FSCAN

is an award winning and innovative university-based company in Durham City, UK focused on the development of commercial applications from its luminescent lanthanide chemistry technology platform. The co-founder of the company is Prof. David Parker FRS, whos contributions to the development of optical and magnetic resonance imaging are well known and widely acknowledged, with him being regarded as one of the most influential researchers in lanthanide chemistry today. FScan seeks to harness and d... evelop the exciting discoveries made in Durham to benefit and revolutionise the imaging marketplace. The company profile is to develop new imaging technology for use in vitro, in cellulo or in vivo in a fast, efficient and user-friendly manner. Our interest is primarily based on responsive probes using novel ratiometric analytical methods. FScan’s core competence is in the development of chemically engineered molecular probes (modified rare-earth metal complexes) possessing long-lived luminescent fingerprints exclusively altered upon the detection of specific analytes / markers in a wide array of biological fluids. To date, FScan has focused research efforts to simplify and speed up analytical methods by creating novel “tailored responsive” lanthanide complexes and detection methodologies possessing very high sensitivity and accuracy. These innovative sensors have been tailored to analyse for several key biologically important analytes / markers, as part of a diagnostic clinical assay. Our main focus is on the development of molecular probes for the detection of disease specific low molecular weight markers, such as citrate. Citrate is a metabolite that has been identified as a potential screening and diagnostic marker for prostate cancer, a disease with a large unmet market. Prostate Cancer (PCa) is the second leading cause of male cancer related deaths, annually taking 254,000 lives worldwide. The detection of prostate cancer is an ever troublesome area of modern clinical diagnostics due to a large unmet need associated with the accepted limitations of the current Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test. We have developed an accurate, reliable and non-invasive screening tool for the disease based on citrate level measurements in bio-fluid samples. As entrepreneurs appreciating the huge market potential we have set out to develop and commercialise a well-defined, rapid, easy to use kit for prostate cancer detection based on our luminescent lanthanide chemistry technology platform.More