. That being
said, its imaging scanner has
the potential to revolutionise
medicine.
Known as the Medipix All
Resolution System (MARS), the
imaging machine can take multienergy
“true colour” x-ray images
and analyse what is shown in
the picture, such as the interior
contents of a tumour.
In other words: it takes an
x-ray, and can tell you what
is inside the x-ray. And as for
applications? Think enabling
medical procedures, such as
letting doctors know if it’s safe
to operate on what might be a
tumour on a patient’s neck close
to a major artery.
Behind MARS is the father-son
duo of University of Canterbury
professor Dr Phil Butler and
associate professor Dr Anthony
Butler. Dozens of current and
completed UC PhD students have
also been involved, along with
masters and honours students.
As Phil Butler told Idealog, the
MARS represents a significant
improvement over traditional
x-ray or magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI), which can only
analyse the shapes of objects
and not the content that makes
them up.
“If you’ve got an infection in
a knee joint replacement, with
a standard system you can’t
actually see the infection. But
you’ll be able to see it with this.”
Inside the scanner is a 14mmsquare
chip, a semiconductor
that measures the particle
properties of an x-ray photon, as
well as its energy and position.
A tissue sample can be placed
inside the MARS, which takes a
few minutes to create 3D images.
After that, the images are then
reconstructed and recorded on
a computer, where they can then
be accessed and analysed by
whoever needs to look at them.
As Anthony Butler also told
Idealog: “You can identify
or characterise or measure
components of a tissue [with the
MARS]. You can measure the
water content or the fat content
or the calcium content [for
example]. If you compare that to
an ordinary x-ray, you can’t do
that at all.”
Funding for the MARS began in
2002 with a $350,000 grant from
the New Economy Research Fund.
A $1.5 million grant from the
Tertiary Education Fund followed,
as did an additional $4.5 million
from what is now known as the
Ministry of Business, Innovation
and Employment (MBIE) for a
version that could be used on
small animals. In late 2014, the
MBIE poured in $12 million for
development of a human-sized
version. In total, the scanner has
received more than $20 million in
direct Government funding over
more than a decade. And that
doesn’t even include the support
through student scholarships, staff
time and access to equipment.
Anthony Butler says that
while the scanner has myriad
applications, much of the
Phil (left) & Anthony Butler
research so far has been focused
on medicine. And researchers
from institutions including
Yale and the Mayo Clinic have
collaborated on MARS, while
other researchers and scientists
regularly visit.
“We’ve had to work more
closely with the medical
researchers who have brought
their own skill sets. So we’ve
been working with people
who look at blood vessels or
atheromas [when degenerative
material accumulates in artery
walls] or vascular disease, and
particularly around strokes and
the blood vessels in the neck.
We’ve been working with cancer
researchers, and we’ve been
working with a lot with people on
joint implants and metal implants
for knee replacements and
cartilage health. But there are
dozens of other applications.”
innovationawards.org.nz / 13