Imperial Innovations Group Regulatory News (IVO)

7 Aug 2007 09:00

Imperial Innovations Group plc07 August 2007 7 August 2007 Imperial Innovations Group plc ("Imperial Innovations") ionscope raises funds Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO) today announces that ionscope Ltd("ionscope"), a microscope technology company formed by Imperial Innovations,has successfully raised £680,000 from individual investors belonging to theCambridge Angels Group. ionscope's products are based on a technique called Scanning Ion ConductanceMicroscopy (SICM) and are able to produce images of living cell membranes atresolutions fifty times greater than achievable using a conventional opticalmicroscope. Other high magnification techniques interfere with or kill livingcells, whereas SICM is benign, allowing living cells to be studied over longperiods. The technique has application in the study of living processes atnano-scale, which to date has included neurons, heart muscle, kidney, sperm andstem cells. The company started shipping product to customers around the world earlier thisyear. The investment proceeds will be used to extend its marketing reach, builddelivery capacity, speed product development and grow its intellectual propertyportfolio. Dr Max Wilson (Chairman of ionscope) commented "This investment will enableionscope to realise the huge potential of ScanIC microscopy in the researchmarket. We are excited by the opportunity to put this important new techniqueinto the hands of researchers more quickly. -Ends- For more information contact: Imperial InnovationsSusan Searle, Chief Executive Officer +44 (0)20 7594 6591Lucy Ahfong, Marketing Communications Executive +44 (0)20 7594 6644 M:CommunicationsPatrick d'Ancona / Eleanor Williamson +44 (0)20 7153 1539JPMorgan Cazenove (NOMAD to Imperial Innovations) +44(0)20 7588 2828Steve Baldwin Notes to Editors About Imperial Innovations Imperial Innovations is one of the UK's leading technology transfer andcommercialisation companies. The company was founded in 1986 and its ordinaryshares admitted to trading on the AIM Market of London Stock Exchange plc inJuly 2006, raising £25 million at an offer price of 365p and £1 million by meansof a public offer. The company's integrated approach encompasses the identification of ideas,protection of intellectual property, development and licensing of technology andformation, incubation and investment in technology businesses. A wide range oftechnologies are commercialised within the areas of healthcare, energy,environment and emerging technology trends. Based at Imperial College London, the company has established equity holdings in70 technology businesses and has completed 116 commercial agreements. ImperialInnovations also commercialises technologies originating from outside ImperialCollege through incubation contracts with the Carbon Trust and WRAP and hascommercialisation contracts with a number of multinational corporationsincluding BAE Systems. www.imperialinnovations.co.uk About ionscope Limitedionscope was established in 2002 to commercially exploit scanning ionconductance microscopy (SICM) which has been developed by a joint team ofscientists from Imperial College, London and the University of Cambridge.Publication of research using this technique has stimulated significant interestfrom groups around the world working in biology, biochemistry, medicine and drugdiscovery. SICM is also capable of nano-scale printing and fabrication withbiological molecules. ionscope works closely with a biophysics group in the Division of Medicine atthe Hammersmith Campus of Imperial College. Recently ionscope established afacility to demonstrate SICM in the BioNanotechnology Centre. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange