NEWTON, Mass., Aug. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dynasil Corporation of America (NASDAQ: DYSL) today announced that its contract research subsidiary, RMD Inc., has received two Phase II grants totaling $2.1 million under the National Institute of Health and NASA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs.

"RMD world-class research continues to be at the vanguard of medical imaging and scintillation technology," said Peter Sulick, Dynasil's CEO and President. "RMD is developing cutting edge imaging probes for the National Institute of Health and radiation tolerant detectors for NASA. Our goal is to deliver lower cost, next generation medical imaging probes to aid in the fight to eliminate cancer and radiation hard gamma-ray and neutron detectors to enable NASA to conduct long term space research missions."

RMD received two Phase II grants totaling $2.1 million for the following:

Imaging Beta ProbeTM - RMD is developing a new PET probe, the Imaging Beta ProbeTM (IBPTM), intended for rapid localization of cancer lesions. At the heart of this probe is RMD's new hybrid scintillator coupled to a silicon photomultiplier. The IBPTM is designed to provide continuous real time audio and visual feedback to the surgeon. After excision of cancerous tissue, the IBPTM will enable the surgeon to check the tumor bed and surrounding margins for any remaining cancerous cells which previously might have gone undetected because they were obscured by background radiation or overlying tissue.

Radiation Tolerant Gamma-ray and Neutron Detector - Scintillation based radiation detectors are an essential tool for space applications such as planetary science, astrophysics, heliophysics and space weather. Unfortunately, scintillator efficiency decays with increased exposure to radiation. Long term space exploration missions to hostile environments, such as those around Jupiter, Venus or Mercury expose scintillators to large ionizing radiation doses that will render current scintillation material useless.

To address this problem, RMD is developing radiation tolerant, temperature invariant scintillation modules using advanced materials to provide high performance gamma-ray and neutron spectroscopy in a single detector. Our research will result in a large volume, high performance detector module, rigorously tested for space exploration.

"From the development of medical imaging probes designed to assist doctors in removing cancerous lesions to gamma-ray and neutron detectors that enable NASA to conduct long term deep space mission, the Phase II research projects we are embarking on through these SBIR/STTR Programs embody some of the world's most pressing medical and space physics research needs," said Kanai Shah, Ph. D. President of Dynasil's RMD subsidiary. "RMD is proud to partner with the National Institute of Health and NASA on these initiatives."

About Dynasil
Dynasil Corporation of America (NASDAQ: DYSL) develops and manufactures optics and photonics products, optical detection and analysis technology and components for the homeland security, medical and industrial markets. Combining world-class expertise in research and materials science with extensive experience in manufacturing and product development, Dynasil is commercializing products including dual-mode radiation detection solutions for Homeland Security and commercial applications and sensors for non-destructive testing. Dynasil has an impressive and growing portfolio of issued and pending U.S. patents. The Company is based in Newton, MA, with additional operations in MA, MN, NY, NJ and the United Kingdom. More information about the Company is available at www.dynasil.com.

SOURCE Dynasil Corporation of America