News

 Cancer Moonshot: Precision Surgical Interventions

August 2024

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced awards to support eight teams from across the country to develop technologies that will allow surgeons to provide more successful tumor-removal surgeries for people facing cancer. Dartmouth College is one team who was selected for this Precision Surgical Interventions (PSI) program. QUEL Imaging will receive a sub-award to work with the Dartmouth-led team in developing tools to characterize system performance.

QUEL Imaging participates in surgical training

June 2024

QUEL's co-founder and CEO, Ethan LaRochelle, attended a course on fluorescence guided surgery co-sponsored by the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO) and the International Society for Fluorescence Guided Surgery (ISFGS). The 2-day course at Leiden University Medical Center incorporated an afternoon hands-on session where participants used clinical imaging systems to visualize fluorescence. QUEL Imaging provided sample targets and tools to showcase system features.
See photos from the session!

See you in Porto!

March 2024

Ethan LaRochelle is presenting a talk titled, "Building Consensus and Accelerating Clinical Translation of Intraoperative Fluorescence Imaging, "at the 19th European Molecular Imaging Meeting in Porto, Portugal on Tuesday, March 12th. QUEL Imaging is also sponsoring the Intra-Operative Imaging (IOI) study group social gathering on Tuesday evening.  Learn more about EMIM

Come see the QUEL Imaging family in California

January 2024

Stanford School of Medicine

QUEL Imaging is sponsoring the Stanford Symposium on Optical Surgical Navigation. This meeting will be held on Friday, January 26th, from 7:30am-5:30pm at Berg Hall at Li Ka Shing Center (LKSC), 291 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA. It is also available virtually. Read the agenda and registration here.

SPIE Molecular-Guided Surgery: Molecules, Devices, and Applications Conference

Our co-founder and CEO, Ethan LaRochelle, will be presenting on January 27th at 3:15pm  in Room 155 (Upper Mezzanine South).  His talk is titled, "Specialized reference targets and visualization phantoms for accelerating clinical translation of intraoperative fluorescence imaging technologies". Ethan will also be chairing Session 8: Clinical Applications on Sunday afternoon. 

SPIE BiOS Expo

Come make a new friend at the  QUEL Imaging booth during the BiOS Expo, January 27th - 28th. Stop by Booth 8380 to learn about our new products and pick up some swag!

Stop by our booth at the International Fluorescence Guided Surgery Congress

November 2023

Ethan LaRochelle is attending the International Fluorescence Guided Surgery Congress hosted by the Dutch Fluorescence Guided Surgery (DFGS) Group in Amsterdam at the beginning of November. We'll have some of our latest products and demonstrations of a few prototypes. We look forward to seeing you there!

QUEL Imaging participates in ECI conference

October 2023

QUEL Imaging is proud to sponsor the ECI Advances in Optics for Biotechnology, Medicine and Surgery conference. Our CEO and co-founder, Ethan LaRochelle, participated in a session discussing phantoms and tools.  And our tech, Sophie, had a poster titled, "Excitation-emission characterization of ICG in biologically relevant solutions."

QUEL Imaging awarded Phase II SBIR Contract by NCI

September 2023

QUEL Imaging has begun work on a Phase II SBIR contract for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) This highly competitive award provides funding over two years to develop bio-mimicking optical phantoms for advancing the field of fluorescence guided surgery. Read more in the full press release

Join us this fall at the Advances in Optics for Biotechnology, Medicine and Surgery Conference

August 2023

QUEL Imaging is sponsoring the ECI Conference happening October 15-19 in Tomar, Portugal. The primary goal of this conference aligns well with the mission of QUEL Imaging and will bring together world-leading scientists, engineers and clinicians involved in the clinical translation of optics to biotechnology, medicine, and surgery. Our CEO and co-founder will be giving a presnetation titled, "Tools to build consensus and accelerate clinical translation of intraoperative fluorescence imaging" Learn more and register at the conference website.

QUEL Imaging begins cooperative research agreement with NIST

July 2023

QUEL Imaging and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) titled, "Evaluation of Methods and Standards for Absorption Coefficient and Reduced Scattering Coefficient Measurements for Tissue-simulating Material". This collaboration aims to evaluate standardized methods and standards for optical property measurements (absorption coefficient and reduced scattering coefficient) of bio-mimicking phantom materials using spectrophotometric techniques.

See you at the 18th European Molecular Imaging Meeting | EMIM 2023

March 2023

QUEL Imaging CEO and co-founder, Ethan LaRochelle will be attending EMIM 2023 and QUEL Imaging will be sponsoring the Standardization Study Group social evening. We're looking forward to connecting with our European collaborators and hearing your latest updates. If you haven't signed up, there's still time to join us

QUEL Imaging presents in the San Francisco area

January 2023

QUEL Imaging is co-sponsoring and presenting at the 2023 Stanford Symposium on Optical Surgical Navigation. In the days after this meeting, co-founders Ethan LaRochelle and Alberto Ruiz will be participating in SPIE Photonics West, where Dr. Ruiz will prsent, "Radiometric characterization methods for fluorescence guidance imaging systems using a calibrated solid-state emitter" and Dr. LaRochelle will discuss, "Advancing clinical reproducibility of intraoperative fluorescence imaging: analysis, metrics and multi-center equivalence"

QUEL Imaging CEO named Vermont Rising Star

November 2022

Ethan LaRochelle was recognized by Vermont Business Magazine, VermontBiz,  as one of  40 winners under the age of 40 for being, "outstanding young leaders chosen for contributions to the Vermont economy and their community." Read his full profile and see photos from the awards dinner at VermontBiz.

A new publication by the QUEL Imaging team

October 2022

Ethan LaRochelle and the QUEL Imaging team had the article, "3D-Printed Tumor Phantoms for Assessment of in vivo Fluorescence Imaging Analysis Methods" accepted for publication in Molecular Imaging and Biology. This peer-reviewed publication stems from development efforts of a SBIR Phase I contract funded by the National Cancer Institute. The paper provides examples of how anthropomorphic phantoms can be used as reproducible tools to demonstrate image analysis techniques. Read the full article here.

QUEL Imaging attending WMIC 2022

September 2022

Both Ethan LaRochelle and Alberto Ruiz will be attending WMIC 2022 in Miami at the end of September. QUEL Imaging is sponsoring the Optical Surgical Navigation Interest Group workshop and will have a booth in the exhibit hall. Please stop by and let us know how we can help you expedite the clinical translation of your fluorescence imaging technology.

QUEL Imaging awarded Phase II SBIR grant by NIBIB

August 2022

QUEL Imaging has been awarded a highly competitive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This funding will be used to continue development of fluorescence targets and tools supporting clinical translation of intraoperative fluorescence imaging systems. Read the full Press Release.

QUEL Imaging completes NIH I-Corps course

June 2022

QUEL Imaging successfully completed the NIH I-Corps as an extension of their NCI SBIR Phase I contract. This opportunity required the participation of a team of three: co-founders Ethan LaRochelle (CEO, C-Level representative) and Alberto Ruiz (CTO, Technical lead), as well as an external collaborator, Mohit Ganguly (Business Mentor). The intensive 8-week course is designed to increase the team’s knowledge of market opportunities while also identifying potential funding opportunities. During this period the team interviewed over 100 stakeholders and conducted site visits to refine a hypothesis-driven Business Model Canvas. 

If you missed us and would like to share your experiences with in vivo fluorescence imaging, please schedule a time to chat.

Ruiz defends PhD Thesis!

April 2022

Congratulations to our CTO, Alberto Ruiz, for successfully defending his PhD thesis titled,  "Fluorescence Imaging Guidance: Toward standardization and smartphone-based devices". Dr Ruiz presented his work to colleagues at the Thayer School of Engineering as well as family and friends over Zoom. His thesis committee was chaired by Dr. Kimberley Samkoe, and additional committee members were Scott Davis, Geoffrey Luke, and external examiner Jonathan Sorger of Intuitive Surgical.

QUEL Imaging will see you at the 17th European Molecular Imaging Meeting | EMIM 2022

March 15-18, 2022

QUEL Imaging will have a booth at EMIM 2022 in Thessaloniki, Greece.  We're looking forward to participating in the conference and getting the latest updates on advancement in the imaging field. There is still time to register and join us! Please stop by our booth to discuss your application and learn how our targets and tools can advance your goals.

LaRochelle and Ruiz present at SPIE Photonics West

January 2022

QUEL Imaging sponsored the Molecular Guided Surgery Conference at SPIE BiOS in San Francisco, CA.  Our CEO, Ethan LaRochelle presented an industry perspective as part of this meeting, while our CTO, Alberto Ruiz presented updates on 3D-printing technologies in the Design and Quality for Biomedical Technologies meeting. Abstracts and presentations are available at:

QUEL Imaging awarded Phase I SBIR Contract by NCI

October 2021

The National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health recently awarded a highly-competitive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contract to QUEL Imaging to develop bio-mimicking optical phantoms for advancing development of fluorescence guided surgical imaging systems. Read the full Press Release

QUEL Imaging participating in WMIC 2021 virtual conference

September 2021

Alberto Ruiz will present a poster titled, "3D printed targets for fluorescence guided surgical systems" during the poster session on Thursday, October 7.  QUEL Imaging will also have a booth in the virtual exhibitor hall, so please stop by to learn more about our latest products.

