Public Funding for Veritie Group Limited

Raman spectroscopy is routinely used in advanced laboratories in academia, environmental testing and pharmaceutical development. Deploying Raman spectroscopy currently requires a facility with highly trained professional laboratory staff capable of managing large and complex systems. As a result, Raman spectroscopy is not as widely deployed as it could be. The opportunity to deploy Raman spectroscopy beyond traditional settings is about to be transformed: The size of the spectrometers required has reduced to <10% of what they were 5 years ago and spectrometers are now smaller than a shoe box. The cost of lasers and detectors is declining significantly, resulting in spectrometers that are a fraction of the cost (for a given capability) that they would have been 5 years ago. In addition, more sophisticated methods of data analysis allow for the extraction of greater insight from the output of these spectrometers. As a result of these advances, the price/performance of Raman spectrometers has been transformed. Importantly, the reliability, deployability and ease-of-use has similarly improved. This creates the possibility of a low-cost diagnostic that could be easily placed in a central laboratory, and even at point-of-care/point-of-need ('PoC'/'PoN') at Primary Care level (GP, Pharmacy), to address routine clinical questions and provide near instantaneous answers. In addition Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy ('SERS') has been evidenced to be able to detect disease in urine that would otherwise require blood tests or invasive procedures (e.g., cystoscopy). Specifically this gives the opportunity to: * Conduct analysis on urine samples rather than blood, avoiding the time and monetary costs of taking blood samples, transporting and disposing of them, and avoiding associated infection risk and patient discomfort. * Extend the range of tests that are available 'near-patient', accelerating diagnostic workflows and reducing burdens on Central Laboratories. * Get a result at the point-of-care (less than 3 minutes, i.e., within the time of a typical consultation). * Reduce the time to speciate bacteria from ~2 days to below 3 minutes, allowing the immediate prescription of a narrow-spectrum antibiotic (if appropriate) or to avoid use of antimicrobials if they would be innefective. SERS is used in clinical R&D facilities (such as that of Veritie), but is not yet in commercial deployment. One of the barriers is that the production of the SERS substrate requires quality control. This project aims to develop a Quality Assurance methodology to assess the level of variation in commercial SERS substates and accept it for use in clinical diagnostic devices.

Raman spectroscopy is routinely used in advanced laboratories in academia, environmental testing and pharmaceutical development. Deploying Raman spectroscopy currently requires a facility with highly trained professional laboratory staff capable of managing large and complex systems. As a result, Raman spectroscopy is not as widely deployed as it could be. The opportunity to deploy Raman spectroscopy beyond traditional settings is about to be transformed: The size of the spectrometers required has reduced to <10% of what they were 5 years ago and spectrometers are now smaller than a shoe box. Crucially, the cost of lasers and detectors is declining significantly, resulting in spectrometers that are a fraction of the cost (for a given capability) that they would have been 5 years ago. In addition, more sophisticated methods of data analysis allow for the extraction of greater insight from the output of these spectrometers. As a result of these advances, the price/performance of Raman spectrometers has been transformed. Importantly, the reliability, deployability and ease-of-use has similarly improved. This creates the possibility of a low-cost diagnostic that could be easily placed in a central laboratory, and even at point-of-care (PoC) at Primary Care level (GP, Pharmacy), to address routine clinical questions and provide near instantaneous answers. This project relates to the calibration of an initial clinical diagnostic product. It is derived from an approach originally developed by the Company's founder (a physics PhD) for verifying the authenticity of unopened bottles of wine. The company successfully detected variation between wines of a given grape/vintage/vineyard. A similar approach is being used to detect variation between diseased and non-diseased urine. Initial tests on synthetic and human urine have validated the potential. The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is a world-leading center for measurement science and technology research in the UK. NPL has a range of Raman spectroscopy techniques available, including spontaneous Raman spectroscopy techniques and coherent Raman techniques such as stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy. The NPL will work with Veritie to develop a calibration methodology to assure that the diagnostic accuracy of a large number of widely deployed Raman Spectroscopy based devices can be assured throughout their service life. This is a challenge as the devices are highly sensitive to vibration and thermal cycling, and the treatment of the samples can also impact analysis. Developing a calibration approach will unlock the market for Veritie and also for other UK companies leveraging Raman Spectroscopy.

In collaboration with the University of Oxford, VeriVin is exploring the usefulness of Quantum-Enhanced Sensing Techniques to investigate the chemical decomposition of complex liquids in sealed containers. The anticipated technique is a-priory non-invasive and is expected to be sensitive at the single-molecule level. As a first commercial application, the partners plan to develop a method and eventually a stand-alone device that is capable of generating a molecular fingerprint of beverages, such as wine and beer, without opening the bottle.