OnLume Technology IP Overview – Gerbsman Partners is selling the Assets and Intellectual Propery of OnLume Surgical. For additional information pls email Steve Gerbsman at steve@gerbsmanpartners.com
The issued and pending claims of OnLume’s IP portfolio provide strong protection in the clinical applications for Fluorescence Guided Surgery (FGS) and, importantly, provide protection for differentiated capabilities in the emerging market of FGS for oncology for tumor localization and margin assessment.
The capabilities enumerated below may be utilized in other optical medical imaging systems allowing for performance enhancement and competitive advantage over other players in the FGS and optical imaging space. The features described below may be incorporated into existing or in-development hardware to provide optimized performance with an impact on both clinical outcomes and workflow integration.
• Multiplexed white light and fluorescence illumination and detection for real-time functional imaging with anatomical reference
o Independent parent claims define the broad, basic architecture of FGS systems, leading to coverage of a wide array of implementations
o Multiplexing is an approach for the imaging of multiple fluorophores, providing capabilities that will be required in future implementations of FGS, including:
§ Imagingofmultiplefluorophorestargeting,forexample,perfusion,cancer,andothertissuessuch as nerves or parathyroid glands.
§ Imagingoftargetedanduntargetedfluorophoreswithsimilarpharmacokineticsand pharmacodynamics, referred to in the literature as Paired Agent Imaging or Ratiometric Imaging.
o Multiplexing is necessary for many advanced image processing approaches with clinical utility, further described below.
o Covered implementations of multiplexing include maximizing fluorescence sensitivity – hugely important in cancer and lymphatic applications to improve depth sensitivity and minimally resolvable features – by minimizing the white light duty cycle
• Image processing approaches
o Ratiometric methods are described in detail in the UCSD patent, which have been shown in the literature to
improve the diagnostic accuracy of FGS in many use cases. These methods are undergoing patent
prosecution as a part of a divisional application.
o AI approaches to improve image quality, sensitivity, and system responsiveness are covered by the pending
WARF/OnLume patent and may be implemented in a wide variety of imaging platforms.
o Variable duty cycles of the multiplexed collection enable novel, differentiated image processing approaches
that improve dynamic range, sensitivity, and quantitation.
The definitions of each optical element are quite broad in the OnLume IP portfolio, making the majority of FGS implementations incorporating multiplexing covered by the issued claims. Image processing approaches are also defined broadly in the body of several of the patents, with specific claims on the implementations that will yield the best performance.
Due to the broad definitions in the parent claims of each patent, along with the more detailed description of specific implementations in the dependent claims, the OnLume IP portfolio provides a robust fence against competitive products and a strong opportunity for competitive advantage.
Please Note: This document does not constitute all embodiments or implementations that are potentially protected by OnLume’s IP position. The description of areas of coverage is not intended to be comprehensive and the statements do not constitute a legal opinion.
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