QUEL Imaging LLC, a new venture spun out of Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, was awarded a grant by the National Institutes of Health for just over a quarter of a million US dollars. The startup was founded by three partners: Professor Brian Pogue, recent doctoral graduate Ethan LaRochelle, and PhD Innovation Fellow Alberto Ruiz.

QUEL Imaging co-founders Brian Pogue, Ethan LaRochelle, and Alberto Ruiz.

QUEL Imaging was founded to create low-cost transferable technologies that will improve the accuracy of fluorescence surgical guidance and treatments. The concept for the grant funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) stems from work in Ruiz’s studies developing 3D printed test targets for surgical system calibration. The group plans to set up shop as an incubator company within Thayer School’s Center for Imaging Medicine and develop a network of collaborative surgical users for their technology, and work on tools that make surgical procedures safer and more cost effective.

The company was initially funded in a pilot grant in 2019 from the Quinn Innovation Scholars program of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, to start the company efforts towards creating low-cost products based upon intellectual property licensed from their research at Dartmouth.