{"id":101141,"date":"2025-10-27T20:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/101141\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T20:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:41:12","slug":"oxford-spinout-radicait-uses-ai-to-make-diagnostic-imaging-more-affordable-and-accessible-catch-it-at-techcrunch-disrupt-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/101141\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford spinout RADiCAIT uses AI to make diagnostic imaging more affordable and accessible \u2014 catch it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever had a PET scan, you know it\u2019s an ordeal. The scans help doctors detect cancer and track its spread, but the process itself is a logistical nightmare for patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It starts with fasting for four to six hours before coming into the hospital \u2014 and good luck to you if you live rurally and your local hospital doesn\u2019t have a PET scanner. When you get to the hospital, you\u2019re injected with radioactive material, after which you must wait an hour while it washes through your body. Next, you enter the PET scanner and have to attempt to lie still for 30 minutes while radiologists acquire the image. After that, you have to keep physically away from the elderly, young people, and pregnant women for up to 12 hours because you\u2019re literally semi-radioactive. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Another bottleneck? PET scanners are concentrated in major cities because their radioactive tracers must be produced in nearby cyclotrons \u2014 compact nuclear machines \u2014 and used within hours, limiting access in rural and regional hospitals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But what if you could use AI to convert CT scans, which are much more accessible and affordable, into PET scans? That\u2019s the pitch of RADiCAIT<\/a>, an Oxford spinout that came out of stealth this month with $1.7 million in pre-seed financing. The Boston-based startup, which is a Top 20 finalist in Startup Battlefield<\/a> at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025<\/a>, has just opened a $5 million raise to advance its clinical trials. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we really do is we took the most constrained, complex, and costly medical imaging solution in radiology, and we supplanted it with what is the most accessible, simple and affordable, which is CT,\u201d Sean Walsh, RADiCAIT\u2019s CEO, told TechCrunch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RADiCAIT\u2019s secret sauce is its foundational model \u2014 a generative deep neural network invented in 2021 at the University of Oxford by a team led by the startup\u2019s co-founder and chief medical information officer, Regent Lee. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Left: CT scan. Middle: AI-generated PET scan from RADiCAIT. Right: Chemical PET scan.Image Credits:RADiCAIT<\/p>\n

The model learns by comparing CT and PET scans, mapping them, and picking out patterns in how they relate to each other. Sina Shahandeh, RADiCAIT\u2019s chief technologist, describes it as connecting \u201cdistinct physical phenomena\u201d by translating anatomical structure into physiological function. Then the model is directed to pay extra attention to specific features or aspects of the scans, like certain types of tissue or abnormalities. This focused learning is repeated many times with many different examples, so the model can identify which patterns are clinically important.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The final image that goes to doctors for review is created by combining multiple models working together. Shahandeh compares the approach to Google DeepMind\u2019s AlphaFold, the AI that revolutionized protein structure prediction: Both systems learn to translate one type of biological information into another. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Walsh claims the team at RADiCAIT can mathematically prove that their synthetic or generated PET images are statistically similar to real chemical PET scans. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what our trials show,\u201d he said, \u201cthat the same quality of decision has been made when the doctor, radiologist, or oncologist is given a chemical PET or [our AI-generated PET].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

RADiCAIT doesn\u2019t promise to replace the need for PET scans in specific therapeutic settings, like radioligand therapy, which kills cancer cells. But for diagnostic, staging, and monitoring purposes, RADiCAIT\u2019s technology might make PET scans obsolete.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"RADiCAIT team, from Left: JP Sampson, COO; Sean Walsh, CEO; Sina Shahendeh, CTO; Regent Lee, CMIO.Image Credits:RADiCAIT<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s such a constrained system, there\u2019s not enough supply to meet demand for diagnostics and theragnostics,\u201d Walsh said, referring to a medical approach that combines diagnostic imaging (i.e., PET scans) with targeted therapy to treat diseases (i.e., cancer). \u201cSo what we\u2019re looking to do is soak up that demand on the diagnostic side. PET scanners themselves should pick up the slack on the theragnostic side.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

RADiCAIT has already begun clinical pilots specifically for lung cancer testing with major health systems like Mass General Brigham and UCSF Health. The startup is now pursuing an FDA clinical trial \u2014 a more expensive and involved process that\u2019s driving RADiCAIT\u2019s $5 million seed round. Once that\u2019s approved, the next step will be to do commercial pilots and demonstrate the commercial viability of the product. RADiCAIT also wants to run the same process \u2014 clinical pilots, clinical trials, commercial pilots \u2014 for colorectal and lymphoma use cases. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Shahandeh said RADiCAIT\u2019s approach to using AI to yield valid insights without the burdens of difficult and expensive tests is \u201cbroadly applicable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re exploring extensions across radiology,\u201d Shahandeh added. \u201cExpect to see similar innovations linking domains from materials science to biology, chemistry, and physics wherever nature\u2019s hidden relationships can be learned.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you want to hear more about RADiCAIT join us at Disrupt, October 27 to 29 in San Francisco. Learn more here.<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TechCrunch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve ever had a PET scan, you know it\u2019s an ordeal. The scans help doctors detect cancer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,66852,343,344,27622,85,46,66853,38363,777,778,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-101141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ai-imaging","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-diagnostics","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-radicait","16":"tag-startup-battlefield","17":"tag-techcrunch-disrupt","18":"tag-techcrunch-disrupt-2025","19":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}