Science in the Triangle

Machines that scan luggage at airports and look inside the body still bear the imprint of Wilhelm Roentgen, the German physics professor who stumbled upon X-rays 114 years ago.

That’s because little has changed in the way X-rays are generated: Today’s most sophisticated CT scanners produce detailed, three-dimensional images of the heart or the brain with the help of vaccuum tubes that are technologically similar to the one Roentgen used for the iconic image of his wife’s hand with rings.

Enter XinRay Systems, a joint venture of Siemens Medical Solutions USA and Xintek, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill spinoff. The two-year-old company in Research Triangle Park is well on it way to give Roentgen’s X-ray technology a 21st-century makeover.

XinRay uses film studded with microscopically small carbon nanotubes to generate X-rays, an approach XinRay’s chief executive Moritz Beckmann (photo at right) calls a technological leap.

“This is not doing something a little bit better,” Beckmann told a group of scientists in RTP this week. “It opens up a lot of new opportunities.”

Vaccuum tubes were essential in the development of radio, television and radar, but most electronic equipment has moved on to newer technology in the past 50 years.

Doing away with X-ray vaccuum tubes in medical imaging, security screening and non-invasive quality testing on factory floors, would speed up imaging and produce more accurate pictures - improvements helpful in emergency medicine and cancer treatment. No longer would scanners have to be round, which would save space and money in airports and on manufacturing assembly lines. And the equipment would require less maintenance, because carbon nanotubes make X-rays without the heat generated in vaccuum tubes.

No doubt, XinRay’s carbon nanotubes are a big step forward technologically. Beckmann projected the first nanotechnology X-ray scanners could hit the market in two to three years. But it remains to be seen how widespread demand is for the nanotech scanners, which are not expected to cost less than their vaccuum-tube brethren.

Tough economy makes for tough sell

Consider U.S. sales of medical imaging equipment as a case in point.

In March 2008, a market research report projected demand for medical imaging equipment in the U.S. to rise to $16 billion in 2010, up 6.8 percent annually from 2005.

CT scanner sales would drive the sales increase, according to the report, as hospitals and outpatient facilities replaced older models with next-generation technology. Sales of other medical imaging equipment, including MRIs and PET scanners, were also projected to rise.

Six months later, the recession took hold and medical providers became cost-conscious. U.S. sales of PET scanners decreased 17 percent in 2008 despite increased demand for PET procedures, according to a report Las Vegas market research firm Bio-Tech Systems released about a month ago.

The state of the economy is also having medical providers reconsider buying next-generation CT scanners, which can cost $2.5 million to $3 million apiece, said Kirk Ising, senior research manager diagnostic imaging at KLAS, a market research firm in Orem, Utah, that specializes in health care technology.

A small group of specialists, especially some neurologists and cardiologists, will want to be on the leading edge of technology, Ising said. Most physicians doing CT work don’t need high-end scanners, he said. For them, a less sophisticated model may do, especially considering health insurance reimbursements are the same whether the scanner cost $3 million or $200,000.

Looking ahead

Some market researchers expect a change in attitute once the economy improves. Also, international demand is rising, especially in India and China, and Siemens Medical Systems, which has operations in Cary, is among a handful of leading medical imaging equipment vendors that operate globally. Competitors include GE Healthcare and Philips Medical Systems.

For now, XinRay CEO Beckmann remains optimistic.

XinRay, which employs 11, plans to start clinical tests of a nanotech medical X-ray device at UNC before the end of the year.

The company also received a $1.13 million contract from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to develop an nanotech X-ray scanner that checks baggage and cargo for explosives.

The company has been working on prototypes for a while, but Beckmann’s presentation at the luncheon meeting of the Triangle Area Research Directors Council, or TARDC, was only the second time he discussed XinRay development projects. A presentation in July at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine conference in Anaheim, Calif., resulted in write-ups in online versions of Nature and The Economist.