CalPACT / Union Photoacoustic Technologies

CalPACT is a startup company based in Pasadena, California (the greater Los Angeles area). Union Photoacoustic Technologies (UPT) is a sister company based in China that works with CalPACT. The companies are dedicated to the commercialization of photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) for functional imaging of the human breast and whole-body small animals without using harmful ionizing radiation.

CalPACT has licensed the requisite patents from the Caltech Optical Imaging Laboratory led by Professor Lihong Wang at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. His laboratory has produced high-quality in vivo PACT images of both whole human breasts with tumors and whole-body small animals. By synergistically combining light and sound, PACT provides deep penetration at high ultrasonic resolution and high optical contrast. PACT can image blood vessels at much higher spatial resolution than contrast-enhanced MRI, without using heavy metal contrast agents; it can image radiographically dense breasts that x-ray mammography has difficulty with. Tumors can be detected without the concern of side effects due to either exogenous contrast agents used in contrast-enhanced MRI or ionizing x-rays used in mammography.

Photoacoustic Imaging is the fastest growing technology in biomedical optics. It boasts the largest annual conference in SPIE’s 20,000-attendee Photonics West since 2010.