Insider Brief
- NVision has established its first long-term European research hub at the University of Cambridge to advance the clinical translation of its POLARIS quantum-enhanced metabolic MRI platform.
- The POLARIS system boosts MRI signals of metabolic agents more than 10,000 times using hyperpolarization, enabling real-time measurement of cellular metabolism on standard MRI scanners.
- Cambridge researchers will initially apply the platform to liver cancer and multiple sclerosis, aiming to identify early metabolic changes and accelerate drug development and clinical decision-making.
PRESS RELEASE — NVision, a quantum healthcare company, today announced the establishment of its first long-term research partnership in Europe at the Department of Radiology, University of Cambridge. This deployment creates a European research center for POLARIS, NVision’s proprietary system that produces the metabolic imaging agent for standard MRI.
This partnership follows a year of international expansion. In 2025, NVision collaborated with leading institutions, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, to demonstrate the feasibility of standardized, high-throughput metabolic imaging. Building on this momentum, NVision and researchers at Cambridge University’s Department of Radiology are now establishing a translational research pipeline with POLARIS, creating a direct route for quantum-enhanced diagnostics to move from the lab to the clinic.
“In 2025, we demonstrated that quantum in healthcare is a deployed reality. In 2026, we are integrating POLARIS into leading translational research environments,” said Sella Brosh, CEO of NVision. “Together with our partners at Cambridge, we have two objectives: to develop clinical applications for quantum-enhanced metabolic MRI that have the potential to radically improve patient outcomes, and to establish robust metabolic biomarkers that accelerate decision-making in drug development.”
POLARIS boosts the MRI signal of sugars over 10,000x through a process known as hyperpolarization, making it possible for standard MRI systems to “light up” and measure cell metabolism in real-time. It is the first commercially available quantum-based polarizer, using parahydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP) to produce metabolic imaging agent in under three minutes. By visualizing disease activity in real-time, POLARIS empowers researchers to assess therapy effectiveness within days rather than months.
The Cambridge team will leverage the POLARIS platform to conduct research across cancer, neurodegeneration, and cardiovascular diseases, with an initial focus on:
- Liver Cancer: Despite being the third leading cause of cancer deaths globally, liver tumors remain difficult to characterize in cirrhotic tissue using standard imaging. The team aims to use POLARIS to reveal early metabolic changes in the liver before tumors form.
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS): While standard MRI captures blood–brain barrier leakage and lesion burden, it offers limited insight into lesion biology or ongoing tissue injury. POLARIS provides a direct functional readout of tissue metabolism, offering deeper insights to better guide treatment for the 3 million people living with MS worldwide.
Leading this initiative at the University of Cambridge are Ferdia Gallagher, Head of the Department of Radiology, and Joshua Kaggie, Director of the Preclinical Imaging Facility. Their team will use POLARIS to uncover the drivers of these conditions and inform the development and validation of new drugs.
“Our team is excited to be able to use POLARIS to probe the metabolism of diseases, particularly in cancer and within the brain,” said Professor Ferdia Gallagher. “Our aim is to detect early changes in metabolism as a predictor of tumor formation, as well as differentiating more aggressive from less aggressive disease based on specific metabolic fingerprints. We also want to explore how changes in metabolism with treatment can be used as a measure of early and successful response to treatment. Ultimately, we plan to translate these findings into the clinic to benefit patients in the future.”
NVision plans to deploy systems at leading global research centers throughout 2026, with the goal of beginning clinical studies next year.