GBI Magazine recently spoke to Sameer Kothari, Chief Executive Director of Zilico Ltd, to talk about his Start-Up journey and how the Deepbridge Life Sciences EIS Scheme influenced it.  

Zilico is a UK based company which specialises in the design and manufacturing of real-time medical diagnostics to address specific clinical needs. ZedScan™, which is one of Zilico's pioneering flagship products, utilises Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (E.I.S) to improve the ability to detect Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) following an abnormal smear result. This device increases diagnostic accuracy and delivers health economic benefits. 

The patented E.I.S technology exploits the different electrical resistivity associated with the cellular structure of normal, pre-cancerous and cancerous tissue, which based on its applicability to other types of neoplasia, substantiates its use as a platform for the rapid, reliable and reproducible detection and diagnosis of disease. 

Speaking on how Zilico Ltd began, Sameer Kothari, Chief Executive Director of Zilico Ltd, commented:  

"Still today, many diseases are visually diagnosed. For example, for oral disease, patients will see a dentist when they have red or white lesions. However, it is extremely challenging for the dentist to tell whether the lesion is sinister or merely a normal ulcer that may self-resolve. Similarly, for cervical disease, clinicians will apply acetic acid to differentiate aceto white areas and then make a judgement on whether they think these lesions are precancerous or cancer. Visualization introduces a high level of subjectivity which becomes more challenging for clinicians especially when there are more subtle changes as seen in the early onset of disease. It was a professor at the University of Sheffield that came up with the idea of using the electrical properties of cells and tissue, which led to the genesis of Zilico. Essentially what Zilico’s bio-electric technology does is diagnose diseases as it progresses from normal to early-stage pre-cancer to later stage pre-cancer (and cancer). Our lead product is ZedScan which is a diagnostic for cervical cancer. Further products are now also in development, which utilizes the same core technology." 

If you would like to watch the interview with Sameer Kothari, click here.  Click here to read the article. (By following these links you will leave the Deepbridge website. Deepbridge takes no responsibility for content on external websites).