GE Healthcare has committed an investment of $32.9 million to build a state-of-the-art research facility in Wisconsin. The facility is being built in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).
Under the 10-year agreement, GE will provide research support, cash funding, medical imaging equipment, and research personnel to the center, which will be located at the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR). The project is being conducted in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin's existing departments of radiology and medical physics, which plan to extend their research activities into additional space in WIMR.
Intellectual property and licensing practices of the research agreement will be governed under a new patent and technology agreement between GE Healthcare and WARF. During the past 11 years, collaborations between GE and university researchers have resulted in nearly 200 invention disclosures, more than 80 filed U.S. patents, and many more licensing agreements and technology improvements, according to WARF.
Research activities pursued at the center will include the following:
- Developing ultralow-dose CT imaging applications
- Linking hybrid imaging modalities such as MRI and PET to quantify and measure disease progression
- Developing tools to quantify liver disease for early diagnosis and monitoring of treatment in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
- Developing new cardiovascular imaging techniques
