News 2008

June 3, 2008 — Panacis Medical Incorporated (“Panacis”) and Bloorview Kids Rehab (“BKR”) are to collaborate on the development of “Body-Machine Interfaces for Voiceless Communications.” Under the direction of Dr. Tom Chau at BKR, Panacis will support the research and development of novel medical technologies that may provide new communications tools for a largely unaddressed segment of the disabled population. Individuals with certain neurological impairments can have an intact mind, but be locked inside a non-functional body. Today, the majority of these individuals do not have assistive technology to facilitate even basic communication. Based on promising preliminary research at BKR, non-invasive body-machine interfaces are proposed that will be capable of intelligently extracting information from physiological signals and map them to intentions. Such body-machine interfaces will allow individuals to translate mere thoughts into computer synthesized speech and control of external devices. The importance and potential impact of this research has been recognized through the granting of funds from the Ontario Centres of Excellence.

February 25, 2008 — OTTAWA, Spartan Bioscience, developer of the Spartan DX DNA Analyzer, has signed a Co-Development Agreement with Panacis Medical, a developer of non-invasive, convergent medical devices. This agreement reaffirms the role of Panacis as a partner in the design and manufacture of Spartan real-time PCR (polymerized chain reaction) products, and represents another milestone in the successful collaboration between the two companies. In working with Panacis, Spartan was able to bring the Spartan DX product from concept to commercial launch in twelve months.