A high-tech Belfast firm is on the road to success across the Atlantic after winning its first business in the US marketplace.

i-Path Diagnostics, which specialises in virtual microscopy, is proving its software for diagnostic pathology to researchers at Michigan State University.

The company, a Queen’s University spin-out which has received funding support from Crescent Capital, Invest NI and QUBIS, will work with researchers at the US University’s veterinary school on a project involving the creation of a digital catalogue of over 1,000 slides on animal cancers.

i-Path’s technology will enable researchers to access the catalogue on-line at any time from any location.

The firm has also received approaches from other major US Universities about its diagnostic technology, which can help with research into cancer and other diseases.

Stuart Harvey, managing director of i-Path Diagnostics, said the collaboration with researchers at Michigan State University is “an important strategic breakthrough in a key target market”.

“The collaboration with researchers at Michigan State University gives us an essential and prestigious reference site that we can use to turn the many enquiries that we have received from the US into firm contracts. There’s a growing recognition in the US and other global markets that our technology is unique,” he said.

i-Path was co-founded in 2004 by Professor Peter Hamilton, who has led research on computer vision and decision support in diagnostic cancer pathology over the past 20 years. The company currently employs 12 people. Fiona Browne, software developer at i-Path Diagnostics said: “Our technology brings pathology into the digital age and makes it much easier for researchers to diagnose conditions and to communicate with each other on a global basis.

“Instead of sending a glass slide by parcel post to a colleague for consultation, a pathologist can now supply an internet link to our server for study. As well as the digital catalogue facility for slide libraries our software has other enhanced functions, such as a virtual microscope.”