3D printing fluorescent material with tunable optical properties published in Scientific Reports

August 2021

Alberto Ruiz, along with members of QUEL Imaging and their Dartmouth collaborators publish their latest research focused on 3D printing with different NIR fluorescence compounds. This work also describes how the team is able to tune optical properties to mimic tissue. Read the full article.

Ruiz presents 3D printing updates at 2021 SPIE BiOS

March 2021

QUEL Imaging CTO, Alberto Ruiz gave two presentations describing the latest capabilities in 3D printing fluorescent material at the Molecular-Guided Surgery: Molecules, Devices  and Design and Quality for Biomedical Technologies  sessions. 

QUEL Imaging awarded Phase I SBIR grant

September 2020

QUEL Imaging LLC was awarded a grant by the National Institutes of Health for just over a quarter of a million US dollars. The concept for the grant funded by the NIBIB, stems from work in Ruiz’s studies developing 3D printed test targets for surgical system calibration. Read the full Press Release.

Ruiz is first author of publication describing fluorescence phantom development 

June 2020

With the growing adoption of fluorescence guided surgery using indocyanine green (ICG), there stands a need to characterize performance of various imaging systems. This paper describes a method of developing a solid ICG-equivalent reference phantom with long-term stability. Read more in this JBO publication.

Getting to know our CEO, Ethan LaRochelle

May 2020

The Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth produces a video series called “I’m an Engineer and…”. In the latest edition they interview Ethan LaRochelle about his volunteer experience. Watch the video here.

LaRochelle defends his thesis over Zoom

April 2020

Due to COVID-19 Ethan LaRochelle presented his thesis, “Modeling broad-spectrum light sources in vivo for applications in cancer treatment & diagnostics” from his home in Vermont.  While non-traditional, this allowed for collaborators and participants from outside the Dartmouth community to easily join. A recording is available on YouTube.

LaRochelle’s submission featured on cover of March/April issue of Photochemistry and Photobiology

March 2020

The dose modeling work highlighted in Photochemistry and Photobiology was selected to submit a cover image to the March/April issue.  See the cover here.

Ruiz presents work at SPIE BiOS on developing characterization tools for fluorescence-guided imaging

February 2020

One method QUEL Imaging aims to provide support for the field of optical surgical systems is through the development of innovative tools. Alberto Ruiz presented at SPIE BIOS on work describing the development and characterization of fluorescence phantoms. The founding members of QUEL Imaging also met with many in this industry during the conference, and presented on many other tangential topics.

Scottish Photobiology Unit highlights LaRochelle’s daylight dose model

December 2019

Researchers at the Photobiology Unit of Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, Scotland described their experiences using the dose model for indoor daylight PDT. In a Highlight Article published in Photochemistry and Photobiology they describe the process as “very easy” obtaining results with the confidence intervals even as their measurements were performed on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Read more about their experience.

Ruiz has paper describing smartphone-based fluorescence imaging accepted to the Journal of Biomedical Optics

December 2019

The dynamics of how the photosensitizer PpIX develops in skin lesions may help dermatologists  tailor PDT treatments. Up until recently quantitative measurements required expensive bench-top equipment, but in this paper Ruiz describes how a smartphone can be used with a clip-on module to measure PpIX during PDT treatments of skin. Read the full paper here.

An interview with our co-founder and scientific advisor, Brian Pogue

November 2019

The Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship recently wrote about Brian Pogue’s experiences bringing biotech innovations to the market. Read more from his interview here

QUEL Imaging awarded seed funding through the Quinn Innovation Scholars program

October 2019

The founding members of QUEL Imaging pitched their idea for planning and monitoring daylight-activated photodynamic therapy of skin lesions using a smartphone. This competitive pitch process was reviewed by a board of advisors from the Norris Cotton Cancer Center and Tuck School of Business, among others. With the $20K in seed funding QUEL Imaging will further develop and test a prototype system.

LaRochelle publishes article on using weather for dose planning indoor daylight PDT of skin

October 2019

Photochemistry and Photobiology published a research paper describing how complex Monte Carlo models of light fluence at depth in tissue could be simplified and combined with a site assessment and weather reports to estimate the photodynamic dose received by patients undergoing PDT treatments for skin lesions such as actinic keratosis. Read the full paper here.

LaRochelle and Ruiz present at the 17th International Photodynamic Association World Congress

July 2019

Both Ethan LaRochelle and Alberto Ruiz presented in a session on Low-Cost  Systems and Techniques in PDT Light Deliver, Dosimetry, and Treatment Guidance. Ruiz, gave an invited talk on smartphone-based dosimetry for individualization of PDT treatment planning, and LaRochelle presented the concept of using weather forecasts and light-tissue models for daylight PDT treatment planning.