Kuva Labs celebrates partnership with University of Michigan

8/15/2024

It is a medical truth that you cannot treat what you cannot see. Medical imaging plays a central and important role in the diagnosis of many diseases, perhaps most importantly in cancer. The earlier cancer is detected and diagnosed, the better the outcome. Great advances have been made in imaging, but we still lack a modality that avoids ionizing radiation (X-Ray, CT & PET) and delivers both high contrast resolution (MRI is contrast challenged). But what if there was a way to provide patients with earlier and clearer diagnostic imaging without the exposure to radiation? 

One of the University of Michigan’s (U-M) partnerships, Kuva Labs, has set out to provide this technology to the medical community. Kuva Labs is a diagnostic imaging company developing new ways to improve cancer patient outcomes through clearer and earlier tumor detection. Their flagship technology, NanoMark, is an advanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging agent that enables safe, early, non-invasive and unambiguous detection of solid tumors.

Kuva Labs recently celebrated their U-M relationship by joining Innovation Partnerships for the ringing of the startup bell. Representing Kuva Labs at the event were chief executive officer Mark Land and chief science officer Andrew Hopkins with researcher Thomas Hopkins joining virtually. Primary investigator and associate research scientist in radiology Scott Swanson, as well as graduate student research associate assisting the Kuva Labs team with live imaging on animals Noah Nelson, were also in attendance to celebrate this significant milestone.

The technology that led to the formation of Kuva Labs was developed in 2015 by radiologist and biophysicist Scott Swanson, the late chemistry professor Raoul Kopelman and Thomas Hopkins, former graduate student in the Kopelman lab. The team discovered a way to directly image polyethylene glycol (PEG) using MR that produces PET scan-like images with one hundred times the resolution without any of the radiation. 

“I have been an entrepreneur since I was 19, and I have never seen a technology with such demand,” said CEO Mark Land on the experience of developing Kuva Labs and helping to bring their technology to market. “Physicians continue to confirm the transformative impact NanoMark can have upon the detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.”

Andrew Hopkins and Mark Land connected with Swanson to develop this technology into a practical treatment, officially forming Kuva Labs. The team reached out to Innovation Partnerships, and director of physical sciences licensing Jeremy Nelson helped them to research potential business opportunities for their discovery across the globe. 

“Innovation Partnerships has been immensely helpful as we’ve worked to bring NanoMark to market,” said CSO Andrew Hopkins. “They not only guided our team through the licensing process, but also provided us with the tools and resources we needed to bring the most successful version of Kuva Labs to the public.”

Kuva Labs is completing its preclinical trials of their imaging technology, which have yielded significant and promising results. The team aims to commence human trials of the NanoMark system by the end of 2024.